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Bloomberg Credit Agricole SA profited from low rates in the first quarter as large clients tapped the bond market and mortgage refinancing led to a surge in fees. Capital-markets revenue rose 17 percent, with ‘buoyant activity’ in fixed-income, foreign-exchange and credit trading, the Paris-based bank said in a statement on Thursday. Net income jumped to 845 million euros ($918 million) ...

Dubai / Emirates Business Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) Dubai Branch holds a grand ceremony in celebration of its opening and designation as the RMB clearing bank in the UAE. The Dubai Branch is ABC’s first RMB clearing bank designated by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) and its second branch in the Middle East after the DIFC Branch. The ...

Bloomberg UniCredit SpA bounced back from a balance-sheet cleanup and a record share sale to deliver first-quarter profit that exceeded analysts’ estimates. The shares climbed as much as 5.4 percent. Net income more than doubled to 907 million euros ($986 million) from 406 million euros a year earlier, lifted by higher revenue and lower costs and provisions, the Milan-based bank ...

Bloomberg Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. agreed to buy National Australia Bank (NAB) Ltd.’s wealth management business in Singapore and Hong Kong, in the latest move by a Singapore lender to bolster operations serving Asia’s rich. OCBC said the business it’s buying is made up of a mortgage portfolio of about $1.7 billion and deposits of some $3.05 billion, according to a ...

Bloomberg CIMB Group Holdings Bhd. hired seven people recently at its private bank in Singapore, according to a person familiar with the matter, as it seeks to become one of the top 20 Asian players in the sector. Five of the hires have already started and the remaining two will join by September, said the person, who asked not to ...

Bloomberg Barclays Plc’s Jes Staley said he needs another six to 18 months before the bank can generate an acceptable return for investors, spelling out for the first time how long his strategy should take to bear fruit. “The group’s statutory return on equity is 9 percent, and we want to get that to 11 percent — I think we ...

  Though roller-coaster elections have recently become the norm in established democracies (witness France’s whirlwind campaign that ended recently), Germany appears determined to be an exception. As her party clinched yet another key regional election, Chancellor Angela Merkel is close to establishing her dominance in the September general election well ahead of time. Former European Parliament President Martin Schulz created ...

  Although the Federal Reserve refrained from raising interest rates last week, it emphasized that policy makers still believe a gradual adjustment is warranted. On the surface, that’s a market-friendly policy because it means a slower pace of dollar appreciation, which would benefit emerging markets and commodities. Then there’s China, where a gradual adjustment higher in US rates could mean ...

  Europe’s leaders are thrilled that Emmanuel Macron beat Marine Le Pen in the French presidential election — and they should be. Yet they ought to keep their celebrations brief, because they need to start thinking now about how to help Macron make a success of his presidency. Le Pen’s angry nationalism gave voice to widespread dissatisfaction with the European ...

  Democratic Party’s candidate Moon Jae-in has been declared the winner in South Korean presidential election. With 100% of the votes counted, Moon won with 41.08%, according to the country’s National Election Commission. As many as 13,423,800 voters chose Moon Jae-in as their preference for president. Moon, a liberal, was sworn in as South Korea’s new president on Wednesday and ...