Get the DealBook newsletter to make sense of major business and policy headlines — and the power-brokers who shape them.__________ An important cog in the global financial system has succumbed to pressure from the Trump administration and severed ties with Iranian banks. Belgian-based Swift, whose messaging service connects more than 11,000 financial institutions as they […]

(Reuters) – Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) is tracking ahead of its goal to generate $5 billion in additional annual revenue by 2020 as growth initiatives bear fruit, and sees opportunities to grow its businesses further, its new finance chief said on Monday. The initiatives laid out last year have produced $2.5 billion so far […]

Good Monday morning. (Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.) Masa Son justifies doing business with Saudi Arabia Masayoshi Son, SoftBank’s C.E.O., finally spoke out today against the killing of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi. But he added that his company wouldn’t distance itself from Saudi Arabia — the biggest investor in its […]

HONG KONG (Reuters) – An unprecedented boom in the $280 billion aircraft finance industry is showing signs of faltering as rising interest rates, cut-rate competition and higher oil prices trigger a shakeout in a sector that has attracted a flood of Chinese funding. Conferences in Hong Kong last week saw more than 1,000 financiers, lawyers […]

LONDON (Reuters) – Oil prices fell on Monday as U.S. sanctions against Iran’s fuel exports were softened by waivers allowing major buyers to import Iranian crude for a while, while Tehran said it would defy Washington and continue to sell. Brent crude oil LCOc1 was down 30 cents a barrel at $72.53 by 0815 GMT. […]

:: Who is Arron Banks? Arron Fraser Andrew Banks is 52 and a self-made millionaire who has donated big sums to anti-EU political causes including UKIP ahead of the 2016 referendum. His fortune, estimated by some at up to £250m, is difficult to nail down because of a vast array of privately-owned business interests. These […]

SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) – The United States reintroduced sanctions against Iranian oil on Monday while giving some of Washington’s closest allies exemptions that allow Tehran’s biggest customers, mostly in Asia, to keep buying crude for now. Washington has restored measures lifted under a 2015 nuclear deal negotiated with Tehran by the administration of President Barack Obama. […]

TOKYO (Reuters) – SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T) CEO Masayoshi Son on Monday condemned the killing of a journalist by Saudi security personnel, and said his firm must carry out its responsibility to the kingdom’s citizens whose money is invested in its Vision Fund. Saudi Arabia is the largest investor in the fund which was launched […]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States reimposes oil and financial sanctions against Iran on Monday, significantly turning up the pressure on Tehran in order to curb its missile and nuclear programs and counter its growing military and political influence in the Middle East. The move will restore U.S. sanctions that were lifted under a 2015 […]

HONG KONG (BLOOMBERG) – Signs of a housing market downturn in Hong Kong are spreading after the city’s first interest-rate increases in 12 years and an escalation in trade tensions between China and the US. “We’re now in a correction like the one we had during 2015 to 2016,” said Cusson Leung, JPMorgan Chase & […]