Business Aholic

Chemical companies are integrally linked to oil; what is bullish for oil is usually bullish for chemical prices and companies. With the recent Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS) bullish calls on oil and other commodities, chemical companies are likely to bounce. They made a start at that on May 25. Some should also benefit from their agricultural products, which got a big lift from the USDA’s World Crop Report on May 11. Chemical companies have been one of the strongest areas in the...

More loans are being granted thanks to the work carried out in the Project Merlin accord, it is claimed. An article in today's (June 13th) Financial Times suggests this places the country's biggest banks on target to beat the rates set out in the policy.Details revealed by a government minister show the overall corporate lending goal could be exceeded by 13 per cent and those with business accounts might be pleased to hear the figure for lending to small and medium enterprises is likely to be...

The legislation - part of a larger financial oversight law - will allow the Federal Reserve to cap the fees. Banks currently charge an average 44 cents per transaction, but the Fed has proposed slashing this to 12 cents. Banks had hoped to delay the change for a year, but after the Senate vote it will now come into force on 21 July. The Fed's ability to cap the fees, which are levied by banks for processing retailers' card payments, was introduced as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial...

George Osborne has taken a major gamble. The U.K. chancellor of the exchequer's decision to endorse a half-formed proposal to force banks to separate their U.K. retail operations from their investment-banking arms is a leap in the dark that could have unintended global consequences. For Mr. Osborne, the gamble is good politics. Last year, he rashly handed control of the bank-overhaul agenda to an Independent Commission on Banking, leaving himself with little choice but to accept its...

The commercial banks’ deposits in the country have registered a growth of 9 percent during Jan-June 2011 to reach Rs5.6 trillion or $65 billion amid strong inflows of workers’ remittances and improving exports target. The growth has been witnessed after a gap of around three years and is slightly higher than last three-year average growth of 8 percent during the same period, said banking sector experts and added deposit mobilization in Pakistan generally remains higher in first half of the...

The State Bank of India's associates reported a 34% rise in net profit in the quarter ended March compared with the previous fiscal, even as the country's largest lender's net plummeted due to higher provisioning for bad loans and pension & gratuity liabilities. Consolidated net profit of the five associate banks of SBI stood at Rs 1,264.70 crore in the fourth quarter, compared with Rs 939.46 crore a year ago. "Associates were not under-providing, while the parent may have been...

The decision comes as a precaution against any turbulence that could follow if conflicting Republicans and Democrats fail to increase soon the U.S. debt ceiling, the newspaper said, citing a senior bank chief. The report did not provide names of specific banks that would be cutting their use of U.S. Treasuries. One alternative strategy that bank executives disclosed to the FT is to have more cash on hand to put up as collateral against derivatives and other transactions, decreasing the...

Following the recent rating action taken on Panama, Fitch Ratings has today upgraded the ratings of various Panamanian banks. On June 2, 2011, Fitch upgraded Panama's Sovereign Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) to 'BBB' and its country ceiling to 'A', citing its solid economic growth and favorable government debt dynamics. The Rating Outlook was revised to Stable. As a result, Fitch has taken the following actions on HSBC Bank (Panama), S.A.(HBPA) ratings, which are constrained by the country...

The State Bank of Pakistan, commercial banks and SCI-Pak may jointly develop an Energy & Resource Efficient (E&RE) network/ platform to address the financial needs of Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs). This consensus was arrived at a Roundtable meeting which was jointly organised by SBP and European Commission Funded SCI-Pak Project in Karachi. The roundtable also decided that awareness campaigns for SMEs should be launched at the grass root level to educate the masses regarding different...

Banks have been utilizing bulk of their deposits collected over the past 18-24 months in treasury securities as the government continues to raise funds at relatively attractively yields, banking experts said. According to them, this continues to be a suitable option for the banks given their stringent risk policy structure post increasing NPLs. Although, this is likely to persist in the medium term, large banks are looking to build up their loan books as well, especially with demand coming in...

Deutsche Bank AG (DBK), Germany’s biggest lender, and UniCredit SpA (UCG) are among European banks that may have to raise additional capital after regulators dismissed lenders’ threats that stiffer rules may stunt economic growth. Regulators meeting in Basel this weekend agreed to make as many as 30 of the world’s largest, or systemically important, banks hold as much as 2.5 percentage points more capital than the 7 percent core Tier 1 capital required. They also blocked European banks’...

Banks are working with European governments to consider the accounting impact of a Greek debt restructuring but a solution has yet to be found for Greece, Deutsche Bank AG (DB) Chief Executive Josef Ackermann told a conference organized by Reuters Monday. According to Reuters, Ackermann also warned that if contagion spreads the crisis could be bigger than the one caused by Lehman's collapse a few years ago. Banks are prepared to play a constructive role in finding a solution for Greece but it...

Fund houses prefer value-based buying during June correction in equity markets. Fund managers are back to buying banking and automobile stocks, after a steep correction this month made valuations cheaper and hence attractive. The preference for interest rate-sensitive stocks comes at a time when the possibility of further rate increase by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) looms large due to unrelenting inflation. In May, the mutual fund industry had cut its exposure of equity assets in banks by...

The MCB Bank has proven its great success as it stands tall by winning not one, but two precious awards for “The Best Bank of the Year” and “The Most Stable Bank of the Year” by the Chartered Financial Analyst Association, Pakistan (CFAAP) at the “Eighth CFA Pakistan’s Annual Excellence Awards 2010”, a statement said on Monday. The CFA Annual Excellence awards are considered to be the most precious awards in the investment industry as CFAAP with members in different stock exchanges, brokerage...

The dovish views from the Reserve Bank of Australia, one of the most aggressive central banks to tighten policy in the wake of the global financial crisis, illustrates that Australia’s once-in-a-century mining boom isn’t enough of a buffer to stave off the impact of a slowing global economy. Until recently the RBA had been warning that capacity constraints and expected inflation pressures were its primary concern, but the bank’s July policy statement—while adopting similar language from...