All articles by Douglas Blakey
Douglas Blakey
ANZ and MySpace launch prepaid card
ANZ, Australias fourth largest bank by deposits, has joined forces with social networking site MySpace to launch a prepaid Visa card aimed at both the youth segment and non-card holders. Described as Australias first reloadable prepaid Visa card designed to offer benefits exclusively for social networking site users, the reloadable MySpace Recharge Card has a maximum available balance of A$1,000 ($833) and a card issue fee of A$5.95
Canada’s Big Five report strong Q3s
Canadas Big Five banking groups RBC Royal (RBC), TD, Scotiabank, BMO Bank of Montreal (BMO) and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) have all apart from CIBC posted earnings ahead of analyst forecasts for the quarter to 31 July, earning a combined total of C$4.39 billion ($4.1 billion) in third quarter profits, up by more than C$530 million from C$3.86 billion in the year ago period.
Proud to be the nation’s savings bank’
Absas new CEO, Maria Ramos, says impairment charges at the South African banks retail banking unit will peak by the end of the year
Citi levies US card fees
Following the lead of its UK-based subsidiary Egg, which rolled out the Egg Money World MasterCard on 14 July, a card subject to the once commonplace annual fee (see RBI 616), Citi has intimated to a number of its US-based customers that it will impose an annual card fee of up to $90 Other Citi customers have received notification that a $30 annual fee will apply to their cards; in all cases, cardholders are being given two months to opt out on condition that they repay their existing card balance over the remaining term of their credit card contract.
Restarting Romania
Romanias credit rating was cut, the government had to seek help from a combination of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the European Union, while its banks had to raise rates on deposits to attract funds, threatening net interest income. Across the sector as a whole, deposits growth slowed, up by 12.3 percent year-on-year in June against 19.4 percent in January
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Lloyds prepares to cut UK branch network
Lloyds Banking Group, the UKs largest retail bank with over 3,100 branches under its Lloyds TSB, Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Cheltenham & Gloucester (C&G) brands, is reportedly willing to sell a number of its Scotland-based Lloyds TSB outlets as well as the 164-branch-strong C&G network, to comply with EU antitrust regulations
Nigeria gets heavy with its banks
The Central Bank of Nigerias (CBN) dramatic attempts to clean-up the countrys banking sector is widely expected to accelerate long anticipated consolidation of the sector The CBN has either dismissed or had arrested senior management (executive and non-executive) at five leading lenders Oceanic International, Intercontinental, FinBank, Union Bank and Afribank while also injecting NGN420 billion ($2.72 billion) into the banks to keep them viable. Four former bank managing directors, eight bank directors and one bank debtor remain in custody, facing 131 charges in total involving NGN626 billion, including fraud, concealment and grant of loans without adequate collateral
Report suggests flaws in SEPA’s ambitions
With the Payment Services Directive (PSD) due to come into force on 1 November, and the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) Direct Debit (SDD) scheme to follow the next day, Europe should be preparing for the start of a transparent, harmonised and integrated market for payments and payment processing
UK’s Nationwide rolls out innovative Champion Saver
Nationwide Building Society, the UKs largest mutual, has launched what it describes as a first of its kind in the UK market a 60-day-notice savings account whose rate is determined by the average of the top five branch-based instant access, limited access and notice accounts from key competitors
Britannia, CFS merger approved as UK mutual sector nosedives
The UKs second-largest mutual has opened for business following the merger between Britannia Building Society and Co-operative Financial Services The new business has £70 billion ($119 billion) of assets, nine million customers and more than 300 branches. In April, Britannia members voted nine-to-one in favour of creating this new member-led financial services business, which is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Co-operative Group (see RBI 612)