January, 2017

• 16 January

  JPMorgan upgrades Indonesia, lifts call that riled Jakarta

  

    Bloomberg JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded its assessment of the Indonesian stock market, reversing an earlier bearish call that prompted Jakarta to stop doing business with the U.S. bank. The bank’s analysts raised their ‘tactical’ view of Indonesian equities one level to “neutral” in a report on Monday, saying volatility in emerging-market bonds following Donald Trump’s US election victory ...

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• 16 January

  Asia banks seek tech hires over ‘rock-star’ bankers this year

  

    Bloomberg Financial institutions in the Asia-Pacific region will be more inclined to hire technology specialists this year than investment bankers as they enhance product offerings and upgrade their systems, according to a survey by Options Group Inc. Among regional financial-services managers, 40 percent say they expect to increase their headcount for information technology-related roles this year, according to a ...

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• 16 January

  Bank Dhofar Q4 net profit falls 19.6%

    DUBAI / Reuters Oman’s Bank Dhofar, the second-largest lender in the sultanate by assets, posted a 19.6 percent fall in fourth-quarter net profit, according to Reuters calculations. The bank reports a net profit of 10.75 million rials ($27.95 million) in the three months to Dec. 31, compared to 13.37 million rials in the same period of 2015. Net loans ...

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• 16 January

  Bank Muscat posts $103.2mn profit in Q4

  

    DUBAI / Reuters Bank Muscat, Oman’s largest lender, posted a 1.3 percent increase in fourth-quarter net profit on Sunday, according to Reuters calculations, in line with analysts’ estimates. The bank made a profit of 39.7 million rials ($103.2 million) in the three-month period ending Dec. 31, up from 39.2 million rials a year earlier. Bank Muscat didn’t disclose a ...

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• 16 January

  CEO of Wallenbergs’ Bank to step down

  

    Dubai Annika Falkengren, the chief executive officer of SEB AB, will leave the Swedish bank after running it for 11 years. SEB, which was founded by Sweden’s Wallenberg family in 1856 to become Stockholm’s first private bank, will now start looking for a replacement for Falkengren, the board said in a statement on Monday. The 54-year-old, who will step ...

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• 16 January

  SocGen names Valet deputy CEO

    Bloomberg Societe Generale SA named Didier Valet as its third deputy chief executive officer, promoting its investment-banking head as the French bank prepares a new business plan. Valet, who turned 49 on Sunday, was appointed to the newly created position on Jan. 13. and will retain his role as head of corporate and investment banking, private banking, asset management ...

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• 16 January

  Nintendo takes big gamble with new Switch console

  

    Bloomberg Nintendo Co.’s new Switch gaming console won’t be in stores until March 3, but the machine is fully baked and ready to play. The press got a chance to try out the new machine at an event in Tokyo last week, and events will be held in Japan and North America to let people experience the product before ...

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• 16 January

  Microsoft’s Nadella calls for tech industry to open up AI

  

      WASHINGTON / AP Artificial intelligence is still in a “mainframe era” in which computing power is concentrated in a few companies’ hands, Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said in a presentation in Munich on Monday. The computer industry is “worshiping” technology companies that can simulate real-world processes using AI software, but to become more useful the ...

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• 16 January

  Cuba sees explosion in internet access

  

    HAVANA / AP Two days before Christmas, Luis Gonzalez received a little Chinese modem from Cuba’s state-owned telecommunications company. The 55-year-old theater producer connected the device to his phone and his laptop computer, which instantly lit up with a service unimaginable in the Cuba of just a few years ago — relatively fast home internet. “It’s really easy to ...

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• 16 January

  FB introduces measures to tackle fake news in Germany

    BERLIN / AP Facebook says it’s introducing measures to tackle the spread of fake news in Germany, months before the country holds a national election. The social network said on Sunday the investigative media group Correctiv will be its first outside fact-checker in Germany and it’s working to bring aboard other media organizations. It said updates to make it ...

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