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Tokyo / Reuters Global banking regulators will avoid forcing banks to set aside money to cover the risk of higher interest rates, two people with direct knowledge of their deliberations said, easing concerns among some banks about the potentially high costs of holding government bonds and long-term loans. The Basel Committee, a body of banking supervisors from nearly 30 countries, ...

Bloomberg State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender, announced loan rates based on marginal cost of funds as the nation’s central bank pushes for faster pass-through of cuts in its borrowing benchmark. The Mumbai-based bank set charges for seven maturities, varying from 8.95 percent for overnight lending to 9.35 percent for three years, a statement posted Monday on its ...

Bloomberg Banque International Pour l’Afrique au Congo (BIAC) limited cash withdrawals after a rearrangement of credit lines from the central bank in the Democratic Republic of Congo forced the lender to shut its branches last week. BIAC, as the bank is known, negotiated an emergency credit line with the Banque Centrale du Congo of as much as 16 billion Congolese ...

Frankfurt / AFP The German central bank, or Bundesbank, is worried that private savers may soon face negative interest rates on their bank accounts, board member Andreas Dombret warned in an interview. “The banks and savings banks I speak to want to do everything to avoid that,” Dombret told Der Spiegel news magazine in its online edition. “But the longer ...

Bloomberg PT Bank Mandiri, Indonesia’s largest bank by assets, will tackle rising bad loans as its top priority this year while setting a longer-term target to expand business abroad, said new Chief Executive Officer Kartika Wirjoatmodjo. Non-performing loans will peak at around 3.5 percent of total credit this year, up from last year’s 2.5 percent, Wirjoatmodjo said in an interview ...

Bloomberg U.K. mortgage approvals fell less than expected in February, a sign that demand for housing remained resilient before tax changes take effect in April. Banks advanced 73,871 loans, compared with 74,085 in January, which was the highest level in two years, the Bank of England said in London on Thursday. While this was the first fall in five months, ...

DUBAI / Reuters Kuwait Projects Co (KIPCO), the Gulf state’s largest investment company, expects revenue growth to pick up this year, helped by its core investments in banking, insurance, broadcasting and real estate, it said on March 30. Vice chairman Faisal al-Ayyar said in a statement the company expected revenues to rise by a high single-digit percentage in 2016. That ...

AMMAN / EMIRATES BUSINESS Following the debut of its dedicated on-site sales centre and residential mock-up units, Saraya Aqaba has announced the official launch of sales for the project’s idyllic residences. The launch of residential sales was underscored by the debut of Saraya Aqaba’s new marketing campaign, and was celebrated during a stylish cocktail event that welcomed an array of ...

RIYADH / REUTERS Australia’s largest privately owned hotel management company StayWell Hospitality Group (SWHG) On March 29 announced the signing of a management agreement to open and operate the company’s first Park Regis properties in Makkah Saudi Arabia. Expected to open in the second quarter of 2018, the remarkable two hotels boast 286 and 344 guest rooms respectively (630 rooms ...

Bloomberg Han Fantong, an accountant, beat almost 60 other bidders to buy a three-bedroom home in Melbourne in November for A$930,000 ($709,000). He had an advantage — full funding from his parents back in China. Han, 32, an Australian permanent resident, bought the house on 688 square meters of land in Ringwood East, about 30 kilometers east of Melbourne’s business ...