Banking

  London / AFP Britain’s state-rescued Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) said net losses more than doubled in the first quarter owing to an exceptional payment back to the government. Losses after tax in the first three months of the year stood at £968 million ($1.4 billion, 1.2 billion euros), which compared with a net loss of £459 million in ...

  CAIRO / Reuters Egypt’s Commercial International Bank (CIB) approved a two-week extension for an offer by Beltone Financial to acquire its subsidiary CI Capital, CI Capital’s Chief Executive Officer Mahmoud Atalla told reporters. “CIB approved Beltone’s request to extend the period of the offer to acquire CI Capital by two weeks, ending on May 12,” Atalla said. In February, ...

  CAIRO / Reuters Egypt’s central bank kept its key interest rates unchanged in its first decision since it raised rates by 150 basis points last month. The bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) kept the overnight deposit rate at 10.75 percent and the overnight lending rate at 11.75 percent, it said in a statement. Egypt has been struggling to restore economic ...

  Bloomberg ICICI Bank Ltd., India’s second-largest lender by assets, reported the biggest drop in quarterly profit in at least 15 years after setting aside reserves on top of bad-loan provisions to cushion future defaults. Net income fell 76 percent to 7 billion rupees ($105 million), or 1.2 rupees a share, for the three months ended March 31, from 29.2 ...

  Reuters Saudi Arabia’s central bank, which serves as the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, reported a fall of $6 billion in net foreign assets in March as low oil prices took their toll. Net foreign assets held by the central bank dropped by 1.0 percent from the previous month to 2.17 trillion riyals ($579 billion) in March, central bank data ...

  WASHINGTON / AP When the Federal Reserve chose not to raise its key interest rate, it nevertheless made clear that its next move will be another increase. That stance puts it at odds with other major central banks, which are doing the reverse — seeking to ease credit to spur lending. That policy divergence could pose risks for the ...

  Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG was the best performer among European lenders after reporting a surprise profit in the first quarter as legal expenses dropped and trading businesses performed better than analysts forecast. Net income declined to 214 million euros from 544 million euros in the year-earlier period, the company said in a statement on Thursday. Analysts had forecast a ...

  Tokyo / AFP Bank of Japan (BOJ) shocked markets on Thursday as it held fire on fresh stimulus measures, sparking questions about whether there is anything left in its policy arsenal to kickstart a sliding economy. Dealers were caught off guard by the decision, which sent the yen skyrocketing, especially after another set of weak economic data in the ...

  Bloomberg EFG International AG, in its second deal this year, has agreed to buy the Luxembourg-based private banking activities of UBI Banca International SA with 3.6 billion euros ($4.1 billion) of client assets. EFG earlier agreed to buy BSI from Brazil’s Grupo BTG Pactual SA in a bid to become Switzerland’s fifth-largest private bank. EFG didn’t disclose the price ...

  Reuters Citigroup has dropped out of the group of banks providing a $1.5 billion bridge loan to Gulf-based Adeptio for its planned purchase of a majority stake in Kuwait Food Co (Americana), three sources aware of the matter said on Thursday. The US bank failed to secure internal approval to participate in the deal, with two of the sources ...