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BANGKOK / Bloomberg Thai Airways International Pcl will continue to ground 10 Airbus A340s it hasn’t been able to sell because flying the four-engine planes isn’t worth it, even after fuel prices plunged more than 40 percent in the past year. “The fuel consumption is so uneconomical,” Thai Airways International President Charamporn Jotikasthira said in an interview in Bangkok. “All ...

Washington / Bloomberg It’s Valentine’s Day today, and Americans will buy $1.1 billion of confectionery to mark the occasion, according to data from the Washington-based National Confectioners Association. That’s up 2.6 percent from last year and the most since at least 2011. About three-quarters of that will be chocolate. The volume of US retail chocolate sales is expected to drop ...

Bloomberg Trading volumes in the credit-default swaps market — where banks and fund managers go to hedge against losses on corporate and government debt — have surged. Transactions tied to individual entities doubled in the four weeks ended Feb. 5 to a daily average of $12 billion, according to a JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysis of trade repository data. The ...

Dubai / Emirates Business Emirates NBD , has been awarded the Human Resource Development Award in the banking and financial sector by EIBFS (Emirates Institute of Banking and Financial Studies) in recognition of its commitment to Emiratisation. The award was presented by H.H. Dr. Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi to Husam Al Sayed General Manager HR, Emirates NBD. This ...

Nanama / Emirates Business A new report by KPMG has revealed that Bahrain enjoys some of the region’s lowest operating costs for financial services institutions. The report covered the average costs of a range of factors including commercial rental rates, occupancy cost, manpower cost, communication and utility expenses, in addition to the average cost of living. Financial sub-sectors that require ...

Manama / Emirates Business Khaleeji Commercial Bank (KHCB), one of Bahrain’s leading Islamic retail bank, formally inaugurated the opening of a new branch located in Juffair Mall, Juffair. With the launch of the new branch the Bank now has a network of 11 branches in the Kingdom of Bahrain from which to deliver its innovative banking products and services. The ...

Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business Al Hilal Bank is pleased to announce the dividend payout of its flagship fund, the Al Hilal Global Sukuk Fund. The Fund, which was launched in March 2012, distributed a 1.78% dividend to all registered unit holders as of January 27, 2016. Al Hilal Global Sukuk Fund’s objective is to generate a regular stream of ...

Bloomberg Zuercher Kantonalbank, Switzerland’s fourth- biggest bank, said it’s considering acquisitions in the country’s shrinking private banking sector as smaller rivals struggle with rising costs and negative interest rates. “Domestic private banking is interesting if it offers a certain size and is a good fit,” Martin Scholl, ZKB’s chief executive officer, said in an interview Friday. He said ZKB is ...

BLOOMBERG Bank of America Corp. (BoA) awarded Chief Executive Officer Brian T. Moynihan $16 million for his work last year, raising his potential compensation 23 percent. Moynihan received $14.5 million in stock grants for 2015 and left his salary unchanged at $1.5 million, according to a regulatory filing Friday. A year earlier, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank gave the CEO ...

RITIKA SHARMA / EMIRATES BUSINESS Abu Dhabi pavilion coordinated by the Abu Dhabi Convention Bureau (ADCB), a division of Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi) – was one of the focal points at the recently-held 10th anniversary edition of ibtm arabia in the Emirates capital. ibtm arabia, which is the region’s one of the most-regarded meetings, incentives, ...