Banking

Stockholm / AFP Sweden’s central bank on Thursday cut its key interest rate by 15 basis points to a new all-time low of -0.5 percent, citing the risk of slowing inflation and falling confidence in its monetary policy. The bank moved its key rate into negative territory in February 2015 in a bid to encourage spending amid three years of ...

Bloomberg International Islamic Liquidity Management Corp., which counts nine central banks as its shareholders, plans to sell $1.34 billion of three-month bills in its biggest offer since being set up in 2010 to support Shariah-compliant financial activity. The Kuala Lumpur-based institution, which added two more primary dealers to its existing network of nine last week, will auction the Islamic notes ...

Bloomberg The Azeri central bank said the job of overhauling the financial industry is almost done after shuttering every seventh lender in the country in 15 days and pushing several others to merge. “The process of restructuring the banking sector has mostly been completed,” Namiq Aliyev, head of the central bank’s press service, said Thursday in an e-mailed response to ...

Bloomberg When European regulators created a new type of bank debt, the idea was to transfer risk from taxpayers to investors. Now bondholders are learning what that really means. Yield-starved investors bought $102 billion of the contingent convertible bonds, securities created to help troubled banks hang onto cash in times of stress by skipping coupon payments without defaulting and converting ...

There’s been endless speculation in recent weeks about whether the US, and the whole world for that matter, are about to sink into recession. Underpinning much of the angst is an unprecedented $29 trillion corporate bond binge that has left many companies more indebted than ever.Whether this debt overhang proves to be a catalyst for recession or not, one thing ...

Kuala Lumpur / EMIRATES BUSINESS Islamic finance is complementary to and a major enabler of making responsible investing more ubiquitous across emerging markets – and Asia is leading the way – but integrated reporting and governance remains gap for many investors. To attract long-term capital, many companies in Asia are becoming more aware of how investors integrate Environmental, Social & ...

Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business FGB, one of the leading banks in the UAE, achieved a record Group net profit of AED 6.01 billion for the full year 2015. Total income for the year grew by 6 percent, marking the 16th consecutive year of consistent growth in profitability for FGB. Full year 2015 Earnings Per Share amounted to AED 1.32, ...

Beijing / AFP China is struggling to reconcile its push for economic reforms and a freely traded currency with curbing massive outflows of capital sparked by worries over its slowing economy — and a lack of communication is fuelling fear. The thorny problem represents the so-called “impossible trinity”, as China’s ruling Communist Party seeks to control the exchange rate and ...

Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business Abu Dhabi Financial Group (“ADFG”), the multi-billion dollar alternative investment firm, has been recognised at the MENA Fund Manager Awards 2016 winning the accolade for UAE Asset Manager of the Year. The team, represented by ADFG’s Chief Operating Officer, Mustafa Kheriba, received the honour and said, “It is an honour to receive the award for ...

Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC (“ADCB” or the “Bank”) has reported its financial results for the year ended December 31, 2015. Delivering strong performance and long-term value for shareholders ADCB has reported record level of net profit despite a challenging business environment As a result of the record performance in 2015, the bank has recommended ...