Bloomberg A jump in mortgages and a recovery in Saudi Arabia’s economy may help Al Rajhi Bank, the kingdom’s second-biggest lender, reverse a decline in lending. Overall lending may improve to show “low single-digit” growth this year and increase to match historical levels of expanding in mid-single digits from 2019, Chief Executive Officer Steve Berta mini said in an interview ...

Bloomberg About six months after UBS Group AG decided to merge its wealth management businesses into one super-unit, rival Credit Suisse Group AG is said to be taking a different approach. The bank plans to split its key international private banking unit into seven regions from four, with each having its own management and greater decision-making power, according to people ...

MANAMA / Emirates Business Ithmaar Holding BSC, a Bahrain-based financial institution, and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Ithmaar Bank BSC, a Bahrain-based Islamic retail bank, each announced their financial results for the first half of 2018 with both reporting profits for the period. The announcement by the Ithmaar Holding Chairman His Royal Highness Prince Amr Al Faisal, who is also the Ithmaar ...

Bloomberg JPMorgan Chase & Co. retail clients who don’t live in the US will no longer be able to keep investment accounts as the bank shuts a business that it’s operated for decades. “After careful review, we’ve decided to no longer service Chase retail investment accounts to non-US residents,” said Elizabeth Seymour, a JPMorgan spokeswoman. “This decision allows us to ...

Bloomberg Citigroup Inc. is restructuring its consumer-banking operation in a shake-up that includes the departure of its global credit-card chief. Judson Linville, who ran the world’s largest portfolio of credit-card loans, is leaving as the bank merges that business with its wealth and retail units in the US, according to an internal memo from Stephen Bird, who leads Citigroup’s global ...

Bloomberg Jet Airways India Ltd.’s lenders are reluctant to extend additional loans to the cash-strapped airline ahead of a key report by the company’s financial auditor, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. India’s biggest full-service carrier, part-owned by Etihad Airways PJSC, had approached banks for emergency funding but the lenders prefer that the company raises money from ...

Bloomberg Carrefour SA may circumvent Brazil’s bankers in favour of mom-and-pop investors when it returns to markets next year. The grocer’s Brazilian unit, Atacadao Distribuicao Comercio e Industria Ltda, is considering issuing local bonds for retail investors as it explores alternatives to a “concentrated banking system” and the high fees the banks charge, Chief Financial Officer Sebastien Durchon said in ...

Bloomberg “Retail is not dead”, Telsey Advisory Group said. One day before second-quarter earnings season kicks into gear in earnest, it’s clear investors agree. The latest quarterly results are expected to outshine first quarter disappointments that were hurt by lousy weather. The SPDR S&P Retail ETF has risen 13 percent year to date to a record high, more than double ...

Bloomberg Sports Direct International Plc says it will continue to operate most of House of Fraser Ltd.’s 59 UK and Ireland department stores after rescuing the chain from near collapse. “Our aim is to keep at least 80 percent of the stores open,” Liam Rowley, Sports Direct’s head of strategic investments, said on Tuesday in an interview on Bloomberg TV ...

ABU DHABI / WAM President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan issued Emiri Decree No. 02 of 2018 amending the UAE Cybercrimes Law. According to the Decree, Article Nos. 26, 28 and 42 of Federal Decree-Law No. 05 of 2012 on Combatting Cybercrimes will be replaced with updated provisions. Article No. 26 stipulates an imprisonment period of at ...