Banking & Finance
Friday, 03 May 2013 09:25
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SYDNEY: Australian banking giant Westpac on Friday reported a better-than-expected 11 percent increase in first-half net profit to a record Aus$3.3 billion (US$3.4 billion).Australia's second largest bank by market capitalisation said cash earnings, the preferred measure which strips out volatile items, were up 10 per cent to Aus$3.53 billion against the first half last year.Analysts had forecast cash profit of Aus$3.47 billion for the six months to March 31.The bank noted that all its Australian businesses produced double-digit cash earnings growth and costs had also been reduced.Despite the record results, chief executive Gail Kelly said: "The operating environment continues to be challenging, with subdued lending growth."However, in line with our strategy, we are actively targeting opportunities in higher growth areas where conditions are more favourable such as deposits, wealth, trade finance and natural resources.""Momentum continued to build over the period, with all our Australian businesses producing double-digit cash earnings growth," ...
MUMBAI: India's central bank is expected to slightly lower interest rates for the third time in a row on Friday, despite warnings from policymakers that the room for cuts is limited.Economists say the Reserve Bank of India is likely to decide on a 25 basis points cut in the benchmark repo rate after meeting in the financial capital Mumbai, with an announcement expected at 11:00am (0530 GMT).They stuck with predictions, based on a recent easing ...
ZURICH: Swiss banking giant UBS reported on Tuesday a slight drop in its first quarter net profit, but nonetheless easily beat market expectations due to an influx of fresh cash.During the first three months of the year, the bank saw its net profit slide 4.5 percent compared to a year ago to 988 million Swiss francs (804 million euros, $1.052 billion).The result was meanwhile far higher than the expectations of analysts polled by Swiss agency ...
LONDON: Britain's state-rescued Lloyds bank said on Tuesday that it rebounded into first-quarter net profits on the back of rising income, deep cost-cutting and falling impairment charges.Earnings after taxation hit £1.53 billion ($2.37 billion, 1.81 billion euros) in the three months to the end of March, Lloyds said in a results statement. That contrasted with a slender net loss of £5.0 million in the same part of 2012.Lloyds was boosted by a one-off gain of ...
FRANKFURT: Shares in Deutsche Bank soared by more than 7.0 percent on Tuesday after Germany's biggest lender unveiled a 2.8-billion-euro capital hike and a sharp rise in first-quarter profits. Deutsche Bank shares leapt by 7.9 percent to an intraday high of 35.49 euros in early trading on the Frankfurt stock exchange but subsequently fell back slightly to show a gain of 6.25 percent. Late Monday, Deutsche Bank said it would raise around 2.8 billion euros ...
ATHENS: Greece's largest lender National Bank won approval from shareholders to boost its capital with a 9.75 billion euro ($12.70 billion) share offering, aiming to secure enough support from private investors to escape state control.Shoring up the capital adequacy of Greece's top banks is expected to help them regain access to interbank markets and fund the economy out of its six-year recession.The four biggest lenders need 27.5 billion euros in new capital to restore their ...
MADRID: The Spanish banking giant Santander on Monday announced the resignation of chief executive Alfredo Saenz, who was convicted in 2011 for irregularities in a debt-recovery case.He will be replaced by Javier Marin, Santander's current head of insurance, asset management and private banking, said the bank, which is the eurozone's biggest by capitalisation.It gave no reason in its statement for the "voluntary resignation" of Saenz, 70, who had been chief executive since 2002 and had ...
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