Experts may be out of favour these days, but when it comes to reforming the euro zone, expert consensus is as important as political consensus. Most voters only understand the basic drift of such change; if experts agree on details, it can be reassuring. Luckily for political leaders, an expert consensus now exists: It’s laid out in a paper signed ...

Bloomberg UBS Group AG investors were left underwhelmed by the bank’s first share buyback since the credit crisis and rejigged financial targets. The stock declined the most since July after the Zurich-based bank downgraded a key profitability target, as well as paring back forecasts for its asset- management business and net new money at its combined wealth-management unit. The bank ...

Bloomberg The Central Bank of Nigeria won’t hold its rate-setting meeting scheduled for Monday and Tuesday because lawmakers have yet to approve monetary policy committee members, leaving the body unable to form a quorum. The bank will “maintain key monetary policy variables” at levels decided in November, Governor Godwin Emefiele said in an emailed statement, effectively leaving the key interest ...

Bloomberg When euro-area finance ministers launch the process to find a new European Central Bank vice president, they won’t be flooded with nominations. So far, only Spain has said it will put forward a candidate to replace Portugal’s Vitor Constancio, whose term expires at the end of May, with Finance Minister Luis de Guindos the most likely nominee. The meeting ...

DUBAI / Reuters National Bank of Kuwait (NBK), the Gulf Arab state’s largest commercial lender, reported a 5.4 percent rise in fourth-quarter net profit, in line with analysts’ forecasts, according to Reuters calculations. The bank made a net profit of 80.0 million dinars ($266.3 million) in the three months to December 31, compared with 75.9 million dinars a year earlier, ...

Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc and the US Justice Department, announcing last week that the bank would pay $100 million for front-running client currency orders, left one thing unstated — the name of a big client the bank’s traders defrauded. That unidentified victim was London-based insurer Prudential Plc, according to court records and testimony in a related case and a person ...

MUSCAT / Reuters Global oil producers are in agreement that they should continue cooperating on production after their deal on supply cuts expires at the end of this year, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister Khalid Al-Falih said on Sunday. It was the first time Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, had publicly stated OPEC and non-OPEC producers would keep cooperating ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM Abu Dhabi Ship Building (ADSB) partnered with Rolls-Royce to lay the groundwork for the provision of enhanced naval shipbuilding, repair and refit services across the GCC. Dr Khaled Al Mazrouei, CEO of ADSB, and Leo Pantazopoulos, Rolls-Royce’s Senior Vice President, Asia & Middle East, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will see the companies move ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM In yet a new bid to help drive the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) across the UAE, Oracle announced the opening of a first-of-its-kind Innovation Hub in Dubai. As the nation celebrates the centennial of the birth of late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan with the ‘Year of Zayed’ initiative, Oracle has named the new ...

DUBAI / Emirates Business Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $3.7 trillion in 2018, an increase of 4.5 percent from 2017, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc. “Global IT spending growth began to turn around in 2017, with continued growth expected over the next few years. However, uncertainty looms as organizations consider the potential impacts of Brexit, ...