Troika Dialog has been recognised as the best local investment bank in Russia during 2008, according to the CEE & CIS Banking Awards by emeafinance magazine. Leadership, outstanding status and excellence in financial performance are all attributes considered by the magazine when announcing their award winners. The magazine praised the deal Troika Dialog made with [...]
The Government is said to be talking to investors about the possible sale of its stakes in Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland. Sovereign wealth funds are reported to be among those involved in negotiations with UK Financial Investments (UKFI), the body set up to manage taxpayers’ interests in rescued banks. No radical [...]
The banking crisis helped the Bank of England (BoE) achieve record profit in the 12 months to the end of February. The central bank earned £995 million during the period, up from £197 million a year earlier, as fees and interest charges for rescuing the UK’s beleaguered financial institutions mounted. The Special Liquidity Scheme, which [...]
German Bank WestLB has revealed its first quarter results, which are the best Q1 figures for the firm since 2002. A pre-tax profit of €250m was achieved, and costs have been slashed by almost a quarter (23%). The profit margin is up €176m compared with adjusted figures for Q1 2008. The strong performance has been [...]
Financial services firm Merriman Curhan Ford has reported it incurred a quarterly net loss of $1.9m for Q1 2009, equating to $0.15 per share. This is a marked improvement on the results for the same period in 2008 where total net loss stood at $7m, equivalent to $0.57 per share. It is also a significant [...]
Close Brothers is selling its corporate finance business to Japanese investment bank, Daiwa Securities SMBC, for a total consideration of £75 million. The move will allow the London-listed investment bank to focus on its asset management, banking and securities activities. On completion of the transaction, which is scheduled for the end of August, Close Brothers [...]
South African firm Standard Bank has expanded its operations in Brazil in the anticipation of growth there. Up to five professionals are to be hired to form a new equity team in Brazil according to the firm’s Brazil chief executive, Fabio Solferini. Solferini went on to say that Standard Bank’s whole platform in Brazil was [...]
Zenith Bank Ghana Limited has been named as the Best Bank in Ghana following the country’s annual banking awards in the capital city, Accra. The subsidiary of Zenith Bank also came second in the Growing Bank and Best Short Term Financing categories and claimed third place in Retail Banking. The Best Bank award is given [...]
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) posted a net loss of 373.5 billion yen ($3.9 billion) in the 12 months to the end of March 2009, based on Japanese accounting standards. The result compares with a profit of 461.5 billion yen in the previous fiscal year. Revenue fell 23.2% to 3.55 trillion yen ($37.1 billion) but [...]
The chairman of Lloyds Banking Group is to step down. Sir Victor Blank joined Lloyds TSB from Trinity Mirror Group in January 2006, replacing Maarten van den Bergh. Since the hurried merger of Lloyds TSB and HBOS last year, both Sir Victor and Lloyds’ chief executive, Eric Daniels, have been under attack from shareholders. Lloyds [...]
Temasek, the investment vehicle of the Singaporean government, has sold its 3% stake in Bank of America (BoA). The disposal was made during the first three months of this year, leaving Temasek nursing billion dollar losses. In January 2008, Temasek invested in Merrill Lynch, which was later acquired by BoA in the wake of the [...]
A new report from the Financial Services Research Forum has concluded that trust in the financial services industry is not at “rock bottom” despite the credit crisis and recession. The body, which is based at Nottingham University, reports: “In terms of different types of financial services institutions, brokers and advisers are seen as the most [...]
Bankers’ bonuses are in the news yet again, with the Treasury Select Committee blaming remuneration policies that reward risk taking, rather than successful long-term performance, for their part in the credit crisis. Committee chairman, John McFall, has called the design of such bonus schemes “fundamentally flawed” and banks’ non-executive directors have been called to account [...]
Deutsche Bank has announced it has reached an agreement with Commerzbank to acquire the Global Agency Securities Lending business of Dresdner Bank. Earlier this week Commerzbank completed its takeover of Dresdner Bank, taking on the latter’s clients and employees following a speeded up takeover. The newly acquired business will be integrated into the Trust & [...]
French bank Crédit Agricole S.A. has announced its financial results for the first quarter of this year. The bank made overall net income for the quarter of €202m, and, excluding certain discontinued activities in corporate and investment banking, net income stood at €618m. After the board meeting at which the results were approved René Carron, [...]
