Naira touches record low after CBN devalues currency

The naira touched a record low against the dollar on Wednesday, a day after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) devalued the currency, and it was trading lower than the bank’s target band even after rebounding.

CBN devalued the naira by 8 percent and raised interest rates sharply on Tuesday, as it sought to stem losses to its foreign reserves from defending the currency against weaker oil prices.

The naira fell to a record low of 178.85 to the dollar shortly after the market opened, but it rebounded to firm almost 1 percent to 177.05 after two oil companies sold dollars.

That level was still below the new bank’s target band of 5 percent plus or minus 168 to the dollar after the devaluation.

Total sold $20 million while Shell sold an undisclosed amount of

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi fined $315m

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi (BTMU) has been fined $315m (£200m) by US authorities for watering down a report about transactions involving Iran and other sanctioned countries.

Key warnings were removed from the report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), due to pressure from BTMU employees, New York State regulators found.

One BTMU employee resigned following the investigation.

Two others were banned from working with any New York banks.

"It is clear that

Australia's ANZ bank suspends seven traders

ANZ, one of Australia's biggest banks, has suspended seven traders as part of an inquiry into the potential rigging of key interbank interest rates.

The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) has been investigating the country's interbank market since mid-2012.

Nigel Williams, chief risk officer of ANZ, said it was co-operating fully with ASIC.

The bank has been also been conducting its own investigation.

Mr Williams said:

Fitch: Nigerian banks performing well despite hurdles

Fitch Ratings says in a new special report that Nigerian banks are performing well despite the twin hurdles of tight monetary policy actions and new banking rules.”This is mostly supported by continuing robust economic growth. Nevertheless, we expect bank performance and growth to moderate over the next 18 months due to Central Bank of Nigeria actions aimed at protecting the economy and the banking system,” says Mahin Dissanayake, Director in Fitch’s EMEA Financial Institutions team.

The CBN’s stance also shifted towards protecting the consumer through its revised rules on banking charges introduced in 2013. All these moves, however, led to weaker profitability and stemmed credit growth in H114 – a trend that is likely to continue into 2015.

All Fitch-rated Nigerian banks were profitable in

We are dying of hunger — NUP, Electricity sector

The Nigerian Union of Pensioners, Electricity Sector, Rivers/Bayelsa Chapter has protested against the non-payment of their arrears and pension for over nine months.

During the protest in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, the union drew the attention of President Goodluck Jonathan to the hardship which their members are going through due to the irregular and non-payment of monthly pension since the beginning of the year.

The union insisted that the Ministry of Finance and Nigeria Electricity Liability Management Company, NELMCO Board should apologise to the families of its late union members, who

CBN Reviews Guidelines on International Money Transfer

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has reviewed the guidelines on international monetary transfer services.

The review, according to the bank, was carried out in order to accommodate inbound as well as the outbound money transfer services that was introduced recently.

The 19-page document titled: ‘Guidelines on International Money Transfer Services in Nigeria, obtained on the CBN’s website yesterday, stated that all inbound money transfer to Nigeria would be disbursed to beneficiaries who operate a bank account, mobile money wallets with the agent or through ATM.

Also, the central bank noted that the maximum allowable cash withdrawals for inbound money transfer shall not be more than $500, adding that any amount in excess of $500 would be paid through an account.

However, where the beneficiary does not have a

World Bank approves $500m credit for SME in Nigeria

The Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank has approved 500-million- dollar credit for Medium and Small Scale Enterprises in Nigeria, to increase their access to finance, a statement issued by  Bamidele Oladokun said on Friday.

In the statement, Oladokun, the bank’s Communication Specialist, said that the fund was from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) to support SME projects.

“The project is in support of the government’s efforts to promote the growth and job creation potential of the private sector through improved access to financing.

NDIC warns Nigerians against wonder banks

The NIGERIA Deposit Insurance corporation, NDIC, has warned the Nigerian public to be wary of “wonder banks” which offer mouth-watering deposit interests but indeed are out to defraud unscrupulous MEMBERS of the society.

The Managing Director, MD, of the corporation, Alh. Umaru Ibrahim, gave the warning at a press briefing in Abuja, yesterday, to mark its 25th anniversary.

“The problem of wonder banks are emerging again and the public must be careful about anyone coming to them and promising very high deposit interests which could be at the detriment of the deposit itself.

“If someone comes and promises a very high interest in order to take YOUR money.  You should be careful because his real intention might be to run away with your deposit”, he warned.

He regretted that in the current efforts to sanitise the MicroFinance Banking sub-sector, his officials couldn’t even trace the addresses of some of them, adding,

Naira falls 55k against dollar amidst CBN’s defense

In spite of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s intervention through foreign exchange auction, the nation’s currency naira on Monday weakened by N0.55k against the US dollar at the inter-bank market.

The CBN on Monday offered a total of $350 million but sold a total of $349.9 to 22 deposit money banks at rate of N155.75/$ at its twice weekly Dutch Auction System (RDAS).

Consequently, the local currency on Monday closed at N163.85/$ as against N163.30 on Friday last week, according data obtained from Financial Markets Dealers Quotation (FMDQ).

Analysts had anticipated sustained pressure on the local currency this week in spite of expected dollar sales from oil companies.

“Dollar demand from politicians holding their assets in hard currency ahead of elections next year has increased pressure on the local currency,” one dealer told Reuters.

Tesco fast-tracks new finance chief Alan Stewart

Troubled supermarket giant Tesco has said that its new chief financial officer, Alan Stewart, is joining the company immediately, more than two months earlier than originally planned.

Mr Stewart was previously in the same post at Marks and Spencer.

His arrival fills a gap left by Laurie McIlwee, who left just over a week ago, following his resignation in April.

On Monday, Tesco stunned the markets by saying it had overstated its half-year profit guidance by £250m.

It has launched an investigation headed by Deloitte, and says it is now working to establish the impact of the issue on its full-year results.

It has also suspended four executives, including its UK managing director, Chris Bush.

Tesco is also believed to have suspended its UK finance director Carl Rogberg, its food commercial director John Scouler and the head of food sourcing, Matt Simister.

Tesco shopping Tesco has been battling falling sales and

Okonjo-Iweala confident 2014 GDP growth will exceed 6 percent

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, says she is confident that growth in 2014 will be around the government’s latest forecast of 6.5 percent after discounting the economic impact of the insurgency waged by Boko Haram.

“We are confident it will be better than 6 percent and about 6.5,”  Okonjo-Iweala said in a Reuters report.

The government’s latest forecast set in the past few days, puts 2014 growth at 6.5 percent, she said, adding that the forecast already discounted the impact from the Boko Haram insurgency.

Okonjo-Iweala said