Foreign news: Wells Fargo buys London office block, China focuses on debt servicing costs
US bank Wells Fargo is buying an 11-storey building in the centre of London, the BBC reports. The building, which is near the Bank of England, is under construction and Wells Fargo expects to move in in 2018. The £300 million purchase is being interpreted as a show of confidence in London as a financial centre post-Brexit. Measures by Chinese policymakers show their central government is determined to reduce debt servicing costs and make credit accessible to all borrowers, according to a note from Fitch Ratings. These measures include lowering interest rates and the bank reserve requirement ratio, loosening of instructions for the roll over of loans for highly leveraged borrowers, and bigger roles for the policy lenders. By the same token, authorities have been reluctant to allow more corporate defaults or for banks to crystallise losses at a faster rate, fearing sudden interruptions in debt financing might trigger a larger credit crunch.