Bloomberg India’s sovereign bonds dropped, reversing earlier gains, after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept interest rates unchanged as expected and lowered the proportion of deposits that lenders must invest in specified securities such as government notes. The benchmark repurchase rate was left at 6%, with five on the six-member monetary policy committee voting for no change. The outcome ...

ZURICH / Reuters The number of banks in Iran should at least halve over the next six years, with closures and mergers needed to modernise an industry laden with toxic loans, one of the country’s top bankers said on Tuesday. Parviz Aghili, chief executive of Middle East Bank, estimated at a conference in Zurich that a full re-organisation of the ...

RIYADH / Reuters The Saudi central bank has received three applications for banking licences and processing them is at an advanced stage, central bank governor Ahmed al-Kholifey told a news conference on Wednesday. Kholifey did not name the applicants. Another central bank official said no more bank mergers were expected. Alawwal Bank and Saudi British Bank agreed in April to ...