Banking

  Reuters Bank Muscat, Oman’s largest lender, posted a 1.1 percent increase in first-quarter net profit on Thursday, according to a bourse statement, on the back of rising income from loans, fees and commission. The bank made a profit of 43.8 million rials ($113.8 million) in the three-month period ending on March 31, up from 43.3 million rials a year ...

  Reuters Saudi Hollandi Bank, Saudi Arabia’s oldest lender, posted a 5.1 percent fall in first-quarter net profit on Thursday as income from trading, fees and commissions dipped. The lender made a profit of 511.5 million riyals ($136.5 million) in the three months to end-March, down from 538.9 million riyals in the corresponding quarter of 2015, according to a bourse ...

  Reuters Britain’s Legal & General Group PLC and Swiss Re AG are among firms said to be weighing bids for Deutsche Bank AG’s Abbey Life Assurance Co, sources familiar with the matter said. In September, it was reported that the German lender was exploring the possible sale of its British insurance unit Abbey Life. Phoenix Group Holdings, Britain’s largest ...

  Washington / AFP The World Bank and the new China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), originally seen as possible rivals, joined hands with an agreement to co-finance projects. The two development banks signed off on a framework for working together on infrastructure programmes over the coming year which will give the World Bank some crucial oversight on how projects are ...

  Bloomberg JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and three other major US banks failed to persuade regulators they could go bankrupt without disrupting the financial system and could now face a tighter leash from Washington after government agencies used one of the most significant post-crisis powers bestowed under the Dodd-Frank Act. The banks—also including Wells Fargo & ...

  Bloomberg The challenges that led to the collapse of Chase Bank Kenya Ltd. are isolated and don’t indicate an unstable lending industry or pose a systemic risk, according to the East African nation’s main banking lobby group. Chase Bank, which was placed under receivership on April 7, was the third small-sized lender in nine months to go into statutory ...

  Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG, Europe’s biggest investment bank, hired James Boyle from Citigroup Inc. as global co-head of its equity-derivatives business following a slump in the unit’s sales, according to two people familiar with the decision. Boyle, who is based in Hong Kong, will also be head of equities for the Asia Pacific region, said the people, who asked ...

  Bloomberg An agreement between Italian officials and bank executives to create a multibillion-euro fund to offload bad loans is a step in the right direction, say analysts, but the pact may not be enough to reassure investors that the pain for Italy’s troubled banking sector is over. Banks, insurers and institutional investors agreed to create a vehicle named Atlante ...

  Bloomberg The Bank of England will take responsibility for a U.K. benchmark measure of overnight funding rates as officials seek to prevent a recurrence of the rigging scandals since the global financial crisis. The BOE will provide oversight and governance for the Sterling Overnight Index Average, or Sonia, from April 25, it said in a statement released Wednesday. The ...

  Bloomberg The business of trading stocks has claimed another scalp this year. Nomura is shuttering its equities division in Europe, hot on the heels of Barclays’ pullback from Asian equities. The Japanese bank hadn’t cracked the top 10 list in Europe, and Barclays had failed to do the same in Asia. They won’t be the last to scale back ...