PARIS / Bloomberg With some of their European rivals including Deutsche Bank AG still reeling from full-year losses, French banks entered a tumultuous 2016 with the strongest earnings in almost a decade and pledged to reward shareholders with higher dividends. Their resolve is about to be put to the test. In France, a focus on consumer lending has helped shield lenders …

New Delhi / BLOOMBERG State Bank of India (SBI) shares surged the most in more than five years, leading a rally in the nation’s lenders after the central bank eased rules allowing them to bolster capital ratios. SBI, the nation’s largest lender by assets, jumped as much as 11 percent, the biggest intraday gain since June 2010, and traded 8.9 …

Cape Town / Bloomberg Nedbank Group Ltd., the South African lender controlled by Old Mutual Plc, said full-year profit gained 9.4 percent after the retail unit boosted customer numbers and the bank controlled costs. Net income rose to 10.72 billion rand ($688 million), from 9.8 billion rand in 2014, the Johannesburg-based company said in a statement on Wednesday. Earnings per …