Banking

Bloomberg The Irish government fired the starting gun for the initial public offering of Allied Irish Banks Plc, laying out a plan to sell 25 percent of the nationalized lender. The government plans to sell the AIB stake in a share offering in London and Dublin, with terms to be set in mid-June, the country’s finance ministry said in an ...

Bloomberg The ‘stealth’ tapering of bond buying by the Bank of Japan (BOJ) may take a summer break, at least for June. With medium-term Japanese government bond yields on the rise, a further scaling back of monthly debt purchases could risk upsetting the market, strategists say. That means the central bank may keep the pace of buying as is for ...

Bloomberg Citigroup Inc agreed to sell its fixed-income analytics and index business to the London Stock Exchange Group Plc for US$685 million in cash following a strategic review of the unit. The transaction includes Citigroup’s fixed-income analytics platform, The Yield Book, and indexes including the World Government Bond Index, the New York-based bank said in a statement on Tuesday. The ...

Bloomberg Singapore fined Credit Suisse Group AG and United Overseas Bank Ltd. a total of S$1.6 million ($1.2 million) as regulators completed a two-year review of banks involved in fund flows linked to 1Malaysia Development Bhd., or 1MDB. Credit Suisse was fined S$700,000 while UOB has to pay S$900,000 for breaches of anti-money laundering requirements and control lapses, the Monetary ...

Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc. was denounced by the head of Venezuela’s legislature over a report that the bank bought $2.8 billion of bonds from that country, potentially helping President Nicolas Maduro’s administration amid accusations of human-rights violations. The investment bank’s asset management arm paid about $865 million, or 31 cents on the dollar, for bonds issued in 2014 by ...

Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business Al Hilal Bank was awarded two awards including the Best New Loyalty Program for its Joud Rewards Program and Best Innovative Banking Services Award for its EIDA Card by Banker Middle East UAE Product Awards. Alex Coelho, the Chief Executive Officer of Al Hilal Bank said: “It is our mandate to maintain the highest levels ...

DUBAI / Reuters Saudi Arabian lender Alawwal Bank, 40 percent owned by Royal Bank of Scotland, has picked JPMorgan to advise it on a proposed merger with Saudi British Bank (SABB), sources familiar with the matter said. Senior management of SABB and Alawwal held talks with advisers to discuss the principle of the merger and timeframe for its completion, one ...

Bloomberg Commerzbank AG has sent out early retirement offers to about 3,000 employees, a first key step in the German lender’s move towards cutting 9,600 jobs over four years, two people with knowledge of the matter said. The offer entitles eligible employees born before 1962 to a 30,000-euro ($34,000) sweetener, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing internal ...

Bloomberg Mauritian banks are becoming beacons of growth and stability in sub-Saharan Africa. Unscathed by the vagaries of the oil price and unhindered by the political battles that have roiled some of their continental peers, the Indian Ocean island’s lenders have been bolstered by an economy growing faster than many of the mainland countries. The central bank expects the Mauritian ...

Bloomberg Saudi Arabia could attract tens of billions of dollars in foreign investments in the Arab world’s biggest stock market if it’s added to MSCI Inc.’s emerging-markets index, according to Deutsche Bank AG’s chief executive officer for the Middle East and Africa. Our “research anticipates a figure of up to $35 billion of inflows,” Dubai-based Jamal Al Kishi said in ...