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Bloomberg Societe Generale SA expects to cut annual costs by about 450 million euros ($545 million) by combining its French retail operations with its Credit du Nord subsidiary, as Chief Executive Officer Frederic Oudea seeks to bolster profitability. The number of branches in the merged division will fall by about 600 to 1,500 by 2025, the bank said in a ...

Bloomberg The fortunes of India’s shadow lenders have been improving amid early signs Asia’s third-largest economy is rebounding from an unprecedented recession. Two of four indicators compiled by Bloomberg that reflect the state of shadow banks strengthened last month from October. Shares of such firms that are part of the benchmark S&P BSE 500 index jumped two levels higher. The ...

Bloomberg The Bank of Japan (BOJ) has taken over as the biggest owner of the nation’s stocks, with the total value of its holdings climbing well above $400 billion. Massive exchange-traded fund purchases by the BOJ to support the market amid the pandemic this year combined with subsequent valuation gains pushed its Japanese equity portfolio to 45.1 trillion yen ($434 ...

Bloomberg Global stocks retreated from an all-time high and the pound weakened the most in three months on concern that Brexit talks could collapse. The pound slid 1.3% against the dollar with officials on both sides pessimistic about the prospect of a breakthrough. Banks and retailers led losses in the Stoxx 600 Index, while the export-heavy FTSE 100 Index climbed ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong stocks dropped, with investors selling some of the quarter’s top performers on concern more firms may be kicked out of global equity benchmarks and that Chinese banks may be targeted as China-US tensions grow. The Hang Seng Index retreated as much as 2.2% before paring to end Monday 1.2% lower, with volume 42% higher than the three-month ...

ABU DHABI / WAM Statistics from the Central Bank of the UAE showed that the investments of Abu Dhabi banks in debt securities in the first nine months of 2020 amounted to AED19 billion, contributing to an increase in the cumulative balance of this type of investment to AED201.5 billion at the end of September 2020. Investing in securities is ...

Bloomberg Iraq will remain committed to Opec’s decisions on oil output as it nudges crude exports higher in December. The country will export 2.8 million barrels a day this month, Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar said Sunday, up from 2.7 million in November. It will start shipping a new medium grade of its flagship Basrah crude in January and try ...

ABU DHABI / WAM President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in his capacity as Ruler of Abu Dhabi emirate, has issued the law number 22 of 2020, establishing Abu Dhabi Community Legal Awareness Centre, affiliated with the Abu Dhabi Judiciary Department. The centre will raise awareness of potential risks associated with inappropriate behaviour that violates the values ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM Menilbekov Madiyar, Ambassador of Kazakhstan to the UAE, highlighted the strong bilateral ties between the UAE and his country, noting that the UAE is Kazakhstan’s leading strategic, trade and economic partner in the Arab region, most notably in the petrochemical, energy, transport, logistical services, agriculture and space sectors. In an interview with Emirates News Agency on ...

DUBAI / WAM The Business Registration and Licensing (BRL) sector of Dubai Economy announced that more than 500 businesses in Dubai have benefited from its partnership programme with Zoho, as registered companies can now run their sales, support, finance, IT, and other business functions using the Zoho One suite of apps. Dubai Economy and Zoho signed a Memorandum of Understanding ...