Bloomberg Raila Odinga, who narrowly lost Kenya’s August 9 presidential elections, filed a lawsuit challenging the outcome after alleging that the process had been marred by rigging and counting irregularities. None of the candidates garnered the outright majority of valid votes cast needed for victory, according to a 72-page petition filed with the Supreme Court. Based on this and ...
Read More »Serbian leader vows to keep up Kosovo talks before ID deadline
Bloomberg Serbia will negotiate with Kosovo over the next 10 days to try to resolve a dispute affecting tens of thousands of local Serbs who face a September 1 deadline to change their identity cards and car plates. Kosovo’s demand that members of the Serb minority adopt documents issued by the predominantly ethnic-Albanian government in Pristina triggered tensions last ...
Read More »Trump search judge cites ‘historical interest’ in affidavit
Bloomberg The judge who approved the search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate said “intense public and historical interest†in the FBI affidavit backing the warrant justified making an effort to unseal portions of it. US Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart in West Palm Beach, Florida, issued a written order Monday affirming his finding from a hearing last week ...
Read More »Citigroup struggled to monitor UK traders reaping $3.1 billion
Bloomberg In 2017, after Citigroup Inc had paid billions of dollars in fines for rigging interest rates, manipulating currency markets and selling shoddy mortgage bonds, the Wall Street giant was still struggling to keep tabs on traders in London. Managers overseeing Citigroup’s European trading hub had hundreds of blind spots, allowing for potentially abusive transactions to go unnoticed in ...
Read More »India RBI staff warns against rushed sale of state-run banks
Bloomberg Rushing to sell Indian state-run lenders to private investors may hinder the government’s financial inclusion efforts and monetary policy transmission, staff at the country’s central bank warned. “A big bang approach of privatization of these banks may do more harm than good,†wrote staff including, Snehal Herwadkar, in a research paper. The report recommended a gradual approach to ...
Read More »ECB to limit interest-rate hikes to 2022 only: HSBC
Bloomberg The European Central Bank (ECB) will stop hiking interest rates after the end of 2022, when a euro-area recession and easing price pressures will restrain monetary-policy tightening, according to HSBC. Cuts to Russian natural gas supplies and resulting surges in energy costs will drive inflation higher than previously expected, to a peak of 10% in October, HSBC economists ...
Read More »Pakistan names former deputy as central bank head to aid economy
Bloomberg Pakistan appointed a former central banker to head the monetary authority as the nation contends with one of Asia’s fastest inflation rates and faltering foreign currency reserves. Jameel Ahmad, a former deputy governor will now head the State Bank of Pakistan for a term of five years, according to a statement of the finance ministry. He will replace ...
Read More »South Korea’s KakaoBank drops to record
Bloomberg Shares of KakaoBank Corp., a South Korean online-only lender, tumbled 8.2% to a record low after one of its key shareholders raised $320 million in a block trade. Kookmin Bank offered about 14.8 million shares in a club deal, according to terms of the deal obtained by Bloomberg News. The lender sold shares at 28,704 won each, a ...
Read More »African bank’s unit sees home loans booming in Kenya
Bloomberg Stanbic Bank Kenya Ltd., a unit of Africa’s biggest lender by assets, forecasts its mortgage business in the nation to surge as the economy recovers from the pandemic and the end of presidential elections brings political stability. The unit of South Africa’s Standard Bank group Ltd says it’s Kenya’s second-largest mortgage lender and demand for the product is ...
Read More »ING beats estimates
Bloomberg ING Groep NV reported second-quarter profit that beat analyst estimates after freeing up provisions for its shrinking business in Russia. Net income of 1.18 billion euros ($1.2 billion) in the three months through June compared with expectations for profit of 1.07 billion euros. , according to a statement by the Dutch lender on Thursday. Loan loss provisions of ...
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