Banking | - Part 104

Ghana’s Central Bank Urges Lenders Consolidate to Boost Growth

ACCRA, Capital Markets in Africa: Ghana’s central bank expects mergers and acquisitions among lenders to increase as regulators prepare new rules that will boost the amount of cash that they need to set aside. Capital levels in the industry are too weak to support the government’s target of reaching gross domestic product growth of at least 8 percent a year, Bank of Ghana Governor Abdul Nashiru Issahaku said by phone on Friday. The bank will publish recommendations of…

Kenyan Lender CBA to Take Mobile-Bank Service Deeper Into Africa

Posted on by The Editorial Team

NAIROBI, Capital Markets in Africa: A Kenyan lender that transformed from an also-ran into the country’s biggest deposit-taker, mainly through a mobile-phone banking service started four years ago, plans to use the product as a beachhead to expand outside its East African home base. Commercial Bank of Africa Ltd., which also has units in Tanzania and Uganda, is seeking to export its M-Shwari mobile-phone service as part of a strategy to eventually have operations in 16 African…

Egypt’s central bank unexpectedly keeps rates unchanged in Sept

Posted on by The Editorial Team

CAIRO, Capital Markets in Africa: Egypt’s central bank kept its key interest rates unchanged at a monetary policy meeting on Thursday, confounding a unanimous forecast by analysts that it would hike borrowing costs to curb inflation. Egypt has been struggling to revive its economy since a 2011 revolution drove away tourists and foreign investors, its main sources of vital foreign currency. Its reserves have more than halved since, to around $16.5 billion in August. The…

South Africa’s Central Bank Signals Possible End to Hiking Cycle

Posted on by The Editorial Team

JOHANNESBURG, Capital Markets in Africa: South Africa’s Reserve Bank left interest rates unchanged for a third straight meeting as it signaled it may be close to the end of its policy-tightening cycle. The central bank kept the benchmark repurchase rate at 7 percent, Governor Lesetja Kganyago told reporters Thursday in the capital, Pretoria. This was in line with the forecasts of all 27 economists in a Bloomberg survey. “The MPC is of the view that should current forecasts transpire,…

Kenyan Regulator Says Rate Caps Complicates Monetary Policy

Posted on by The Editorial Team

NAIROBI, Capital Markets in Africa: Kenya’s decision to introduce caps on commercial-lending rates is complicating monetary policy, Central Bank of Kenya Governor Patrick Njoroge said. “With the rate caps, it’s not clear which way to go,” Njoroge told reporters in the capital, Nairobi, on Wednesday, a day after the central bank cut its benchmark rate by 50 basis points to 10 percent. The limits on borrowing rates may result in a “perverse reaction” among banks and lead to riskier…

Nigerian Central Bank Keeps Benchmark Rate Unchanged in Sept

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS. Capital Markets in Africa: Nigeria’s central bank left its main lending rate unchanged as it weighed supporting the currency and fighting inflation while propping up an ailing economy. The Monetary Policy Committee held the benchmark rate at 14 percent, Governor Godwin Emefiele told reporters Tuesday in the capital, Abuja. That was in line with projections of eight of the 17 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. One predicted a 100 basis point cut, and the rest said policy would be tightened by…

Banker-Bashing Is a Dangerous Thing. Just Look at Kenya

Posted on by The Editorial Team

NAIROBI, Capital Markets in Africa: The frontier market of Kenya isn’t often on U.S. or European investors’ radar. It should be. It offers a timely reminder of financial markets’ complacency about the risk of populism; and the attractiveness of bashing banks to win votes. East Africa’s most advanced economy has introduced a law setting a cap on commercial lending rates and a floor on deposit payout rates, an instant squeeze on margins that sent shares of Kenyan…

« 1 … 102 103 104 105 106 … 128 »