Archives of Banking & Finance

1. Etisalat's Nigeria affiliate signs $1.2bn loan

   2013-05-21 13:04:16 GMT : (Business & Finance/Banking & Finance)

   DUBAI: Etisalat's Nigeria affilate has signed a $1.2 billion loan with 13 Nigerian banks, the United Arab Emirates' No.1 telecom operator said on Tuesday.The medium-term facility will be used to refinance an existing $650 million loan and bolster Etisalat Nigeria's network, Etisalat said in a statement to the Abu Dhabi bourse.Etisalat owns a 40 percent stake in its Nigeria affiliate, w...

2. CIMB cautious on outlook after asset sale boosts Q1 profit

   2013-05-21 12:13:15 GMT : (Business & Finance/Banking & Finance)

   KUALA LUMPUR: CIMB Group, southeast Asia's fifth-largest bank by assets, posted a 37 percent jump in first-quarter net profit, boosted by the sale of an insurance business, and warned of slowing demand for the region's exports.CIMB has a string of banking assets in almost every country in southeast Asia, which is relying increasingly on robust domestic demand in the face of weakening expor...

3. Crisis outside Norway may last until 2015

   2013-05-21 12:09:34 GMT : (Business & Finance/Banking & Finance)

   OSLO: Weak economic conditions outside Norway's borders could last until 2015 and Europe could emerge from its current economic crisis only after 2020, the governor of the Norwegian central bank said on Tuesday."When it comes to our view of the international economic situation (it) may last until 2015. The eurozone is struggling. It could be in the next decade before Europe is out of its diffi...

4. Mauritius central bank governor awarded third term

   2013-05-20 16:48:28 GMT : (Business & Finance/Banking & Finance)

   PORT LOUIS: Mauritius central bank Governor Rundheersing Bheenick said on Monday the government had granted him three more years in charge of setting the monetary policy on the Indian Ocean island.After taking up his post in 2007, Bheenick managed to ease rising inflationary pressures, introduced an independent monetary Policy Committee and helped develop an Islamic finance industry.The governor s...

5. Greece Piraeus hire banks to advise on share issue: sources

   2013-05-18 15:10:46 GMT : (Business & Finance/Banking & Finance)

   ATHENS: Greece's second-largest lender Piraeus Bank has hired four international investment banks as advisers on its 7.33 billion euro ($9.4 billion) share issue, two bankers close to the procedure told Reuters on Saturday."Goldman, Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Bank of America-Merrill Lynch will be acting as advisers," one of the bankers said.Greece's top four banks, including Piraeus, need...

6. Rate cuts possible Polish inflation to low: central banker

   2013-05-18 15:05:55 GMT : (Business & Finance/Banking & Finance)

   RYTRO: There is little chance that consumer inflation in Poland will quickly return to the central bank's 2.5 percent target, a Monetary Policy Council member said on Saturday, leaving scope for further monetary easing.Jerzy Hausner, one of the central bank's 10 rate-setters, also told Reuters that economic growth could accelerate to about 3 percent late next year, but there was also the r...

7. Nigeria interbank rates rise on cash shortage

   2013-05-17 14:14:52 GMT : (Business & Finance/Banking & Finance)

   LAGOS: Nigerian interbank lending rates rose 1.25 percentage points on Friday to an average of 14.5 percent, compared with 13.25 percent last week as payment for foreign exchange and bonds purchases drained liquidity, traders said."The market opened with a very minimal cash balance on Friday, while the payment for foreign exchange and bonds further drained liquidity in the market pushing up cost o...

8. Indian bank loans up 15pc in two weeks

   2013-05-17 12:05:17 GMT : (Business & Finance/Banking & Finance)

   MUMBAI: Indian bank loans grew 15 percent from a year earlier in the two weeks to May 3, while deposits were up 13.5 percent, the Reserve Bank of India's weekly statistical supplement showed on Friday.Outstanding loans rose 509.5 billion rupees to 53.41 trillion rupees ($972.7 billion) in the two weeks to May 3.Non-food credit rose 311.2 billion rupees to 52.25 trillion rupees, while food cred...

9. After ATM heist, India's IT sector again in unwelcome spotlight

   2013-05-16 07:26:14 GMT : (Business & Finance/Banking & Finance)

   MUMBAI/BANGALORE: A breach of security at two payment card processing companies in India that led to heists at cash machines around the world has reopened questions on the risks of outsourcing sensitive financial services to the Asian nation.Global banks that ship work to be processed in India, either in-house or to big IT services vendors, were already under pressure to step up oversight of back-...

10. HSBC sees no change to UK bank levy policy

    2013-05-15 15:03:36 GMT : (Business & Finance/Banking & Finance)

    LONDON: HSBC said it does not expect Britain to change its bank levy policy before the next general election due in 2015 and said it is likely to pay about $800 million on the tax this year.HSBC has said the levy unfairly hits banks with big overseas operations. Half its payment last year was on non-UK banking activity."We have had all the conversations we could possibly have with all the people w...

11. PIMCO asset surge powers Allianz quarterly earnings

    2013-05-15 12:12:20 GMT : (Business & Finance/Banking & Finance)

    FRANKFURT: Money poured into asset manager PIMCO's funds in the first three months of 2013, giving a strong boost to earnings of its parent company, German insurer Allianz.The Pacific Investment Management Company, which runs the world's biggest bond fund, recorded net inflows of third-party assets of over 40 billion euros ($51.9 billion) from January to March, nearly double those in the y...

12. BoE's King speaks about quarterly inflation report

    2013-05-15 09:50:04 GMT : (Business & Finance/Banking & Finance)

    LONDON: Following are the highlights of remarks made by Bank of England Governor Mervyn King after the central bank published its quarterly inflation report on Wednesday.KING ON BRIGHTER OUTLOOK"Today's projections are for growth to be a little stronger and inflation a little weaker than we expected three months ago, that's the first time I've been able to say that since before the fin...

13. HSBC says will cut more costs by 2016

    2013-05-15 06:50:49 GMT : (Business & Finance/Banking & Finance)

    LONDON: Asia-focused bank HSBC announced on Wednesday that it will make another $2-3 billion (1.5-2.3 billion euros) of new cost savings by 2016, extending its restructuring plans.The lender said in a statement that it will seek the additional sustainable cost savings on top of its wide-ranging restructuring process that was launched in 2011.HSBC revealed last week that it had slashed a total of $...

14. Commerzbank to raise 2.5bn euros in capital hike

    2013-05-14 06:37:45 GMT : (Business & Finance/Banking & Finance)

    FRANKFURT: Commerzbank, Germany's second-biggest bank, said Tuesday the subscription price for new shares in its planned capital increase has been set at 4.50 euros ($5.85) apiece, meaning it stands to raise up to 2.5 billion euros in all. Commerzbank said in a statement that it is issuing a total 555.5 million new shares.The capital increase is taking the form of a so-called rights issue wher...

15. Bank of Japan in contact with Bloomberg on data access

    2013-05-14 06:35:22 GMT : (Business & Finance/Banking & Finance)

    TOKYO: Japan's central bank on Tuesday became the latest organisation to express concerns over the access journalists at Bloomberg News have had to potentially sensitive data.The Bank of Japan's comment comes as a scandal grows for the financial news wire, whose terminals are used every day by officials at many of the world's most important institutions and banks."We are now in contact...

16. Hungary's OTP in talks to buy two foreign-owned banks

    2013-05-13 21:41:50 GMT : (Business & Finance/Banking & Finance)

    BUDAPEST: Hungary's OTP Bank is in talks to buy two banks from foreign owners who plan to withdraw from the country's banking sector, OTP Chairman and CEO Sandor Csanyi said on Monday.He also told InfoRadio that Hungary should cut its huge taxes on banks in the longer term or face economic stagnation and an exodus of foreign-owned banks who make losses."In one case we have already submitte...

17. Saudi central bank pushes banks to reserve more jobs for locals

    2013-05-13 21:33:53 GMT : (Business & Finance/Banking & Finance)

    RIYADH: Saudi Arabia's central bank has asked commercial banks to increase localisation of some functions as Riyadh pushes to move more of its citizens into jobs now done by expatriates, a banker in the kingdom said on Monday.The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) sent the banks a circular in April giving them three months to list the types of jobs that could be reserved entirely for Saudis,...

18. Commerzbank to start share sale mid-week: sources

    2013-05-13 15:14:28 GMT : (Business & Finance/Banking & Finance)

    FRANKFURT: Commerzbank AG will start its 2.5 billion euro ($3.2 billion) share sale this week, offering a hefty discount in a move designed to help repay state aid, two people familiar with the transaction told Reuters.Commerzbank is joining a slew of European banks tapping shareholders for fresh money, including Germany's bellwether Deutsche Bank, Russia's second-largest bank VTB as well ...

19. Kenya central bank mops up 17bn shillings in excess liquidity

    2013-05-13 12:20:36 GMT : (Business & Finance/Banking & Finance)

    NAIROBI: Central Bank of Kenya said on Monday it was in the market to mop up 17 billion shillings ($202.86 million) in excess liquidity using repurchase agreements (repo) and term auction deposits.The bank said it had received bids worth a total 21.2 billion shillings for both the seven-day repo and 14-day term auction deposits. It accepted a total 17 billion shillings, with the repo's weighte...

20. Germany suggests 'two-step' approach to banking union

    2013-05-13 07:39:59 GMT : (Business & Finance/Banking & Finance)

    FRANKFURT: German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble on Monday called for a "two-step approach" towards a European banking resolution mechanism, building on systems already in place in a number of countries.Amending EU treaties to create a resolution mechanism "takes time," Schaeuble wrote in an opinion piece in the Monday edition in the Financial Times. "Luckily, the alternative is not between a...