Banking

  DUBAI / Reuters Banking shares boosted Saudi Arabia’s stock index to its highest level this year, while other Gulf markets moved little in quiet trade with some foreign investors absent for New Year holidays. The Saudi index closed up 1.3 percent at 7,257 points in its highest trading volume for two weeks, rising above technical resistance at this year’s ...

  DUBAI / Reuters National Bank of Kuwait (NBK), the Gulf Arab state’s largest commercial lender, and investment firm KAMCO said they had been invited by the public debt office at the Kuwaiti ministry of finance to participate in a bond issue by the government. A request for proposals has been sent to NBK’s subsidiary NBK Capital to help arrange ...

  Bloomberg Egyptian companies unable to repay US-dollar denominated debts after the devaluation of the pound will be allowed to negotiate fixed exchange rates with banks. The move aims to alleviate financial pressure on manufacturers following the central bank’s decision to remove all restrictions on the local currency on Nov. 3. The pound has since lost more than half its ...

  Bloomberg Britons are holding onto their cash in a sign that they may be hunkering down in the face of economic uncertainties, according to the British Bankers Association. Personal deposits grew an annual 4.8 percent in November, data compiled by the BBA show. They increased by 32.4 billion pounds ($39.7 billion) in the first 11 months of the year, ...

  Bloomberg China’s requirement for how much cash banks must hold as reserves is “very high” and should be reduced at an “appropriate time,” a senior banking regulator said, according to a media report. Other financing tools can be used to manage the money supply after easing the required reserve ratio, China Banking Regulatory Commission official Yu Xuejun said at ...

  Bloomberg The European Central Bank sees Italian lender Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA needing about 8.8 billion euros ($9.2 billion) of capital to bolster its balance sheet after liquidity deteriorated this month. The calculation is based on the results of a 2016 stress test, the Italian bank said in a statement, citing two letters from the ECB ...

  Bloomberg Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann said the bar should be high for government funds being used in a rescue of Italian lender Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA. Government funds are intended as a “last resort,” Weidmann said in an interview with German newspaper Bild, with the banker adding that planned measures by the Italian government should only ...

  Reuters European shares were steady with the focus on lenders after Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse settled mortgage securities fraud suits in the United States, and Italy’s Monte dei Paschi agreed to a bailout. The STOXX Europe 600 was flat at its close and unchanged for the week, but the index still on track for its best month since ...

  TEHRAN / AP At money changers across Tehran, shouting voices accompany each change of the signboards out front showing the value of the Iranian rial, which slips ever lower against the US dollar. This week saw Iran’s currency fall to 41,600 rials to $1, its lowest point ever. While making Iranian exports more attractive to the world market in ...

  Bloomberg China promoted Yin Yong to deputy governor of the central bank from assistant governor and named Liu Guoqiang as an assistant governor of the monetary authority. People’s Bank of China Deputy Governor Guo Qingping and assistant governor Yang Ziqiang will step down, according to a statement on the State Council’s website without giving further details. Yin worked for ...