Banking

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Standard Bank Group Ltd. said any economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic in Africa would likely take until late this year or even 2022, warning of the long wait ahead for lenders struck by a slump in borrowing and spending. The continent’s largest bank reported a 51% decline in profit after taxes and other adjustments for the year through December, according to a statement on Thursday. The Johannesburg-based company also declared…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen dismissed fears that President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic-relief bills is so big that it will cause an inflation problem, as she seeks to push the recovery deeper into the U.S. labor market to address long-standing economic disparities. Yellen called the impact on women and minorities from Covid-19 “absolutely tragic.” She has repeatedly rejected concerns that Biden’s stimulus is excessive given the economy’s signs of…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — Nigeria’s central bank governor suggested the nation’s currency has been devalued. Addressing bankers at a summit on the economy in Lagos on Friday, Governor Godwin Emefiele said the official exchange rate now stands at 410 to the dollar. That’s 7.6% weaker than the rate of 379 published on the central bank’s website. “In order to adjust for the decrease in the supply of foreign exchange, the naira depreciated at the official…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — A “disinflationary” mindset has taken hold among U.S. businesses and consumers that will be hard to dislodge despite stronger economic growth this year, said Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin. “There are disinflationary pressures that are quite profound and seem to be continuing,” Barkin told an online event Monday hosted by the Maryland Bankers Association. “As long as you’ve got those disinflationary headwinds, it’s just going to…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) — South Africa’s banking regulator eased guidance to lenders that they shouldn’t pay dividends and executive bonuses — though warned that protecting cash reserves must still take priority amid ongoing uncertainty from the Covid-19 pandemic. Where boards approve such payouts, they should be “prudent and commensurate with the assessment of current conditions and potential future uncertainty,” Prudential Authority Chief Executive Officer Kuben Naidoo said in a note to the industry. Banks should also…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) — Nedbank Group Ltd. is leading discussions to restructure South African power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd.’s 464 billion ($32 billion) debt load, according to people familiar with the talks. The parties met in recent days, and one of the options is to transfer at least 100 billion rand of debt to a special-purpose vehicle that would be overseen by the Public Investment Corp., Africa’s biggest fund manager, the people said….

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) — A strong end to the year for Barclays Plc traders helped the British lender deliver a share buyback and a return to dividends even as the bank said the outlook for 2021 remained uncertain. The London-based firm’s securities division reported a better-than-expected 45% rise in market revenue for the year, the biggest trading jump among major global investment banks. But the pandemic continued to slam the bank’s lending businesses,…