BLOOMBERG  HSBC Holdings Plc said rising interest rates have put a deal to sell its French retail banking business into question, a potential blow to its plans to streamline its global operations. The UK lender said in a statement that “significant, unexpected interest rate rises in France” since it signed a memorandum of understanding with Cerberus’s My Money Bank in ...

BLOOMBERG  Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) topped JPMorgan Chase & Co last year to become the world’s largest backer of fossil-fuel companies, providing more fodder to critics who say the lender isn’t living up to its climate commitments. Royal Bank provided $42.1 billion of funding to the industry, up 4.2% from a year earlier, surpassing the $39.2 billion provided by ...

BLOOMBERG  JPMorgan Chase & Co surged the most in almost 11 months after boosting its guidance for net interest income (NII) and reporting an unexpected increase in deposits. NII soared 49% in the first quarter, a bigger jump than analysts expected, and the bank said it now expects the figure to clock in at about $81 billion for this year. ...

BLOOMBERG  Strength in the euro is emboldening Citigroup Inc strategists to boost their bullish call on emerging-market currencies. The euro area’s brightening outlook and the likelihood of a shallow US recession suggest a “lack of catalysts” for a stronger dollar, the Citigroup team including Dirk Willer and Luis Costa said in a report. The euro climbed to its highest level ...

BLOOMBERG  China’s megabanks are planning at least 40 billion yuan ($5.8 billion) of bond sales, kicking off a major funding push to comply with global capital requirements by early 2025. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC) and its three closest rivals are planning to tap domestic debt markets to sell a new category of total loss-absorbing capacity (TLAC) bonds ...

DUBAI / WAM His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has issued Law No. (9) of 2023 regulating the operations of autonomous vehicles in Dubai. The new law aims to accelerate Dubai’s smart mobility transformation, attract investments in the sector and provide a regulatory environment that facilitates ...

DUBAI / WAM A total of 2,709 real estate transactions worth AED11.6 billion were conducted during the week ending on April 14, according to figures released by the Dubai Land Department (DLD). The DLD report showed that 226 plots were sold for AED5.76 billion, 2,020 apartments and villas were sold for AED4.43 billion. The top three transactions were an AED3.87 ...

DUBAI / WAM Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) accompanied a high-level delegation from the World Hydrogen Mena on a tour of its Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, the largest single-site solar park in the world using the Independent Power Producer (IPP) model, which will have a production capacity of 5,000 megawatts (MW) by 2030. The visiting delegation ...

ABU DHABI / WAM The Universities Climate Network (UCN), a network of universities and higher education institutions in the UAE chaired by NYU Abu Dhabi, has been launched to encourage youth engagement in the country in the lead up to COP28, the UN Climate Conference to be held later this year in Dubai. The UCN is comprised of 12 UAE-based ...

WASHINGTON / WAM Mohamed Hadi Al Hussaini, Minister of State for Financial Affairs, led the UAE delegation to the Second Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) meeting of the Finance Track of the G20 for 2023, which was held on the sidelines of the 2023 Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group (WBG) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) ...