All articles by Duygu Tavan
Duygu Tavan
New dawn for Nigeria
Nigeria could have been a gold mine long ago, were it not for the unregulated and crime-infected banking sector But, in 2009, the Central Bank cleaned up the system, bailed out 9 banks and a deadline to meet new liquidity requirements rapidly approaches
MCB on to a winner with store strategy
The ROI of alternative distribution channels may rise and rise but the branch will remain essential Duygu Tavan discusses the retail store concept with retail banking chief manager Alain Law Min.
Central Bank of India: Aggressive investments in next 2 years
Central Bank of India not to be confused with the countrys central bank Reserve Bank of India is following Union Banks aggressive growth targets. Central Bank of India is planning on hiring 5,000 more staff, investing in new technology and expanding outside of its domestic market in order to increase its retail banking business.
Social CRM success: Turkish banks’ Facebook fan numbers soar
Individual likes on the Facebook pages of both, Garanti (the second largest privately-owned bank by assets) and Akbank (the third largest privately-owned bank by assets) rose by more than ten times in the past seven months.
Now its Lloyds’ turn to take PPI hit: £3.25bn pre-tax loss in H111
Lloyds Banking Groups interim earnings have been crushed by provisions for missold payments protection insurance (PPI). Lloyds was the lender with the largest amount of PPI sales
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And another one: Nigeria M&A trend continues with Ecobank’s acquisition of Oceanic Bank
It is the last few weeks before Nigerian banks have to meet the Central Bank of Nigerias (CNB) higher capital reserve ultimatum and now another bank seems to have crumbled under the requirements. Following the acquisitions of Intercontinental Bank and Finbank, Oceanic Bank has become the latest bank to be snapped up by a financially stronger bank ahead of the capital deadline in September: Eco Transnational Incorporated, more commonly known as Ecobank, has emerged as the winning bidder for bailed-out Oceanic Bank is going to recapitalise the weaker lender ahead of the September deadline.
Nigeria M&A: Fidelity eyes Spring Bank and Afribank
Samuel Obioha, money market strategy analyst at Fidelity Bank, confirmed that the bank had received approval from the Nigerian Central Bank to acquire Spring Bank and is now awaiting approval for the acquisition of Afribank. More and more mergers and acquisitions are taking place in the Nigerian financial sector as the Central Banks deadline for the bailed-out banks to meet higher capitalisation requirements is getting closer.
Barclays’ earnings hit by £1bn PPI provisions
Barclays pre-tax profit from retail and business banking across the group fell by 63% on the first half of last year to £446m (726m) after Barclays had to pay the full amount of the £1bn it had set aside as an estimate to cover PPI re-imbursements. Sixty percent of the PPI provisions related to the UK Barclayscard division; the remainder related to the retail and business banking unit.
Technnology, regulation key to unbanked
As technology is becoming an increasingly integral part of banking product offerings and services, banks are realising that there is a return on investment from including low-income groups in the banking space: offering services via online or mobile channels is cheaper and more people are keen to use those direct channels.
US majors report mixed interim results
The four big US banks Bank of America (BofA), Citi, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase have posted mixed results from retail banking income for the six months to the end of June. At BofA, retail net income was boosted by strong earnings from the cards division: Global Card Services net income more than doubled over a year ago to $3.77bn