Banking

Brussels / Reuters Italy’s banking problems can be solved and the EU will do everything to help, European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said, dismissing fears of something akin to the euro crisis. New Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni has said his government was prepared to come to the aid of the country’s third largest bank, Monte dei Paschi di Siena ...

  Jeddah / Emirates Business Deutsche Bank’s 2017 Market Outlook conference, titled ‘Global and Regional Investment Perspectives 2017’, the third event of its kind for Deutsche Bank in Saudi Arabia, opened at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Jeddah-Marina. The conference explored pressing macro issues affecting economies, capital markets, companies, family offices and individual investors around the Middle East & North ...

  Bloomberg Russia’s biggest bank is paying up to keep the nation’s best tech talent from emigrating to Silicon Valley. To analyze 135 million customers, it needs the power of big data. Sberbank PJSC, which holds 46 percent of Russian retail deposits, says it’s luring experts in the field with some of the highest salaries at the state-owned lender, paying ...

  Washington / AFP US banking regulators said they are prohibiting Wells Fargo from opening new international branches until it fixes continuing deficiencies in its bankruptcy plan. The so-called ‘living will’ is required of all large US banks to ensure that in the event they need to declare bankruptcy, they can be dismantled in an orderly fashion without the kind ...

  Manama / Reuters The 23rd annual World Islamic Banking Conference (WIBC) recognized excellence within the Islamic finance and banking industry at a high profile Gala Dinner at the beautiful ART Rotana Hotel, Amwaj Islands in Bahrain. WIBC Performance Awards were granted to the top Islamic financial institutions based purely on their performance at the global, regional and national levels. ...

  Shanghai / AFP Chinese bank lending grew modestly month-on-month in November, official data showed on Wednesday, after being almost halved in October, the latest indication that the country’s economy may be stabilising. New loans extended by banks rose to 794.6 billion yuan ($115.1 billion) last month, compared with 651.3 billion yuan in October, said the People’s Bank of China ...

  Bloomberg Central Bank of Kenya officials were allegedly at the heart of fraud at the failed Imperial Bank Ltd., described by one analyst as perhaps the industry’s largest scandal in the East African nation. Imperial Bank staff for years gave central bank officials loans and even school fees in exchange for helping to hide unauthorized debt, according to a ...

  Milan / AFP Italy’s biggest bank, UniCredit, announced plans on Tuesday to slash 14,000 jobs and raise billions of euros in fresh capital as the country gets to grips with political instability and a banking crisis. The bank, one of the worst performers in European bank stress tests, confirmed it would need to seek 13 billion euros ($13.8 bn) ...

  Frankfurt am Main / AFP The ECB said it would open an inquiry after its refusal to extend a deadline for Italy’s troubled Monte dei Paschi di Siena bank (BMPS) was leaked to the media before the lender was formally notified of the decision. “An internal inquiry will be launched,” a spokesman for the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank said, ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ has received a licence to open a branch in Saudi Arabia, becoming the first Japanese bank to establish a presence in the kingdom. The bank, part of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, has played a central role in the Saudi government’s recent financing activity, in April helping to arrange a $10 billion loan, ...