Weekly Global News Wrap: World Bank ups target for climate financing; COVID loan fraud rate 'five times than normal'

And Credit Suisse says Q4 business 'continued' trend of past three months.

The World Bank is setting a new five-year target for 35% of its financing, on average, to have climate “co-benefits,” up from a 28% target for the previous five-year period ended in 2020.

The multilateral development lender also said half of the climate-related financing would be done by its main units - the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association - and would be aimed at supporting climate adaptation and resilience projects.

“Climate change presents critical challenges to our development efforts,” World Bank President David Malpass said in a statement.

From Reuters

The rate of fraud for state-backed loans to small companies in the pandemic is about five times normal levels, a senior Lloyds bank executive has said.

Banks in Britain came under huge pressure to process billions of pounds of so-called ‘bounce back’ loans to companies struggling to stay afloat in lockdowns since March to fight the pandemic. “We have gone to great lengths to stop fraud on bounce-back loans,” David Oldfield, chief executive of Lloyds’ commercial banking arm told Parliament’s Treasury Select Committee.

There was evidence of fraud on 3% of loan applications, whittled down to less than 1% following further checks, still five times higher than on normal loans, he said.

From Bloomberg

Credit Suisse’s Q4 business has so far continued the trend of the previous three months, when the lender got a boost from advising on deals whilst trading revenue trailed peers.

The investment bank “continues to perform well,” with revenue higher than in last year’s fourth quarter, it said in a 15 December statement kicking off its investor day. In wealth management, stronger transactional business especially in Asia is offsetting headwinds from the stronger Swiss franc and negative interest rates.

The bank confirmed a target for a return on tangible equity of 10% to 12% in the medium-term and for capital distributions, whilst cautioning that reaching that goal next year will depend on provisions for bad loans.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

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