Bloomberg UBS Group AG’s investment banking business is set to have its best year advising on Middle Eastern deals in at least a decade as the firm’s new strategy in the region pays off. The bank is ranked first as an adviser on deals for Middle Eastern and African targets so far this year, according to data compiled by ...

  Frankfurt / AFP The European Central Bank’s easy-money policy has let eurozone governments delay key reforms, a German expert panel said on Wednesday, urging the Frankfurt institution to ease off the massive stimulus spending. “The extent of monetary easing in the euro area is no longer appropriate given the region’s economic recovery,” the German Council of Economic Experts said ...

  London / AFP Almost three quarters of British bankers believe London will still be the financial centre of Europe in five years’ time, despite risks surrounding Brexit, according to a study published Wednesday. US financial services firm Synechron, which carried out the research with the TABB Group, said it questioned 80 capital markets executives in banks based in Britain. ...

  Bloomberg Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp.’s Chief Executive Officer Samuel Tsien said surging compliance costs are one factor spurring him to expand his Asian wealth-management business, at a time when some overseas competitors are retreating. That’s because the rapidly expanding costs of complying with anti-money laundering, tax-compliance and other regulatory requirements — rising by 35 percent annually across the whole bank ...

  Bloomberg As crude prices continue to get dragged down by a global glut that shows no signs of abating, oil traders may find some profit by going to sea. The market structure for Brent crude, the benchmark for more than half the world’s oil, now makes it viable to store supplies in a vessel to potentially lock in profits ...

  RIYADH / Reuters Saudi Aramco expects oil prices to rebound in the first half of 2017 and for demand to remain healthy following two years of painfully low prices, the state-owned producer’s Chief Executive Officer Amin Nasser said. “The gap between supply and demand is closing … Our anticipation now is that it will be balanced by the first ...

  Bloomberg The OPEC countries claiming exemption from a deal to limit oil production increased output by almost half a million barrels last month, potentially jeopardizing the group’s agreement unless other members deepen their own cuts. Libya, Nigeria and Iran — granted special status after OPEC members reached a supply deal Sept. 28 in Algiers — pumped an extra 400,000 ...

  Bloomberg Egypt delayed the introduction of a capital gains tax on equities for three more years, as it tries to attract investors to help ease a hard currency crunch that’s hurting growth. Stocks rose. The postponement was included in a group of tax exemptions decreed by the Supreme Investment Council, the Presidency said in an e-mailed statement late on ...

  AFP Qatar said it expects “100 percent compliance” from businesses by the end of 2016 on a labour reform introduced to ensure the country’s vast migrant workforce receive their salaries on time. Government figures released in Doha on Wednesday to mark the one-year anniversary of the introduction of the Wage Protection System (WPS) show that 1.8 million — around ...

  Tokyo / AP Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held talks with Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday and pledged 40 billion yen ($390 million) in aid to back her government’s peace process with ethnic minorities, amid growing international concern about reported army attacks on a Muslim group. Abe told Suu Kyi that Japan fully supports her efforts at ...