Bloomberg Standard Chartered Plc is closing about half its Nigerian branches in a pivot to digital banking, according to people familiar with the matter, as the finance industry comes under pressure from mobile money providers. The London-listed lender’s local unit has already started to shut some offices and will eventually operate only 13 branches in the West African nation, …

  Bloomberg The Philippines’ central bank is unlikely to increase policy rates in the first half of this year as it waits for the economic recovery to become entrenched and unemployment to fall, according to central bank Governor Benjamin Diokno. “After the performance in the first two quarters of the year, that’s when we seriously look at whether we will …

  Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc has hired Omar Siddiq from CIMB Group Holdings Bhd. to head its Malaysian unit, the bank said in a statement on Wednesday The announcement confirmed an earlier report by Bloomberg News, which cited people with knowledge of the matter, that the head of CIMB Group’s wholesale banking division and deputy chief executive officer of CIMB’s …