Banking

  Reuters Qatar’s Ahli Bank has started talks to raise a $250 million three-year loan, banking sources maintained. The loan will be partially used to refinance an existing $200 million facility the bank signed in September 2014 and is due to mature next year, two of the sources said on condition of anonymity as the negotiations are private. One of ...

  Reuters Kuwait’s Boubyan Bank is aiming to sell $250 million in capital-boosting sukuk after releasing initial pricing thoughts for the issue, a document from lead managers said. The deal, structured with a perpetual tenor and with an option for the bank to redeem the paper after the fifth year, is earmarked to price in the very low 7 percent ...

Bloomberg Nordea Bank AB will cut more jobs as Scandinavia’s largest lender looks for ways to lower its cost-to-income ratio by about one-fifth. “Over time the headcount will be lower,” Chief Executive Officer Casper von Koskull said in an interview at Nordea’s headquarters in Stockholm. “A best-in-class retail bank operates today with a cost-to-income ratio in the low 40s. Surely ...

  Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Asset Management is seeking to profit from the relative value of the world’s major currencies after trimming bets the dollar would climb versus the euro and yen. While the Federal Reserve will probably increase interest rates by another 25 basis points later in the year, any disappointment around US employment data could delay the next move ...

  Bloomberg Questions have been raised over new Bank of Japan Board member Makoto Sakurai’s credentials this week by a weekly magazine Shukan Post, saying that there was no record of him submitting a thesis or graduating with a PhD. The central bank’s website describes Sakurai, 69, as having “completed a PhD programme in Economics.” While some readers could take ...

  BLOOMBERG Saudi Arabia named HSBC Holdings Plc Middle East and North Africa Chief Executive Officer Mohammad Al Tuwaijri deputy minister of economy and planning as part of a government shakeup that also ushered in a new central banker and oil minister. Al Tuwaijri, regional CEO of the London-based bank since October 2013, takes on the role immediately and reports ...

  Washington / AFP Seven big banks, including Bank of America, JP Morgan, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, have agreed to pay a total of $324 million to settle a lawsuit accusing them of market manipulation of interest rates. The settlement last week followed a federal judge’s ruling in March admitting the class action lawsuit brought by investors and pension ...

  Bloomberg Commonwealth Bank of Australia posted a 4.5 percent increase in quarterly profit and joined its main competitors in reporting higher charges for bad and doubtful debts. Unaudited cash profit, which excludes one-time items, for the three months ended on March 31 was A$2.3 billion ($1.7 billion) from A$2.2 billion reported a year earlier, the Sydney-based lender said in ...

  Bloomberg Singapore’s biggest banks are in talks about setting up a system for sharing information on prospective clients, in an effort to combat money laundering in the city-state. DBS Group Holdings Ltd., Oversea-Chinese Bank Corp. and United Overseas Bank Ltd. are exploring the possibility of a countrywide model for anti-money laundering and enhanced client knowledge, according to Loretta Yuen, ...

  Reuters New Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) Governor Ahmed al-Kholifey said his main priority is to maintain monetary stability and support the government’s Vision 2030 economic reforms, Al Sharq Al Awsat newspaper reported on Sunday. Kholifey was appointed on Saturday in succession to Fahd al-Mubarak. Saudi Arabia’s King Salman on Saturday appointed Ahmed al-Kholifey Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority Governor, ...