Banking | - Part 77

Ghana Cuts Key Rate to Three-Year Low as Inflation Slows

ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Ghana cut its benchmark interest rate to the lowest in more than three years as inflation slows toward the central bank’s target. The Bank of Ghana reduced the rate to 20 percent, Governor Ernest Addison, told reporters in the capital, Accra, on Monday. Of the eight economist surveyed by Bloomberg, four forecast the move. Ghana will meet the inflation target of 6 percent to 10 percent “at worst” by the second quarter of…

Kenya’s Biggest Bank Sees Rate Caps Staying Until at Least 2019

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NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Kenya’s biggest bank reckons limits on interest-rate charges that have weighed on profit will be around for at least another year. “There are a lot of conversations happening and I have not seen anything today that says that we are ready to move,” KCB Group Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Joshua Oigara said in an interview in the capital, Nairobi, last week. Even the bank’s best-case scenario is that a review process of the…

HSBC Closes Accounts Linked to South Africa’s Guptas Amid Review

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – HSBC Holdings Plc is shuttering accounts associated with the powerful Gupta family as it assesses its exposure to the scandal gripping South Africa. The bank is conducting a wide-ranging review of any possible involvement in suspicious transactions, with the assistance of external investigators, people with knowledge of the matter said. HSBC first closed accounts held by companies linked to the Gupta family in 2014 after internal compliance procedures picked up…

Guaranty Trust Bank Nigeria Eyes Mozambique to Double Income From Africa

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Guaranty Trust Bank, Nigeria’s biggest lender by market value, plans to open in Mozambique as it targets the country’s gas market to help prop up profit from African subsidiaries. The lender will enter Mozambique in the first quarter of 2019 “to capitalize on the country’s offshore gas boom,’’ after it opens in Tanzania in January next year, it said. The expansion will increase the contribution to profit by African…

South Africa Central Bank Has Little Policy Space to Boost Growth

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa has limited space for counter-cyclical monetary policy to support economic expansion because inflation risks have increased, central bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago said. The balance of risks for growth in consumer prices is “on the upside,” with the rand weakening against the dollar, a higher oil price, and a chance that power prices will increase, he said in an interview Friday in New York with Bloomberg TV. The Monetary Policy…

KCB of Kenya Nine-Month Profit Growth Slows as Loan Income Falls

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NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – KCB Group Ltd., Kenya’s biggest bank by assets, posted slower growth in profit in the first nine months of the year as income from loans dropped. Profit grew to 15.1 billion shillings ($145.7 million) from a restated 14.4 billion shillings a year earlier, as earnings from loans decreased 1 percent to 35.7 billion shillings, the Nairobi-based bank said in an emailed statement. Non-interest income climbed by almost a fifth to…

Ghana Central Bank Governor Sees Room for Further Rate Cut

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ACCRA (Capital Markets in Africa) – Bank of Ghana Governor Ernest Addison said there is scope for a further cut in the country’s main interest rate should the economy keep improving. “If the fundamentals of the economy are seen to be improving, then there is room for a rate cut, even though inflation has stayed at around 12 percent,” he said in an interview Tuesday in the capital, Accra. The central bank of West Africa’s biggest economy…

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