Banking

  AFP The European Central Bank (ECB) may be forced to bolster its monetary stimulus programmes if governments fail to act to boost their economies, board member Benoit Coeure said on Tuesday. “If there is not much taking place on the structural reform front, if there’s not much taking place on the fiscal policy front… then the ECB will do ...

  AFP World Bank chief Jim Yong Kim will seek a second term of office, the global development lender said as it announced the start of a selection process for the presidency. Kim’s bid to remain as president comes in the face a rare public rebuke from the Bank’s rank-and-file, who earlier this month declared that the institution faced a ...

  Bloomberg Bank of Montreal, Canada’s fourth-largest lender, posted earnings that beat analysts’ estimates as US banking and capital markets trading revenue rose. Net income for the period ended July 31 climbed 4.4 percent to C$1.25 billion ($964 million), or C$1.86 a share, from C$1.19 billion, or C$1.80, a year earlier, the Toronto-based bank said in a statement on Tuesday. ...

  Emirates Business Saxo Bank, the online investment and trading specialist, announces on Sunday two senior appointments as it continues to grow and invest in its retail and institutional functions across the Middle East, reflecting the region’s importance as a growth hub for both Saxo’s retail and institutional business. Mario Camara has joined the company as Head of Saxo Dubai. An ...

  Emirates Business RAKBANK on Sunday launched – “Home in One” – a first of its kind Home Loan facility in the GCC that not only offers customers competitive interest rates that start at 3.49% per year, but also helps them pay off their mortgage loan much sooner. Home in One is a Combo product that brings together a customer’s ...

  AFP Turkey’s central bank on Tuesday cut its main interest rate by 25 basis points, defying a sharp jump in inflation following the failed July 15 coup. The central bank said the overnight lending rate was trimmed to 8.5 percent from 8.75 percent and its one-week repurchasing rate remained stable at 7.5 percent. The overnight borrowing rate also remained ...

  Bloomberg Eight years after the financial crisis, Europe’s biggest investment banks are holding illiquid assets amounting to more than half their combined shareholders’ equity, underlining concerns about capital. Deutsche Bank AG, Credit Suisse Group AG and Barclays Plc say their hardest-to-value securities — known as Level 3 assets — were worth $102.5 billion at the end of June. These ...

  Bloomberg Here’s an irony: US regulators looking to avoid bailouts of too-big-to-fail banks have passed so many rules that regional and local lenders are combining to stomach the costs. The result: Banks are bulking up. Mergers and acquisitions by US banks surged last year to about $18 billion, the highest level since 2009. This year, firms are set to ...

  Bloomberg Brazilian banks are charging more for everything from checkbooks to credit cards to help cover losses on bad loans, pushing the gap between bank-service fees and the nation’s inflation rate to the highest in more than four years. Prices for bank services, which have been rising faster than the benchmark inflation rate since August 2015, climbed 11.5 percent ...

  Bloomberg Nomura Holdings Inc. plans to hire bankers in the US, resuming a push to boost investment-banking business in a market that remains a priority for Japan’s biggest brokerage following a round of cost cuts. The Tokyo-based firm anticipates rising volumes of mergers and stock offerings in the U.S., said Chief Operating Officer Tetsu Ozaki, who is seeking bankers ...