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 …

Bloomberg Ghana’s banks face a daunting race to meet new capital rules by the end of next year. Lenders will need to raise 9 billion cedis ($2 billion), which the local equity and debt market is too small to supply, according to George Bodo, the head of banking research at Ecobank Capital Ltd. in Nairobi, Kenya. While it may trigger …