Banking

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria’s central bank kept its benchmark interest rate on hold to battle persistently high inflation even as it seeks to boost lending to grow the economy. The Monetary Policy Committee unanimously decided to hold the rate at 13.5%, Governor Godwin Emefiele told reporters Tuesday in the capital, Abuja. All but one of the six economists in a Bloomberg survey forecast the unchanged stance and one predicted a 50 basis-point cut. Key…

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – Lloyds Banking Group Plc and Standard Life Aberdeen Plc have reached a settlement in what was one of the most high-profile disputes in the U.K. fund management industry’s history. Lloyds, which wanted to pull a 104 billion-pound ($129 billion) mandate, will pay the asset manager 140 million pounds in cash as compensation, according to a statement from Standard Life on Wednesday. It will also leave about 35 billion pounds of the total until at…

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenyan banks are expected to lead a rally in local stocks as investors switch out of government bonds because of falling yields, said Muathi Kilonzo, head of equities at EFG Hermes Kenya Ltd. “When you look at yields in fixed income, they have started to come down and that is because there is a lot of liquidity so there will be an inflection point,” Kilonzo said. “As yields continue to…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa)  – Citigroup Inc. invested to expand in South Africa. Now all the New York-based bank needs is deals. “We have in the two last cycles appropriated additional capital to continue to grow our business, but we haven’t seen as big a deal flow to be able to execute against that,” said Citigroup Chief Country Officer Peter Crawley. “We’re very much sitting on the side and battening down the hatches, planning for…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has reappointed Lesetja Kganyago as governor of the Reserve Bank and named two deputies from his existing team, ending uncertainty about the top management at one of the nation’s key economic institutions. Kganyago will serve another five years after his first term ends in November, the Ministry of Finance said in an emailed statement Wednesday. Ramaphosa also appointed Monetary Policy Committee members Fundi Tshazibana, who served as an adviser…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Old Mutual Ltd. said accusations by former Chief Executive Officer Peter Moyo that Chairman Trevor Manuel bullied other board members of the South African life insurer into firing him are false. The 174-year-old insurer dismissed Moyo because of corporate-governance concerns related to his role at NMT Capital, an investment firm he co-founded and in which Old Mutual owns 20%, the company said in papers filed in the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday. Moyo’s…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – They live in rows of tidy townhouses, setting out early every weekday for a short walk to Deutsche Bank AG’s lush corporate campus. For the closest, it’s just across the street. For the past several years, Deutsche Bank has been persuading harried Wall Streeters to move to Jacksonville, Florida, where it was building out operations to handle more of the firm’s business at a lower cost. Veterans who accepted the posts…