Banking

  Bloomberg ING Groep NV Chief Executive Officer Ralph Hamers’s international expansion is helping the biggest Dutch lender boost profits. Net core lending increased by 5.7 billion euros ($6.2 billion) in the first quarter, as strong growth in nations including Germany more than offset a drop in Dutch consumer lending, the Amsterdam-based bank said in a statement on Wednesday. Loan ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business Egyptian banks are lifting restrictions on customers’ overseas credit card purchases, the latest indication that a foreign-currency crunch that crippled the economy is easing. State-run Banque Misr, Egypt’s second-biggest lender, is removing curbs imposed last year on purchases, while keeping limits on foreign-currency cash withdrawals, the official Middle East News Agency reported on Tuesday, without ...

  Bloomberg Ecobank Transnational Inc., Africa’s most geographically diverse lender, is betting that Nigeria’s plans for a digital revolution will increase the number of its customers in the country more than fivefold over the next five years. The bank is closing branches in the continent’s most populous nation to cut costs while using improving access to the internet to add ...

  Bloomberg The Swiss National Bank (SNB) takes its money seriously. Fresh from winning banknote of the year for its 50-franc denomination, it unveiled a new 20-franc design on Wednesday that Vice President Fritz Zurbruegg argues might be the world’s most secure bill. Red in color and based on a theme of light and culture, the new 20, made of ...

  Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co. is poised to spread pain to the rank and file. That’s the view from analysts, who say the bank’s leadership almost certainly must announce more aggressive cost-cutting targets on Thursday when hosting an annual investor briefing. After a bogus-account scandal spooked new clients and crimped profitability, Wells Fargo will probably eliminate more branches and ...

  Bloomberg Commerzbank AG benefited from a rise in income from trading securities six months after it rolled out a strategy to scale back the business. The Frankfurt-based lender posted net income of 217 million euros ($237 million) in the first quarter, compared with 169 million euros a year earlier. That beat the 74 million-euro average of four estimates compiled ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), the largest Islamic bank in the UAE, has been awarded the Global Islamic Business Award in the first ever edition in the region. The award was presented by His Highness Sheikh Maktoum Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai to Dr Adnan Chilwan, Group Chief Executive Officer, Dubai ...

  Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co. is weighing a sale of its insurance brokerage business, which could fetch about $2 billion, people familiar with the matter said. The San Francisco-based lender has begun reaching out to private equity firms to gauge interest in Wells Fargo Insurance Services USA Inc., said the people, who asked not to be identified because the ...

  Bloomberg UBS Group AG Chairman Axel Weber said he expects the European Central Bank to move toward tapering its quantitative easing program around September. The comments by the former Bundesbank president come as ECB President Mario Draghi is under pressure to map out a path toward the end of the central bank’s massive stimulus. As the euro-area economy has ...

  Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group AG is cutting as many as 35 positions at its equities business in Asia after the unit’s revenue slumped, a person with knowledge of the matter said. The firm is mainly culling trading, sales, prime brokerage and research positions in the region, according to the person, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. ...