Banking

TUNIS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Tunisia’s central bank is unlikely to raise interest rates again in the first half of the year, its governor said Wednesday, arguing that the latest increase was already paying off. The regulator raised the benchmark rate by 100 basis points in February, the first increase since June, as annual inflation rose to 7.4 percent, near the 25-year high of 7.7 percent recorded in mid-2018. “We hope we don’t have…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – FirstRand Ltd.’s corporate and investment banking division Rand Merchant Bank is seeking new management for its corporate-finance unit with co-heads Craig Forbes and Puso Manthata stepping down later this year. New leadership will be appointed at the start of the lender’s new financial year in July, RMB said in response to emailed questions. Forbes will be joining his family’s investment office by the end of the calendar year, while…

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…