Russia’s finance ministry has said it is to increase liquidity for the country’s three largest banks, pouring $44bn into Sberbank, VTB Group and Gazprombank for a minimum of three months. Russia’s financial markets are facing the biggest test since the 1998 crisis that pushed the government to default on $40bn of debt and devalue the rouble.
Gulf finance ministers have approved a draft agreement on monetary union as part of a plan to create a unified currency and a central bank, which they hope will eventually lead to full regional economic integration. Commentators say the plan may also be aimed at protecting the oil-rich states from future financial crises. Local stocks slumped this month on fears of fallout from the collapse of Lehman Brothers, although » they rebounded after the Federal Reserve’s rescue package for US insurer American International Group (AIG).
Portugal’s Banco BPI has sold 49.9% of Banco de Fomento Angola, the southern African country’s largest private sector bank, to leading local mobile phone operator Unitel for $475m. The deal would improve Banco BPI’s core Tier 1 capital ratio by 1.2%. The banks the smallest of Portugal’s top five, had long been seeking a local partner and had earlier been in negotiations with Sonangol, Angola’s state-owned oil company.
Royal Bank of Scotland’s private bank Coutts has announced a microfinance pilot scheme for philanthropists. The bank’s clients will have access to a microfinance advisory service to provide specific knowledge into organisations within microfinance, which should foster interest in this sector.
CORRECTION: The comparison figures for all the three Slovenian banks in the The Banker’s Top 1000 World Banks listing in the July 2008 issue were incorrect because the exchange rate for the end-2006 figures was overstated, leading to incorrect negative changes.
