Banking

  Bloomberg BNP Paribas SA posted trading revenue that trounced its European rivals, helping drive a surprise increase in first-quarter profit. Revenue at the global-markets division climbed 33 percent from a year earlier to 1.75 billion euros ($1.9 billion), the Paris-based bank said Wednesday. Net income rose 4.4 percent to 1.89 billion euros, topping the 1.5 billion-euro average estimate of ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business In recognition of its continued leadership in the Investment Banking space, Barclays has been crowned ‘Best Foreign Investment Bank’ in the Middle East by EMEA Finance, a leading banking and finance publication specialising in Europe, Middle East and Africa. The judging panel’s decision to name Barclays as ‘Best Foreign Investment Bank in the Middle East’ ...

  Bloomberg Australia kept interest rates unchanged as faster inflation and signals of looming fiscal stimulus combine with an upswing in global growth. “Above-trend growth is expected in a number of advanced economies,” Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe said in a statement announcing the decision on Tuesday. “The improvement in the global economy has contributed to higher commodity ...

  Bloomberg Fidelity Bank Plc expects profit to rise by 30 percent this year as it benefits from investments in high-yielding Nigerian government debt and improving supplies of foreign exchange, even after the country’s economy declined for the first time in 25 years. Fidelity is able to buy Nigerian 10-year bonds that yield more than 16 percent, the second-highest among ...

  Bloomberg Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., (ICBC) the world’s largest lender by assets, reported its strongest quarterly profit growth in two years as soured credit and lending margins stabilized amid an uptick in the economy. Net income rose 1.4 percent to 75.79 billion yuan ($11 billion) in the three months ended March 31 from 74.76 billion yuan ...

  Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc is set to strengthen its position in Saudi Arabia with the potential merger of its local venture with Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc’s. RBS’s Alawwal Bank and HSBC’s Saudi British Bank are exploring a potential merger to create the country’s third-largest lender with $78 billion in assets, they said, without revealing details of the ...

  Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group AG Chief Executive Officer Tidjane Thiam is bowing to investor pressure to keep the bank’s biggest profit generator and instead will bolster capital by selling stock in a rights offer. The bank will raise 4 billion francs ($4.03 billion) in the sale and said it’s abandoning plans for the partial initial public offering of its ...

  Bloomberg UBS Group AG saw clients return from the sidelines in the first quarter, adding the most new money to the bank’s global wealth management business in about a decade. Net income at the Zurich-based bank surged 80 percent after better-than-expected results in wealth management and investment banking. Earnings at the unit catering to rich clients contributed 639 million ...

  Bloomberg As Nordea Bank AB tells Sweden it will move its headquarters from the largest Nordic economy unless the regulatory environment is relaxed, Finland and Denmark are stepping up their charm offensives. Danish Business Minister Brian Mikkelsen made clear he wants Nordea based in his country, and underscored his commitment to a stable regulatory environment in which banks and ...

  Emirates Business Arab Bank Group announced its results for the first quarter of 2017 reporting a net profit after tax of $218.2 million as compared to $218.3 million. Net operating income before provisions and taxes reached $290 million driven by growth in the underlying core banking revenue. Excluding the effect of foreign currency devaluations, the Bank’s net operating income ...