Bloomberg Malaysia, and to a lesser degree Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, remain more exposed to exchange rate risk than other developing economies in East Asia and the Pacific as global financial conditions tighten, the World Bank said. Companies and banks in these countries have sizeable external debt, although foreign exchange reserves currently appear adequate, the Washington-based multilateral lender said ...
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Bonds slide in India after RBI holds rates
Bloomberg India’s sovereign bonds dropped, reversing earlier gains, after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept interest rates unchanged as expected and lowered the proportion of deposits that lenders must invest in specified securities such as government notes. The benchmark repurchase rate was left at 6%, with five on the six-member monetary policy committee voting for no change. The outcome ...
Read More »â€˜Half of Iran’s banks should close or merge, says top banking official
ZURICH / Reuters The number of banks in Iran should at least halve over the next six years, with closures and mergers needed to modernise an industry laden with toxic loans, one of the country’s top bankers said on Tuesday. Parviz Aghili, chief executive of Middle East Bank, estimated at a conference in Zurich that a full re-organisation of the ...
Read More »Saudi processing 3 applications for banking licences
RIYADH / Reuters The Saudi central bank has received three applications for banking licences and processing them is at an advanced stage, central bank governor Ahmed al-Kholifey told a news conference on Wednesday. Kholifey did not name the applicants. Another central bank official said no more bank mergers were expected. Alawwal Bank and Saudi British Bank agreed in April to ...
Read More »Ghana’s banks face daunting race to meet capital rules
Bloomberg Ghana’s banks face a daunting race to meet new capital rules by the end of next year. Lenders will need to raise 9 billion cedis ($2 billion), which the local equity and debt market is too small to supply, according to George Bodo, the head of banking research at Ecobank Capital Ltd. in Nairobi, Kenya. While it may trigger ...
Read More »Deutsche Bank may suffer most in MiFID trading hit
Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG could take the biggest hit to trading revenues when Europe’s MiFID II rules come into force because of its exposure to the continent, according to a UBS Group AG report. In its most severe “bear case†scenario, where growth in European trading revenue slows by 9 percent next year, Deutsche Bank would see growth cut by ...
Read More »India’s central bank holds rates as slowdown bites
Bloomberg The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to keep its benchmark rate at a seven-year low this week amid slowing growth in Asia’s third-largest economy. With inflation climbing fast toward the Reserve Bank of India’s medium term target, the Federal Reserve starting to shrink its balance sheet and growing speculation the government may loosen purse strings to bolster ...
Read More »Indonesia should avoid more rate cuts, says biggest bank
Bloomberg Indonesia’s central bank should avoid cutting interest rates further because borrowing costs are at an appropriate level even as loan growth remains subdued, according to the chief of the country’s biggest lender. The current benchmark rate of 4.25 percent is “quite optimal,†PT Bank Mandiri President Director Kartika Wirjoatmodjo said in an interview on Sept. 28. “Overall liquidity is ...
Read More »RBA keeps interest rates unchanged as Lowe remains reluctant to follow peers
Bloomberg Australia’s central bank kept interest rates unchanged — as expected — reinforcing Governor Philip Lowe’s reluctance to follow developed-world counterparts and tighten policy. “Over recent months there have been more consistent signs that non-mining business investment is picking up,†Lowe said in Tuesday’s statement. “A consolidation of this trend would be a welcome development. Business conditions as reported in ...
Read More »BOE sees ‘substantial’ Brexit threat to derivatives clearing
Bloomberg The UK’s withdrawal from the European Union poses a “substantial risk of disruption†to cross-border clearing of financial contracts, according to the Bank of England (BOE). The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, has proposed supervision rules that could force foreign clearinghouses to locate the clearing of derivatives denominated in EU currencies inside the bloc. In response, some clearinghouses ...
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