Banking

Bloomberg Standard Bank Group Ltd., Africa’s largest lender by assets, said it expects to report that 2015 profit increased by as much as 35 percent because of reduced losses at its international operations. Earnings per share excluding one-time items will range from 13.52 rand ($0.89) to 14.60 rand a share from 10.81 rand in 2014 when using international financial reporting ...

Bloomberg Curtis Arledge, a vice chairman of Bank of New York Mellon Corp. and chief executive officer of its investment-management unit, is leaving to pursue other opportunities. Mitchell Harris, 61, will replace Arledge in the CEO position, effective immediately, New York-based BNY Mellon said Tuesday in a statement. Harris, who already oversaw the day-to-day management of the company’s investment businesses ...

Bloomberg Bank of Montreal posted fiscal first-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates as contributions from its purchase of General Electric Co.’s transportation-finance business added to U.S. earnings. Net income for the period ended Jan. 31 climbed 6.8 percent to C$1.07 billion ($778 million), or C$1.58 a share, from C$1 billion, or C$1.46, a year earlier, Canada’s fourth-largest lender by assets ...

BLOOMBERG Canada’s central bank appointed Sylvain Leduc, a researcher at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, to the group of policy makers that sets interest rates. Montreal-born Leduc replaces Agathe Côté, who retired at the end of January, on the Bank of Canada Governing Council, according to a statement Tuesday from Ottawa. Leduc is “a renowned and prolific researcher” ...

Hong Kong / AP Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered said on Tuesday it swung to a surprise $2.36 billion net loss in 2015 against a backdrop of global market volatility, restructuring costs and bad loans. Chairman John Peace described the performance as “poor” in what he called a watershed year, which saw the company announce it would axe 15,000 jobs under ...

Riyadh / Emirates Business As high as 38 percent of KSA respondents would recommend their bank as a first choice to friends or colleagues according to the first ever NPS Survey conducted in the Kingdom by Souqalmal.com , KSA’s #1 financial comparison website. Respondents were asked to evaluate various aspects of the overall banking experience. The parameters covered customer service, ...

Frankfurt / AP Deutsche Bank says it has completed a buyback of euro-denominated bonds aimed at demonstrating its financial strength after violent swings in the bank’s share price. The bank said investors had offered to sell only 1.75 billion euros ($1.92 billion) worth of bonds under the bank’s bid to repurchase 3 billion euros of them. Of that, Deutsche Bank ...

Jeddah / Emirates Business The International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), a member of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group, signed a US$75 million Syndicated Murabaha Financing agreement on Sunday, with the Government of Senegal, with Suneor (the major player in the Senegalese groundnut sector) as Executing Agency. . The signing ceremony took place at the headquarters of the ITFC ...

Colombo / AFP The Asian Development Bank on Tuesday announced over $2.0 billion in loans and equity to Sri Lanka, which is in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout. ADB president Takehiko Nakao said the money would be used to finance expressways, railways, power generation and education. It covers 2016 through 2018 and compares with $1.5 billion ...

Manama / Emirates Business The 5th Euromoney GCC Financial Forum, co-hosted by Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB), kicked off on Tuesday on a high note at Four Seasons Hotel, Kingdom of Bahrain, with an interactive format to encourage delegate participation. More than 500 leading international and regional financial experts from finance, investment, government, regulatory organisations, businesses and members of the ...