Banking

Bloomberg One emerging market has so far eluded Standard Chartered Plc Chief Executive Officer Bill Winters: Ethiopia. Winters, head of London-based Standard Chartered since mid-2015, would “love to think that there are opportunities” in Ethiopia, he said in an interview in Nairobi, Kenya. The problem is that it’s entirely closed to foreign banks. “The underlying fundamentals are pretty interesting,” said ...

Bloomberg Banks are worried that South Africa is taking a wrong turn with laws being considered by the nation’s parliament that could leave the economy worse off. “They do not seem to be the legislative underpinning of a comprehensive, implementable national economic recovery plan,” the Banking Association of South Africa (BASA) said in a statement distributed in Johannesburg. “Rather they ...

Bloomberg Union Bank of India is pulling out of the global diamond hub of Antwerp, joining a retreat of lenders from the industry, which has been hit by fraud and bad debt. The bank has given notice that it will close its branch in the Belgian port city within a year, according to Chief Executive Officer Rajkiran Rai Gundyadka. Antwerp ...

Bloomberg Standard Chartered Plc has already paid a painful penalty for secretly moving billions of dollars through the US on behalf of Iranian clients, in violation of sanctions. But a sweeping investigation has found evidence suggesting that the bank’s Iranian business was more extensive than it admitted, according to five people familiar with the matter. Now US authorities are weighing ...

Bloomberg India has asked its central bank to prepare a list of candidates for merger among 21 government-controlled lenders as it seeks to strengthen a banking system laden with bad debt, people familiar with the matter said. In a meeting this month, finance ministry officials also asked the Reserve Bank of India to suggest a time frame for the consolidation, ...

Bloomberg Westpac Banking Corp. raised its key mortgage rate, the first of the nation’s biggest banks to decide passing on higher funding costs is worth the risk of further reputational damage. Its variable standard home-loan rate for owner occupiers will rise 14 basis points to 5.38 percent, the Sydney-based lender said in a statement. The move reflects “a sustained increase ...

Bloomberg China’s biggest banks posted stable earnings growth in the second quarter, boosted by tighter liquidity even as the broader sector struggled with government policies. Profits at four of the five largest lenders rose at least 5 percent in the three months through June, as President Xi Jinping’s crackdown on riskier financiers pushed business to large state-connected banks. The results ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing has a stark message for the thousands of banks spread out across the European Union: bulk up or die. “The pressure to consolidate will rise significantly in Europe,” Sewing said. An increase in regulatory requirements, in addition to an already-pressing need for investment in information technology will “overwhelm” many banks, he ...

Bloomberg A rebuff from the regulator may set Asia’s richest banker Uday Kotak on a $17 billion acquisition trail, as he seeks to meet a year-end deadline to reduce his stake in Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. below 20 percent. Buying another financial firm may be the most palatable way for Kotak to pare his holding, following the Reserve Bank of ...

Bloomberg Bank of Nova Scotia’s purchase of Jarislowsky Fraser is already paying off. The acquisition of the Montreal-based money manager, along with improved margins and lower provisions, contributed to record Canadian banking profit in the fiscal third quarter, Scotiabank said. Earnings from domestic banking rose 8 percent to C$1.13 billion ($880 million) from a year earlier. The C$950 million purchase ...