Banking

  Bloomberg Spanish lender Banco Popular’s plan to sell about €2.5 billion ($2.8 billion) of new shares has dealt a brutal lesson to investors trusting past efforts by regulators and management to clean up European bank balance sheets. The stock fell to a 26-year low after the offering was announced this week. The fact is that Banco Popular was supposed ...

  EMIRATES BUSINESS Saxo Bank, the online multi-asset trading and investment specialist, has announced a new white label partnership with Lufax, China’s largest internet finance company. The partnership, expected to launch within the next three months, will see Lufax leverage the trading technology that underpins the award-winning SaxoTraderGO — providing Lufax’s considerable client base with a seamless experience across mobile ...

  BLOOMBERG Barclays Plc’s credit-card chief wants his hands on Jes Staley’s freed-up capital. Amer Sajed, promoted to run Barclaycard in April, says he has the backing to expand in markets like Germany and the US from Staley. After joining the executive committee, the advocate for growth has a say in how the bank’s resources will be deployed. “I am ...

  Washington / AFP The hackers behind the $81 million heist from the Bangladesh central bank have likely been involved in a series of attacks on the financial system, a US security firm has concluded. Researchers at the security firm Symantec also found that the malware used in the bank hacks shares code with that used in the massive 2014 ...

  Bloomberg India’s peer-to-peer lenders are pushing back on central bank proposals to regulate the online platforms, arguing the new rules would hamper the development of an industry in its infancy. Firms such as Lendbox and LenDenClub argue that suggested rules in a Reserve Bank of India discussion paper last month treat them like banks with their own loan books, ...

  Bloomberg Mexico’s central bank has the ‘highest hope’ of keeping its rate decisions to scheduled meetings, Governor Agustin Carstens said, quieting market speculation of another surprise increase in borrowing costs. One-year interest-rate swaps fell. The recent peso depreciation has been driven by fundamentals and not by an attack from speculators like the one that took place in February when ...

  New YorK / AFP Citigroup and affiliates were fined $425 million over charges they attempted to manipulate Libor and other leading financial benchmarks, US regulators have announced. Citigroup, which was supposed to submit data on actual transactions to help set the internationally-used benchmarks, instead gave false information to benefit its trading positions, according to the cases. In one of ...

  Reuters GFH Financial Group plans to list its Bahraini subsidiary Khaleeji Commercial Bank in Dubai and acquire a financial services company to increase shareholder value, GFH’s chief executive said. “We are hoping to list Khaleeji Commercial Bank on DFM (Dubai Financial Market), which will help increase the value of the bank, and to offer fee-based financial services, helping to ...

  EMIRATES BUSINESS IDB Infrastructure Fund II, sponsored by the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and other institutional investors, has joined hands with AVIVO Group, one of the largest healthcare networks in the GCC, with 32 healthcare facilities. The IDB Infrastructure Fund II, with commitments of $750 million, invests in infrastructure opportunities across Asia, Middle East and Africa and it has ...

  Washington / AFP Struggling to make ends meet, millions of Americans resort to so-called payday loans whose costly charges can devastate personal finances. For the first time, the US government plans to implement a new rule that could limit the short-term, small-dollar loans that typically are due to be repaid on the borrower’s next payday. A proposed regulation is ...