Banking

Bloomberg Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RNBZ) chief Graeme Wheeler complained to the head of one of the nation’s largest banks about an economic commentary written by its research department. In a letter to Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) Chief Executive Officer Anthony Healy dated May 11, Wheeler said the BNZ’s Markets Outlook note of May 8 “appeared to bring ...

Bloomberg The Czech central bank stepped up efforts to cool the mortgage market, warning that rising house prices may spiral out of control and hurt lenders in a country with one of Europe’s lowest levels of housing loans. As record-low interest rates helped fuel a credit expansion in the ex-communist European Union member, policy makers in Prague are pushing for ...

Bloomberg Brad Demong and Leander Christofides, senior private-credit investors who left JPMorgan Chase & Co. last year, rejoined the bank to run a newly formed global special situations group in its asset management division. As the team’s co-chief investment officers, the pair will report to Anton Pil and Chris Hayward, co-managing partners of JPMorgan’s global alternatives unit, according to a ...

Bloomberg Asia’s central banks are stacking the sandbags. Foreign-exchange reserves are being rebuilt as monetary authorities brace for the Federal Reserve’s third rate hike in six months. While the expected move has been well telegraphed, prolonged periods of Fed tightening can cause jitters for emerging markets. Asia was slammed in 2013 when then-Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s hint of an end ...

Bloomberg Credit Agricole SA is considering selling part of its 31 percent stake in Saudi Arabian lender Banque Saudi Fransi, reversing earlier plans to completely exit the business, according to people familiar with the matter. France’s second-largest lender has discussed the partial sale of its Saudi operations with the country’s central bank, and has started talking to potential buyers, the ...

Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG Chairman Paul Achleitner has offered a good news-bad news deal to former management board members: We’ll pay the unvested portion of your bonuses if you give up claims to payments withheld by the lender. The proposal is meeting resistance from some ex-board members with a larger share of the suspended bonus payments, said three people with ...

Bloomberg Kenya’s biggest bank by assets offered to buy a state-owned lender as the industry struggles to cope with interest-rate caps that have cut profits and curbed lending. KCB Group Ltd. provided an expression of interest to the Treasury to acquire a controlling stake in National Bank of Kenya Ltd., Judith Odhiambo, a spokeswoman for Nairobi-based KCB, said in an ...

Bloomberg The divide between the haves and the have-nots among Nigerian banks is widening. The country’s biggest lender is so flush with cash it plans to repay $400 million of bonds when they become due in November 2018 rather than raising additional debt, while the next two largest banks sold international bonds for the first time since 2014. At the ...

Bloomberg Greece’s larger banks can take a leaf out of Attica Bank’s playbook. While the country’s four big banks are struggling to shrink their non-performing exposures (NPEs), smaller lender Attica Bank has become Greece’s first to turn to securitization as a way to both shrink its bad loans and close a capital shortfall. The Athens-based bank is using the services ...

Dubai / Emirates Business Noor Bank, a leading Shari’a-compliant bank in the UAE, on Monday announced that it has notched up several prestigious wins at the Banker Middle East Product Awards 2017 and at the Banker Middle East Industry Awards 2017, organised by CPI Financial’s renowned Banker Middle East magazine. Noor Bank won Best Corporate Account for its escrow account ...