Banking

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Standard Bank Group Ltd. shut an account belonging to advisory firm Regiments Capital Pty Ltd. when it failed to adequately explain suspicious transactions totaling tens of millions of rand, according to one of the South African lender’s top lawyers. Regiments partnered with McKinsey & Co. to advise Transnet SOC Ltd., South Africa’s ports and freight rail operator, on the acquisition of new locomotives and took 30 percent of the consulting…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – FirstRand Ltd. wants to be the first large South African bank to bring its cost-to-income ratio below 50 percent as pressure mounts on local lenders to manage expenses amid weak revenue growth. South Africa’s largest lender by market value is focusing on its insurance, and wealth and investment management businesses to sell more products to its client base. It’s also spending funds on improving operations in its sub-Saharan Africa units…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – The bottom line is that the top line stinks. That’s the challenge facing South Africa’s biggest banks as they fight to contain costs that are accelerating faster than revenue. The reasons are pretty much the same: South Africa’s economy hasn’t expanded at more than 2 percent a year since 2013 and unemployment is at 27 percent. In addition, consumers are being battered by rising taxes, fuel prices, and higher utility bills. Companies, meanwhile,…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – The emerging-market carry trade is running out of steam, and only central banks can resurrect it, according to Nedbank Group Ltd. Unless policy makers give markets a new liquidity injection, investors who borrow dollars to buy higher-yielding emerging-market assets may see a repeat of last year, when the wager resulted in the worst losses since 2015, Mehul Daya and Neels Heyneke, Johannesburg-based strategists at Nedbank, said in a client note. The next month will…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Absa Group Ltd., the South African lender once controlled by Barclays Plc, fell for the ninth straight day to head for its longest streak of losses in six years as full-year profit missed analyst estimates. Banks in Africa’s most industrialized economy are battling to overcome the challenges of tepid gross domestic product growth and a loss of consumer and business confidence, pressuring their ability to generate revenue. Tax increases, higher fuel…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Absa Group Ltd. is restructuring its South African retail and business banking unit within months of reducing the division’s management team and rolling out a new strategy. Finance labor union Sasbo was notified to begin consulting staff last week on the potential impact of the move, union representative Philip Landman said by phone Wednesday. About 15 retail-banking executives exited their positions at the Johannesburg-based lender in June, after a similar…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Standard Bank Group Ltd., which owned a minority stake in Moscow-based Troika Dialog from 2009 to 2012, said there’s no reason to believe any of its businesses were linked to alleged money laundering involving the Russian lender. None of the entities that the Johannesburg-based company was involved in at the time have been mentioned in reports about the scandal, Alan Bedford-Shaw, the head of corporate development, said on a…