Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Banking and Markets President Tom Montag has announced the appointments of Sam Chapin and Todd Kaplan as executive vice chairmen of Global Banking. Chapin and Kaplan, who assume their posts with immediate effect, will report directly to Montag. The pair will be tasked with enhancing strategic client relationships, with [...]
Voice Commerce Group has ambitions to launch a business bank under the Cashflows brand. The payment services provider says it has appointed law firm, Mills & Reeve, to help achieve regulatory and operational objectives, explaining that the move will meet the broader financial requirements of its growing business customer base. Compliance lawyer, Liz Heade, has [...]
Two solicitors appeared at City of London Magistrates Court last week, after being charged with offences in connection with a £50 million commercial mortgage fraud. Mark Knights and Kamran Malik faced three counts of obtaining a money transfer by deception and have been committed to stand trial at Southwark Crown Court. The two are allegedly [...]
The Bank of Japan’s Monetary Policy Board has chosen to keep the country’s interest rate steady at 0.1%. The decision, which was made on an unanimous basis, comes as the Japanese economy continues to improve, though there is still not enough momentum for a self-sustaining domestic recovery in private demand. Exports and production, both aided [...]
Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) has launched the first intelligent quick serve automated teller machine (ATM) in Kenya. Group Chief Executive Dr. Martin Oduor-Otieno has said that the investment underlines the KCB’s ongoing commitment to technological development and service delivery infrastructure. In November 2009 the KCB won the Banking Innovation Award for the Year 2009 for [...]
JP Morgan has held the opening ceremony for its new office in Abu Dhabi. The ceremony was attended by a number of dignitaries, government officials and clients, including His Excellency Khalil Mohammed Sharif Foulathi, Central Bank of UAE Chairman. The bank has operated in the Middle East for over five decades, when JP Morgan forerunner [...]
Greek bank Emporiki has announced its annual results for 2009. Net banking income rose 5% on 2008 to €751m, with gross operating income surging by 41.4% to €104.2m. However, net losses hit €582.6m, a figure attributed to Greece’s worsening macroeconomic environment and realigning risk management according to Crédit Agricole standards. The cost of risk in [...]
International middle market investment bank and institutional securities firm Piper Jaffray has announced the appointment of Bob Peterson as global head of equities. Peterson will relocate to the firm’s London office, having previously led the firm’s US equities business in Minneapolis. The appointment comes as part of Piper Jaffray’s structural reorganisation, creating global teams that [...]
A new study from ABI Research suggest that by 2015 around 407 million people worldwide will carry out financial transactions with their banks using their mobile phones. The market analyst predicts that North America will have 66 million mobile banking customers in five years’ time but expects the Asia-Pacific region to lead the way, having [...]
Halifax has been reflecting on a decade of Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) to reported that 37% of UK households now have one of the tax-free savings accounts. ISAs were introduced in 1999 to replace TESSAs and PEPs and not surprisingly, the South East has the highest proportion of households with an ISA, at 44%. The [...]
Investment banking and alternative asset management firm JMP Group Inc. has announced that Raymond Jackson will become the firm’s new chief financial officer. Jackson will succeed Thomas Kilian, who has held the post since July 2004, and is stepping down from the role whilst retaining his job as senior investment banker with JMP Securities. Jackson [...]
French bank BNP Paribas has posted its financial results for 2009, and for the fourth quarter of that year. BNP Paribas recorded net income of €5.8bn for the year, 93% higher than 2008, but still around €2bn lower than 2007 in the pre-financial crisis era. Revenue generated for the year slightly exceeded €40bn, a rise [...]
Dutch bank ING has reported its financial results for Q4 and 2009 as a whole. In 2009 the bank saw an underlying net result of €748m, a €1bn improvement on the €304m loss incurred the previous year. However, net profits remained in the red, with a loss of €935m suffered, including divestments and special items, [...]
Leading Pakistani bank MCB has achieved a substantial milestone, with the MCB Mobile service having handled over US$10m worth of transactions in less than eight months. In Pakistan banks used a shared platform by Access Group with Fundamo technology, enabling all financial institutions to utilise the same technology to provide services to their customers. This [...]
The Institute of Directors (IoD) claims that nearly 60% of businesses seeking bank finance in 2009/10 were rejected by their banks and that 20% are financing their enterprises to some extent with credit cards. Research by the body is being submitted to the Government by way of a challenge to the assertions of some UK [...]
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has imposed its largest penalty on an individual to date, despite recognising that the case involved no intent to commit market abuse. The regulator fined Mehmet Sepil, the chief executive officer of Turkish oil exploration company, Genel Enerji, £967,005 for dealing in the shares of UK listed Heritage Oil Plc, [...]
Credit card interest rates have reached a 12-year high, according to moneyfacts.co.uk. Research from the financial website shows rates for borrowers on plastic beginning to decline at the end of the 1990s when competition became keener, falling to their lowest levels in 2006. However, thereon rates steadily increased, with the average hitting 18.8% in February [...]
Russian banking giant Sberbank has released its financial performance figures for January 2010. Compared to January 2009 pre-provisions operating income fell by 37.8%, but post-provisions operating income increased by 45.6%. Net interest income (also before provisions) rose by 9.9%, and net fee and commission income was up 7.9%. The provision charged to the bank fell [...]
