Banking

  ABU DHABI / WAM The total assets of 10 UAE banks jumped to AED 1.75 trillion by the end of Q1 2017, a 9.3 percent growth from AED 1.6 trillion recorded over the same period last year. A WAM analysis has found out that the growth in assets of the 10 banks whose Q 1 financial statements were announced ...

  ABU DHABI / WAM The National Bank of Abu Dhabi and First Gulf Bank reported AED2.93 billion in net profits for the 1st quarter of 2017, a 12.4 percent growth from AED 2.60 billion over the same period last year. The positive results are attributed to a robust operational performance and increasing investments yields in addition to a successful ...

  Bloomberg China’s shadow banking is back in full swing, an unintended side effect of the government’s campaign against financial leverage, which has curbed traditional lending and squeezed bond financing. Data from the central bank showed that off-balance sheet lending surged 754 billion yuan ($109 billion) in March, taking the first quarter’s total increase to a record 2.05 trillion yuan. ...

  DUBAI / Emirates Business Mashreq, one of UAE’s leading financial institutions, announced the exclusive launch of Quick Remit service to Pakistan. Mashreq customers can transfer Pakistani rupees free of charge either – via MashreqOnline or Snapp and enjoy instant credit to all bank accounts in Pakistan. The new service is unique as it offers immediate transfers as opposed to ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Saudi Arabia’s privatisation drive is likely to result in around 100 new stock market listings in sectors including mining, healthcare and retail, a top HSBC executive said on Monday. Georges Elhedery, HSBC’s chief executive for the Middle East and North Africa, did not give a time frame for the listings but said they were part of ...

  Bloomberg Citigroup Inc. named Carmen Haddad as the head of its Saudi Arabia business as the US bank seeks to return to the kingdom after a more than 10-year absence, according to people familiar with the matter. Haddad is currently leading Citigroup’s strategy and business development for the kingdom, which the bank designates as a non-presence country, said the ...

  Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co. fell after reporting first-quarter revenue that missed analysts’ estimates as the lender’s troubled community bank weighed on results. Wells Fargo shares slid 3 percent to $51.53 in New York, the lowest since Nov. 29 and the worst performance in the 65-company S&P 500 Financials Index. The stock has dropped 6.4 percent this year. The ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Al Rajhi Bank, Saudi Arabia’s second-largest lender by assets, reported a 10.1 percent rise in its first-quarter net profit on Monday, beating analysts forecasts. The bank made 2.22 billion riyals ($589.30 million) in the three months to March 31, up from 2.017 billion riyals in the same period a year earlier, it said in a bourse ...

  Bloomberg Malaysia is weighing tougher enforcement of a cap on foreign ownership of insurers as it seeks to boost local participation in the industry, people with knowledge of the matter said. The central bank is considering more strictly applying an existing policy that foreign companies owning 100 percent of local insurance firms must pare their stakes to no more ...

  Bloomberg President Donald Trump said he’ll nominate a critic of the US Export-Import Bank — one who has derided the bank as “corporate welfare” — to run the institution, which has been operating under strict lending limits because of a partisan battle over its mission. Trump, who as a candidate said he didn’t think the bank needed to exist, ...