21/04/2026

BIZ & FINANCE TUESDAY | APR 21, 2026

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NAB expects impairment charges to double

Global cooperation on stablecoins critically important: BIS

TOKYO: The head of the Bank for International Settlements has made a renewed call for international cooperation on how stablecoins are used, describing it as vital to prevent severe market fragmentation. The central bankers’ central bank, as the BIS is known, has long raised concerns about stablecoins - a type of cryptocurrency usually pegged 1:1 to the US dollar. Speaking in Japan, BIS general manager Pablo Hernandez de Cos said the potential of stablecoins to undermine monetary and fiscal policy, cause financial market stress and hamper the fight against illicit financing, meant global coordination was of “critical importance”. Without it, “divergent regulatory frameworks for stablecoins across jurisdictions could lead to severe market fragmentation or enable harmful regulatory arbitrage,“ de Cos warned, referring to when firms seek out the least onerous rules. The comments come as the United States and other leading economies race to build regulatory frameworks for stablecoins and catch up with the likes of Abu Dhabi and Singapore that already have them in place. Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey, who chairs global financial watchdog the Financial Stability Board, also warned last week that progress on international standards for stablecoins had slowed over the last year. De Cos reiterated that “runs” on stablecoins could trigger market stress although that risk could be “much reduced” if stablecoin issuers had access to deposit insurance-type arrangements or central bank lending facilities. Tether and Circle – the issuers of the world’s two largest stablecoins which account for roughly 85% of the US$315 billion in circulation globally – also exhibit features that make them resemble “securities rather than money,“ he said, in particular, imposing “redemption frictions” that lead to frequent deviations from par. “In this respect, they currently operate more like exchange-traded funds than like money,“ he added. He also gave his view on the key current debate around whether stablecoins should be allowed to pay interest in the same way that traditional bank accounts do. “Shifts from bank deposits to stablecoins may also be less pronounced if stablecoin holdings remain unremunerated and the opportunity cost of holding them is high, such as during periods of high interest rates,“ the BIS head said. “And if prohibitions on paying interest on stablecoins can be enforced.” – Reuters

“The common theme is clear; banks are proactively building buffers in vulnerable, cyclical sectors and we would expect others to follow this lead by increasing economic overlays as macro uncertainty persists,” said Michael Bell, Solaris Investment Management chief investment officer and NAB shareholder. NAB said second-quarter interest-rate volatility, a weaker New Zealand dollar and the provisioning increase would cut the group’s common equity tier 1 capital ratio by about 20 basis points as of March 31. NAB said it also expected to apply a 1.5% discount to the first-half dividend reinvestment plan to raise up to A$1.8 billion to help shore up its balance sheet. The impairment warning by NAB contrasts with recent results posted by its US peers – Wall Street’s biggest banks still expect 2026 to be a strong year for dealmaking, although turmoil in the Middle East has tempered executive optimism. NAB is the second major Australian lender to boost its provisioning on the back of the Middle East tensions after Westpac last week said its credit impairment charges would rise. Westpac said higher inflation and elevated interest rates would create a more challenging operating environment for some of its customers. NAB also said yesterday its first-half result would include an accelerated amortisation charge of A$949 million after tax from changes to its software capitalisation policy. – Reuters

o Australian bank increases provisioning for transport, agriculture, construction and real estate sectors

SYDNEY: Australia’s largest business lender, National Australia Bank, said yesterday it expects credit impairment charges to double to A$706 million (RM1.9 billion) in the first half, as the Iran war roils the global economy and financial markets. The bank, one of the first major lenders to quantify the impact of the war now in its eighth week, is predicting more bad debts to occur as the likelihood of an Australian “downside economic scenario” was rising due to the conflict. The war has created the most severe shock to global energy supplies in history, sending oil prices surging, and casting a long shadow over economic growth prospects, especially in countries that are hugely dependent on imported oil. The impact of the Iran war is becoming evident among Australia’s blue-chip companies with airlines Qantas and Virgin Australia, among other industrial stocks, warning of the hit from higher fuel and disrupted supplies. While most Asian lenders have strong balance sheets, a prolonged Middle East conflict and high oil prices could dent their asset qualities and pile pressure on them to raise fresh funds to replenish their capital buffers.

NAB’s expected A$706 million impairment charge in the first half would be up from A$348 million from the year-earlier period and A$485 million in the second half last year. Its loan book stood at A$792.5 billion as of end-December. The bank’s shares were down 3.38% yesterday in response to the lender’s warning, while the S&P/ASX200 reversed early falls to be flat. The ASX200 financials index was 0.13% lower. Australia’s banks are considered among the most expensive in the world on price-to-earnings multiples, but are heavily exposed to the nation’s housing market due to their large mortgage lending books. NAB said it would increase its provisioning for impaired assets by A$300 million in the first half of 2026, which ended in March. Of that increase, it was setting aside A$201 million more to cover new provisioning for the transport and agriculture sectors as fuel and diesel supply remained tight and prices were likely to stay elevated for longer. The bank was also adding to its provisioning for construction and commercial real estate borrowers, it said. The bank would report its first-half results on May 1.

Blue Origin launches rocket with used booster

WASHINGTON: Blue Origin, the US space company of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, on Sunday successfully reused and recovered a booster for its New Glenn rocket, confirming its mastery of a technical feat that could boost its launch cadence and expand its rivalry with SpaceX. But the uncrewed mission also suffered a partial setback: the satellite carried into space by the rocket did not settle into the right orbit. The company has launched the New Glenn twice before, but only with new rocket boosters. It has previously launched its smaller New Shepard rocket, primarily used for suborbital space tourism, with reused components in a less technically challenging operation. The novel recycling approach comes amid fierce competition between Bezos’s firm and fellow tech titan Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has also recovered a booster from a launched rocket. The New Glenn rocket, standing at 98m tall, lifted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral

with its reused booster at about 7.25am (7.25pm in Malaysia) carrying a communications satellite for the company AST SpaceMobile. After lift off, the rocket’s two stages separated, with the upper stage continuing its journey carrying the satellite into space. Its booster successfully landed on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean about nine minutes and 30 seconds after takeoff. Blue Origin said later in a statement on X that the satellite turned on properly but was placed in “an off-nominal orbit.” The gravity of this error was not immediately known. The company said it was assessing the mishap. In November, Blue Origin recovered a New Glenn booster for the first time, succeeding in the complex technical challenge that culminated with a controlled vertical landing on a floating platform. A previous attempt in January

2025 to recover the booster was unsuccessful after its engines failed to reignite during descent. – AFP EV sales soar in main European markets as drivers shun petrol

This screen grab taken from a Blue Origin broadcast shows Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket lifting off from Launch Complex 36 at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida. – AFPPIC / BLUE ORIGIN / HANDOUT

BERLIN: Sales of fully electric cars in Europe’s main auto markets jumped by almost a third in the first quarter of 2026, as drivers looked for alternatives to combustion engines after the war in Iran caused the highest spike in petrol prices in years. New battery-electric vehicle (BEV) registrations, a proxy for sales, rose 29.4% from a

year ago to almost 560,000 in the quarter and were up 51.3% at over 240,000 in March alone in 15 European markets, data collected by trade association E-Mobility Europe and research firm New Automotive showed yesterday. Last year, those markets accounted for 94% of all BEV sales in the European Union and the

European Free Trade Association, whose countries align with EU laws regulating CO2 emissions, data by the ACEA auto lobby shows. “March’s surge in electric car sales is one of Europe’s biggest recent gains in energy security, in a month when oil dependence has become a real vulnerability,“ E-Mobility Europe Secretary

General Chris Heron said in a statement. The joint statement from the two organisations said the half-million BEVs registered in the quarter were enough to reduce oil consumption by 2 million barrels per year. The region’s five largest EV markets are Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Poland. – Reuters