Bloomberg Mark Carney is calling for greater regulation to bring the era of cryptocurrency “anarchy” to an end. “The time has come to hold the crypto-asset ecosystem to the same standards as the rest of the financial system,” the Bank of England governor said in a speech at Bloomberg’s European headquarters in London. Carney, who is also head of the ...

DUBAI / Reuters Saudi Arabia’s planned $16 billion syndicated loan, one of the largest ever in emerging markets, will cut the kingdom’s cost of funding by paying banks much less than on previous borrowings. The ministry of finance said on Twitter that it would offer banks a margin of 75 basis points over the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) for ...

Bloomberg Who’s afraid of Jerome Powell? Not emerging markets. Stocks, bonds and currencies in developing nations did tumble with global markets after the US Federal Reserve chairman’s comments this week spurred bets for four interest-rate increases in 2018. Conventional wisdom holds that the quick increase in borrowing costs will diminish risk appetite and end a two-year rally in emerging-market assets. ...

Bloomberg If you ask stock strategists, European banks are no longer a unanimous buy. Deutsche Bank AG lowered its recommendation on lenders to underweight, citing weaker economic momentum and falling German bond yields. The downgrade comes two weeks after a strategist at HSBC Holdings Plc said the bank has been cutting its position on European financials, predicting US 10-year Treasury ...

Bloomberg The Bank of Baroda’s South African unit has been in possession of the “proceeds of crime” linked to a dairy farm project that involved the politically connected Gupta family, said Thato Ntimutse, a lawyer for the National Prosecuting Authority’s Asset Forfeiture Unit. While India’s Bank of Baroda has tried to stop the state from freezing 30 million rand ($2.5 ...

Bloomberg Airline industry experts have been proclaiming the death of first class for years. While some airlines have done away with it altogether, others are doubling down with palatial suite-style seats, lavish amenities, and services that pamper, both on the ground and in the air. What’s ensued is a golden age of flying … for those who can afford it. ...

DUBAI / WAM The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) awarded an AED871 million contract for the construction of a 40 million imperial gallons per day (MIGD), Seawater Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) based desalination plant in Jebel Ali, to a joint venture comprising ACCIONA Agua S A and Belhasa Six Construct (BeSIX). This new SWRO plant is being developed as a ...

ABU DHABI / WAM Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy, will chair the UAE’s delegation to the UAE-Japan’s Strategic Business Forum, which will be held in Tokyo on March 6 and 7. Abdullah Al Saleh, Under-Secretary for Foreign Trade at the ministry, said the meeting falls within the context of UAE’s efforts to increase its presence in global ...

DUBAI / WAM The Federal Tax Authority (FTA) has clarified the criteria that determine whether it is the supplier or end-consumer that bears the cost of the VAT on goods and services set to be delivered fully or partially in 2018, but had been contracted before the implementation of VAT. In a statement, the Federal Tax Authority clarified that according ...

GENEVA / WAM The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has joined a chorus of international actors in calling for respecting a truce in Syria’s eastern Ghouta and affirmed that the Syrian people had experienced brutal confrontations and systematic targeting and could not tolerate another bloody chapter. Obaid Salem Al Zaabi, Permanent Representative of the UAE to United Nations and other International ...