Banking

Bloomberg Unity Bank Plc, a Nigerian lender, denied entering a binding agreement with private-equity firm Milost Global Inc. over a potential $1 billion investment, saying talks were only preliminary and didn’t come with any commitments. New York-based Milost this week said it terminated talks to provide debt and equity funding to Unity, saying it received threats that it will be ...

Bloomberg Bulgaria, which is seeking to cement its path to euro adoption this year, said it has no plans to join Europe’s banking union before switching to the common currency. The Balkan nation wants to join the exchange-rate mechanism — the waiting room for euro adoption — this summer. While becoming a member of the union before entering the euro ...

Bloomberg Bostjan Jazbec, a member of the European Central Bank’s Governing Council, will step down as the head of Slovenia’s monetary authority April 30, opening the way for a new government to choose his replacement after elections this summer. Jazbec will become a member of the Single Resolution Board, the European Union body responsible for the orderly winding down of ...

BEIRUT / Reuters Lebanon’s government plans to swap $5 billion of new foreign currency bonds for Lebanese pound debt with the central bank, in an operation its finance minister suggested would slash the cost of servicing its huge debt pile by as much as $1.5 billion. Ali Hassan Khalil, speaking in parliament, said 218 billion pounds ($145 million) of the ...

Bloomberg Japanese banks must move forward with consolidation by using everything from mergers to informal tie-ups to tackle declining profitability, according to the new chief of the industry’s main lobby group. “Consolidation has to advance from here, and the formats for doing this are going to get more diverse,” Koji Fujiwara, who starts as chairman of the Japanese Bankers Association ...

Bloomberg Pakistan’s central bank unexpectedly left its benchmark interest rate unchanged after a second currency devaluation in four months. The target policy rate will stay at 6 percent, the State Bank of Pakistan said in a statement. The move was predicted by only three of 22 economists in a Bloomberg survey with rest expecting a hike. The central bank unexpectedly ...

Bloomberg John Thain, a former chief executive officer of Merrill Lynch, is expected to join Deutsche Bank AG’s supervisory board in May, according to a person with knowledge of the German lender’s plans. News of the board’s shakeup follows speculation that Deutsche Bank is seeking to replace Chief Executive Officer John Cryan. The CEO, who has been trying to restructure ...

Bloomberg Mario Draghi has six months left to prepare a retreat from ultra-loose monetary policy, and he has a ready-made roadmap on hand. The US Federal Reserve’s experience of halting quantitative easing, raising interest rates and starting to shrink its balance sheet provides both a blueprint and a cautionary tale for the European Central Bank president. It’s an easy example ...

Bloomberg Saudi Arabia’s second-biggest bank is betting that government efforts to develop the entertainment industry, boost home-ownership and open up the role of women in the economy will fuel growth this year. The kingdom is undergoing an economic overhaul driven by crown prince Mohammed bin Salman that includes removing restrictions on cinemas, concerts and women driving and working. It also ...

Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc agreed to pay $100 million to settle an antitrust lawsuit by over-the-counter investors, including the city of Baltimore and Yale University, who claimed they were harmed when they bought securities tied to rigged Libor. The proposed settlement by the London-based bank follows similar agreements the investor group reached with Barclays Plc, Citigroup Inc., and most recently ...