All articles by Farah Halime
Farah Halime
Connecting with the unconnected
The era of mobile banking is well and truly underway, but for South Africas Standard Bank the focus lies in connecting the unbanked rural population to the financial world Sim Tshabalala, deputy chief executive of the bank, tells Farah Halime how Instant Money transfers will meet the needs of the masses. Standard Bank, the largest bank in South Africa by assets, has joined forces with the Spar retail group to launch a person-to-person (P2P) money transfer system.
Nedbank targets unbanked in SA
Nedbank and Vodacom, M-Pesas owner, have partnered in South Africa and are hoping to attract the large unbanked segment in the country through offering money transfers that will allow easy access to funds Nedbank, South Africas fourth-largest bank, is to join forces with Vodacom, a South African telecommunications giant, to develop M-Pesas mobile banking product to the unbanked population.
NBK latest to eye Garanti stake
Kuwaits largest lender, National Bank of Kuwait (NBK), has become the first bank to confirm that it is considering buying a 20.85% stake in Turkish bank Garanti.
Kiwibank is a challenger brand’
Kiwibank, New Zealands biggest bank by branches, prides itself on being intrinsically Kiwi and targeting the everyday citizen Kiwi Thinking is the banks latest drive to boost market share and challenge the Australian giants by inviting the general public to submit innovative inventions
Anglo Irish Bank posts worst-ever results
Irelands nationalised lender, Anglo Irish Bank, made a pre-tax loss of 12.7bn ($17.2bn) after an “exceptionally difficult” 15 months to December 2009. The beleaguered Irish bank posted the result, reportedly the largest corporate loss in the history of the Republic of Ireland, a matter of days after the Irish government said it would inject a further 8.3bn into the bank.
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St George and Qantas announce credit card partnership
Customers can choose between two rewards programmes Amplify Qantas or Amplify Rewards and will be able to earn Qantas frequent flyer points on eligible purchases at the rate of 1 point per A$2 ($1.8) spent.
Hudson City applies for national status
Hudson City Bancorp, one of the USs top 25 banks with a market capitalisation of over $6.7bn, has applied to convert from a savings bank to a national bank, to stay ahead of regulatory changes. The banks application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to convert to a national bank would make the OCC the banks main regulator if accepted.
Lloyds expects a profit for 2010
Lloyds, the UKs largest retail bank, said it expects profits to be better than expected for the year after lower impairment provisions and cost control In a statement to investors ahead of a Morgan Stanley conference on 24 March, the bank now expects to deliver a better impairment performance than previously guided, in both the retail and corporate businesses, in 2010
KPMG ‘overwhelmingly positive’ on UK
The UKs retail banking market has rebounded relatively well and remained in the black in the second half of 2009, despite being faced with margin losses and a reduction in fee income as customer demand fell, according to a banking report from KPMG, the professional services firm In a new report, Banking Performance Benchmarking Survey, professional services firm KPMG has identified the retail arms of state-owned Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) as making the biggest turnaround in the second half of 2009, while HSBC dipped and Barclays remained flat compared to the first half of the year (see table)
Upbeat BEA sees profits growth in 2010
Fresh from posting a sharp rise in profits for fiscal 2009, Bank of East Asia is forecasting further profits growth in 2010 Simon Lau, the banks head of personal banking, discusses product innovation, multi-channel investment and acquisition strategy with Farah Halime. Bank of East Asia (BEA), Hong Kongs third-biggest lender by market value, bounced back from a disappointing set of results in 2008 with net profits of HK$2.64bn ($340.3m) in fiscal 2009, a 24-fold increase in earnings from the previous year.