Banking

QNB seeks growth in South East Asia after Q4 profit rises

  DUBAI / Reuters Qatar National Bank (QNB) is broadening its horizons in Southeast Asia after the Gulf’s largest lender reported 8.3 percent rise in fourth-quarter net profit, according to reports. It follows a year in which the bank cemented its position as the largest lender in the Middle East and Africa by assets after completing the 2.7 billion euro ...

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Polish banks plunge as regulators’ FX-loan plan revives woes

  Bloomberg Polish bank shares tumbled on Monday as the country’s watchdogs are seeking to impose higher capital requirements aimed at encouraging lenders to ditch foreign-currency home loans. The WIG Bank gauge slumped 1.7 percent as of 11:36 a.m. in Warsaw, led by MBank SA and Bank Millennium SA, sliding from a one-year high reached last week. Lenders should lift ...

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JPMorgan upgrades Indonesia, lifts call that riled Jakarta

  Bloomberg JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded its assessment of the Indonesian stock market, reversing an earlier bearish call that prompted Jakarta to stop doing business with the U.S. bank. The bank’s analysts raised their ‘tactical’ view of Indonesian equities one level to “neutral” in a report on Monday, saying volatility in emerging-market bonds following Donald Trump’s US election victory ...

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Asia banks seek tech hires over ‘rock-star’ bankers this year

  Bloomberg Financial institutions in the Asia-Pacific region will be more inclined to hire technology specialists this year than investment bankers as they enhance product offerings and upgrade their systems, according to a survey by Options Group Inc. Among regional financial-services managers, 40 percent say they expect to increase their headcount for information technology-related roles this year, according to a ...

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Bank Dhofar Q4 net profit falls 19.6%

  DUBAI / Reuters Oman’s Bank Dhofar, the second-largest lender in the sultanate by assets, posted a 19.6 percent fall in fourth-quarter net profit, according to Reuters calculations. The bank reports a net profit of 10.75 million rials ($27.95 million) in the three months to Dec. 31, compared to 13.37 million rials in the same period of 2015. Net loans ...

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Bank Muscat posts $103.2mn profit in Q4

  DUBAI / Reuters Bank Muscat, Oman’s largest lender, posted a 1.3 percent increase in fourth-quarter net profit on Sunday, according to Reuters calculations, in line with analysts’ estimates. The bank made a profit of 39.7 million rials ($103.2 million) in the three-month period ending Dec. 31, up from 39.2 million rials a year earlier. Bank Muscat didn’t disclose a ...

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CEO of Wallenbergs’ Bank to step down

  Dubai Annika Falkengren, the chief executive officer of SEB AB, will leave the Swedish bank after running it for 11 years. SEB, which was founded by Sweden’s Wallenberg family in 1856 to become Stockholm’s first private bank, will now start looking for a replacement for Falkengren, the board said in a statement on Monday. The 54-year-old, who will step ...

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SocGen names Valet deputy CEO

  Bloomberg Societe Generale SA named Didier Valet as its third deputy chief executive officer, promoting its investment-banking head as the French bank prepares a new business plan. Valet, who turned 49 on Sunday, was appointed to the newly created position on Jan. 13. and will retain his role as head of corporate and investment banking, private banking, asset management ...

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Banks in Scandinavia set to dominate bail-in bond issuance

  Bloomberg A substantial chunk of the bank bonds needed to comply with new rules designed to protect taxpayers may come from Scandinavia, according to calculations by Danske Bank A/S. In an extreme scenario, which assumes local regulators set the toughest criteria, the region’s lenders may need to find investors for more than $120 billion in notes to meet minimum ...

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Mashreq launches ‘Virtual Corporate Card’

  Dubai / Emirates Business Mashreq, one of the leading financial institutions in the UAE, on Sunday became the first local bank to launch the Corporate Virtual Card, enhancing its comprehensive product suite for Commercial Payments. Mashreq Corporate Virtual Cards is a dynamic electronic payment platform, empowering corporates with real-time transaction security and control. This powerful tool, built on Mastercard’s ...

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