Banking

  Bloomberg Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd.’s sale of businesses in five Asian markets to DBS Group Holdings Ltd. offers the latest sign of consolidation in the region’s highly competitive wealth industry, which has already seen a retreat by European players like Barclays Plc and Societe Generale SA. DBS will pay S$110 million ($79 million) for retail and ...

  Dubai/ Emirates Business Saxo Bank, the online multi-asset trading and investment specialist, revealed that the most traded equity CFDs (Contracts for Difference) in the MENA region are focused on the US stock market and US tech companies. Two of the top three most traded CFD equity indexes by Saxo clients in the MENA region since January 1, 2015 are ...

  Bloomberg Two of China’s biggest banks, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. and China Construction Bank Corp., are testing their regulator’s tolerance by protecting profits at the expense of bad-loan buffers. ICBC and Construction Bank both reported loan-loss coverage ratios below a regulatory minimum of 150 percent of existing nonperforming loans when they disclosed third-quarter earnings. So far, ...

  Bloomberg The UK’s biggest banks and financial firms could gain an additional 12 billion pounds ($14.6 billion) a year in revenue from Britain leaving the European Union, according to a report from a pro-Brexit lobby group. Leaving the 28-nation trading bloc and ending membership in the EU single market for trade and services would help Britain cut “stifling Brussels ...

  Bloomberg If the world’s biggest economy is really on the upswing, then why are America’s banks stockpiling a record amount of ultrasafe bonds? After all, jobs are back, the Federal Reserve is close to raising interest rates again and growth has perked up after a sluggish first half. But instead of ramping up lending to keep up with deposits, ...

  Bloomberg Russia is looking to sell dozens of stakes in state companies ranging from its oil-pipeline monopoly to its second-largest lender over the next three years as the government struggles to cover its budget gap, according to a draft privatization programme. After years of delays, the government is reviving plans to offer shares in Transneft PJSC and VTB Bank ...

  Bloomberg Bank Hapoalim Ltd., Israel’s largest bank, approved a plan to cut 12 percent of the workforce, answering the call of regulators to slash costs as it seeks to boost its dividend. The lender expects about 1,500 workers to choose voluntary retirement over the next four years in a plan that will cost the bank about 1.2 billion shekels ...

  Bloomberg Apollo Global Management LLC is starting to raise money for a new buyout fund that could reach almost $20 billion in size, as the private equity firm tears ahead on an unprecedented buying spree. “We are currently on pace to deploy more capital in 2016 than in any other year in our history,” Josh Harris, who co-founded Apollo ...

  Bloomberg Bank of England Governor Mark Carney’s self-imposed deadline for declaring whether he will stay in office beyond 2018 is fast approaching, with British newspapers saying he could decide to step down as soon as next week. The 51-year old Canadian may announce his decision “within days,” the Times and Mail Online reported. A decision could come at his ...

  Bloomberg United Overseas Bank Ltd., (UOB) Southeast Asia’s third-largest lender, said third-quarter profit fell 7.8 percent from a year earlier, as the bank set aside higher provisions for soured loans to the struggling oil and gas industry. The shares fell. Net income fell to S$791 million ($567 million) in the three months to September from S$858 million a year earlier, ...