Troubled Nigerian Loans Seen Spiking Before Economic Rebound

Troubled Nigerian Loans Seen Spiking Before Economic Rebound

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Access Bank Plc is predicting that the level of troubled loans in Nigeria will continue to climb before an economic recovery in the second half of the year brings relief to the country’s lenders. “Across the entire industry you’ll see an uptick in non-performing loan ratios,” Chief Executive Officer Herbert Wigwe said in an interview on Thursday in Lagos, the commercial hub. “We are better than most.” Nigeria’s fourth-largest bank by assets expects…

Read More

Big Banks $70 Billion Short in Fed Push to Prevent Bailouts

Big Banks $70 Billion Short in Fed Push to Prevent Bailouts

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – Wall Street banks are about $70 billion short in building up funds the Federal Reserve says they’ll need to tap following a collapse, down by almost half from the central bank’s earlier estimates. The eight biggest U.S. financial firms are required to build cushions of long-term debt that can be transformed into equity in a new company if the old one fails, according to a rule the Fed governors approved Thursday….

Read More

Angola’s Access to Dollars Dries Up as Foreign Banks Halt Supply

Angola’s Access to Dollars Dries Up as Foreign Banks Halt Supply

LUANDA (Capital Markets in Africa) – All foreign banks have stopped providing dollar clearing in Angola, which vies with Nigeria as Africa’s largest crude oil producer, according to court papers filed in South Africa by Standard Bank Group Ltd. A single European bank that had been providing the service, which wasn’t identified in the submission, has pulled out of the country, Standard Bank said in the documents, which were submitted to the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday. The…

Read More

Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe decrees regulations paving way for bond notes

Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe decrees regulations paving way for bond notes

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has side-stepped parliament to issue a decree clearing the way for the introduction of “bond notes” that have raised fears of a return to a domestic currency abandoned in 2009 as hyperinflation crippled the economy. The bond notes are meant to ease biting cash shortages that have gripped the southern African nation since March but have helped fuel anti-government protests in recent months. Mugabe late…

Read More

De-Risking in Africa is on the risk according to latest Swift data

De-Risking in Africa is on the risk according to latest Swift data

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – The latest SWIFT data shows that many countries in Africa have seen a reduction in the number of foreign counterparties, the overseas banks with which African banks transact. The data was part of a new report looking at the impact of global regulations on correspondent banking networks, called ‘Addressing the unintended consequences of de-risking – Focus on Africa’, which was released at the SWIFT Business Forum South Africa, in…

Read More

Nigeria Banks Find Raising Cash ‘Tough’ in Shrinking Economy

Nigeria Banks Find Raising Cash ‘Tough’ in Shrinking Economy

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigerian banks are finding it difficult to raise capital as a shrinking economy cuts revenue and deters investors, the industry’s regulator said. “It’s been tough,” Umaru Ibrahim, managing director of the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corp., said in an interview in the southwestern city of Abeokuta on Tuesday. Banks require “adequate capital that would help them cushion any adverse effect of loan defaults or losses,” he said. Ibrahim’s comments come as Access…

Read More

Moroccan and Rwandan Central bank keep rate unchanged in Sept

Moroccan and Rwandan Central bank keep rate unchanged in Sept

CASABLACA/KIGALI, Capital Markets in Africa: – Morocco’s central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 2.25 percent on Tuesday, saying the inflation forecast was consistent with its price stability objective. The bank, known as Bank al-Maghrib, said it expected inflation to remain around 1.6 percent in 2016 and fall to 1.2 percent in 2017. Expecting agricultural output to rebound in 2017 from the worst drought in decades to hit North Africa, the bank said…

Read More
1 2 3 4 6