Banco Popolare CEO sees 2010 results in line
Italy’s Banco Popolare expects 2010 results to be in line with forecasts while possible sales of non-strategic assets could boost its capital ratios, its chief executive said recently. In La Stampa daily, Pier Francesco Saviotti also ruled out any merger with Italian cooperative bank peer Ubi Banca, speculation which regularly surfaces, and said there had […]
Star in the ascent
“Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future”. A quote that has been variously attributed to individuals as diverse as physicist Niel Bohr and baseball player Yogi Berra. Whoever said it first, it most definitely has a ring of truth, and to prove it, here’s a prediction taken from the IMF World Economic Outlook […]
Banking on transparency
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has been one of those emerging markets in which corporate governance is seen as a relatively new concept; indeed it is only in the last ten years that an Arabic word, “hawkamah” for ‘corporate governance’ has emerged. But despite its infancy in the region, corporate governance has […]
Informing decisions
BRE Bank has grown from the need of the young capital market in Poland at early stages of its development. From the very beginning it had an ambition to create innovative products, offer cutting edge business solutions and build partnering relations with its clients. Thus, it aimed to establish cooperation with prominent foreign banks, support […]
Prioritising growth
Constantly developing and improving its services, Blom Bank Group provides universal banking services that meet its’ clients needs. These services include: Commercial Banking, Corporate Banking, Private and Investment Banking, Asset Management, Retail Banking, Islamic Banking and Insurance products and services. Blom Bank’s strategy is based on the expansion in the region and the diversification of […]
WTO: Global crisis to hurt trade for up to 2 years
Global trade will face lingering protectionism for up to two years, as the job market reels from the global financial crisis, World Trade Organisation Director-General Pascal Lamy said recently. “We are not out of the woods in coping with this protectionist tensions,” Lamy told reporters in the Chilean capital Santiago during a visit. “We on […]
BOJ may revise up CPI forecast but deflation to drag
The Bank of Japan could say this month that consumer prices will stop falling next fiscal year, sources say, but analysts said it would keep its easing bias as a full-fledged escape from deflation is still a distant goal. That would mark an upgrade to the BOJ’s current price forecast for the year to March […]
Greece deal slashes contagion risk -UniCredit CEO
Eurozone finance ministers approved a 30 billion euro emergency aid plan for debt-plagued Greece on April 11. Together with at least 10 billion euros expected from the IMF in the first year, it could add up to the biggest multilateral financial rescue ever attempted. “This has been a very important intervention,” Alessandro Profumo, the head […]
Kenya Treasury says no borrowing for extra $543m
“Borrowing for this year is even closed. There will be no more borrowing,” Geoffrey Mwau, economic secretary at the Finance Ministry, told reporters. Treasury wants an additional 27.62 billion shillings for recurrent expenditure and another 14.39 billion shillings for development programmes. The budget factored in domestic borrowing of 109.5 billion shillings but the government increased […]
Brain drain, low investment hamper African science
Africa’s contribution to the global body of scientific research is very small and does little to benefit its own populations, according to a report from Thomson Reuters. Like India and China, Africa suffers from a “haemorrhage of talent”, the report said, with many of its best brains leaving to study abroad and failing to return. […]
