Banking

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Bloomberg Japan’s currency is taking a larger share of global foreign exchange reserves, in a pattern that’s coinciding with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) gradually incorporating China’s holdings into its published data. The yen is now at its highest proportion since the end of 2002. In the second quarter, it accounted for $429 billion out of the $9.26 trillion worth ...

Bloomberg Banks and regulators in Southeast Asia should strengthen financial-sector rules and guidelines to promote funding for environment-friendly projects in a region threatened by deforestation and climate change, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said. Measures to promote sustainable finance in the region are “high level,” and don’t involve the incentives or penalties which would get banks to properly integrate environmental ...

Bloomberg UBS Group AG could employ around 30 percent fewer staff in a decade as technological advances change banking, Chief Executive Officer Sergio Ermotti said in an interview with Bloomberg Markets. “We see a lot of contraction in the number of people in our industry,” he said. UBS, the world’s largest wealth manager, could shrink by that measure, including contractors, ...