Bank lending conditions in emerging economies tightened abruptly to their weakest level in three years in the first quarter of 2015, according to the latest Emerging Markets Bank Lending Conditions Survey from the Institute of International Finance (IIF).

"The sharp tightening of EM bank lending conditions is further evidence that emerging market economies are struggling," said Charles Collyns, Chief Economist at the IIF. "In addition to a demand slowdown, supply conditions continued to deteriorate. Banks reported a continued tightening in funding conditions, likely reflecting the cautious tone in EM financial markets, at least until the March FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) meeting."

The composite index of the IIF's Bank Lending Survey dropped 1.7 points to 48.1 in Q1 2015, the lowest since Q4 2011. An index reading below 50 reflects a tightening in bank lending conditions. This tightening in lending conditions was driven by a sharp decline in loan demand, whose index fell to the lowest level in the series starting Q4 2009.

The index for domestic funding conditions edged up 1.5 points to reach 50.7 in the first quarter of 2015. This was primarily driven by a substantial improvement in funding conditions in EM Asia, even as funding conditions in other regions tightened.

By region, EM Asia and Latin America drove the overall tightening in bank lending conditions. Lending conditions in EM Europe also entered tightening territory after easing in 2014. The improvement in bank lending conditions in the MENA region continued to moderate, probably reflecting the impact of weaker commodity prices since the second half of 2014.

The survey covered 130 EM banks and was conducted between March 12 and April 23, 2015.

UK-based bank Standard Chartered announced a 22% drop in Group operating profit for the first quarter of 2015, at US$ 1.47 billion (€1.35 billion) compared with US$ 1.87 billion (€1.7 billion) for the same period in 2014.

The bank’s Interim Management Statement listed first quarter income down by 1% on a constant currency basis. Headline income of US$ 4.4 billion (€4 billion) was down 4%, 1% of which was the result of business exits.

Peter Sands, Group Chief Executive, commented: “We are on schedule to deliver a Common Equity Tier 1 ratio of between 11% and 12% and sustainable cost saves in excess of US$ 400 million (€365 million) in 2015. Trading conditions remain challenging and the actions we are taking to de-risk, cut costs and build capital are having an impact on near term performance. However, underlying business volumes generally remain strong. We remain confident in the strength of our franchise, the opportunities in our markets and in our ability to build returns to an attractive level in the medium term.”

Earlier this year, Standard Chartered announced the closure of its institutional cash equities, equity research and equity capital markets (ECM) activities, leading to 200 job losses. The decision to close its equities business formed part of its austerity measures announced in November 2014 with the aim of saving $400 million (€365 million) in 2015.

Overall, the Group remains highly liquid and well capitalised, with ratios well above current regulatory requirements. Group Risk Weighted Assets were slightly up on the year end and the bank stated it is well advanced on its plan to take out US$ 25-30 billion (€23-27 billion) in the next two years.

Metro Bank, the UK’s first new high street bank in more than 100 years, has reached its half millionth customer milestone as the bank announces its quarter one financial statement to 31 March 2015.

The bank saw a 56% increase in accounts opened, to achieve the 500,000. Deposits increased to £3.4 billion (€4.7 billion) - a year on year growth of 109%, while total loans grew to £1.8 billion (€2.5 billion) - a year on year increase of 91%.

Craig Donaldson, Chief Executive Officer, Metro Bank said: “We’re delighted that our first quarter results continue to show substantial growth across deposits, lending and customer accounts.

“We remain committed to offering the very best in service and convenience and have invested heavily to give our customers the ability to bank however, whenever and wherever they want. In response, we have continued to see thousands more personal and business customers join the banking revolution every week.”

Total assets were £4.2 billion (€5.8 billion), up from £3.7 billion (€5.2 billion) at the start of the quarter; an increase of 16% in the quarter and 74% year on year. Meanwhile, the bank opened new stores in Cambridge, Brighton and Southend, taking its total number of stores to 34. A further seven stores are planned for 2015, including Tunbridge Wells and Harrow.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited (ICBC) posted a net profit of RMB276.3 billion (€41.5 billion) for the year of 2014, representing a growth of 5.1% over 2013, the bank announced on March 26, 2015.

In 2014, in response to an increasingly complex global economy, coupled with rising economic challenges and deepening financial reform in the domestic scene, ICBC started to focus on five key drivers.

First, the bank integrated the management of its loan increments and existing loans and credit and non-credit financing with the provision of diversified financial services. As a result, new loans in RMB and foreign currencies of ICBC’s domestic branches increased by RMB927.3 billion (€140 billion) compared with the beginning of 2014.

Second, the bank maintained stable asset quality with overall risk controlled. As at the end of 2014, the bank’s non-performing loan (NPL) ratio stood at 1.13%, an increase of 0.19 percentage points over the end of 2013. Zong Internet packages of Super student Bundle is design & available for the student especially. As students are the most important part of the community which use mobile frequently. Thus, Zong internet packages are easy on the pocket for students. This package is speedy as student need more speed to download assignments and related things.

Third, the bank accelerated the establishment of a sustainable profit structure with diversified profit streams and various profitable businesses. Despite lowered fee standards for some of its intermediary businesses, the bank’s net fee and commission income rose by 9% compared with 2013.

Fourth, ICBC’s internet financing business achieved scalable growth upon successful rollouts of e-ICBC financial products and services. The ICBC E-shopping e-commerce platform registered 16 million users in its first 14 months. ICBC e-payment, an instant payment product for small amounts, saw trading capacity hit 11.2 million transactions a second.

Fifth, net contribution from globalised and integrated operations grew significantly, and new opportunities are coming from the bank’s “One Belt, One Road” strategy. In 2014, net profit of the Bank’s overseas institutions rose by 35.6% year-on-year to RMB15.1 billion (€2.3 billion).

The UK’s RBS Group announced an attributable loss of £3,470 million (€4.7 billion) in 2014, compared with a loss of £8,995 million (€12.3 billion) in 2013, when it posted its 2014 financial report today.

However, the beleaguered banking group said it was making further progress towards a stronger, safer and more sustainable business.

“Last year we identified the areas we needed to improve in order to deliver our strategy - cost, complexity, capital and trust from our customers. The energy and resolve of our people have resulted in significant progress on each, and we have delivered on the goals we set for 2014,” said Ross McEwan, Chief Executive, RBS.

The 2014 results included a loss from discontinued operations of £3,445 million (€4.7 billion), which reflected a £3,994 million (€5.5 billion) fair value write-down in relation to the reclassification of Citizens to disposal groups, and a tax charge of £1.9 billion (€2.6 billion) which included a £1.5 billion (€2 billion) write-off of deferred tax assets.

Operating profit totalled £3,503 million (€4.8 billion) for 2014, compared with an operating loss of £7,500 million (€10.3 million) in 2013. This reflected improved operating results from the core domestic businesses together with significant impairment releases in Ulster Bank and RBS Capital Resolution (RCR).

Following its results release, RBS announced the following changes to its management team:

• Rory Cullinan will become Executive Chairman of CIB & Capital Resolution. He is currently CEO of RBS Capital Resolution Group (CRG).
• Donald Workman has been appointed as Executive Chairman, Private Banking.
• Rory Tapner, Chief Executive of Coutts, will step down and leave the bank, with immediate effect.

Within the overall strategic shape outlined for Corporate & Institutional Banking (CIB) in 2014, RBS said it is making further changes to improve its medium-term returns, building a stronger, safer and more sustainable business, focused mainly on UK and Western European customers, both corporates and financial institutions, supported by trading and distribution platforms in the UK, US and Singapore.

Standard Chartered PLC today announced the closure of its institutional cash equities, equity research and equity capital markets (ECM) activities, leading to 200 job losses, as the Group continues cut costs.

The decision to close its equities business follows further austerity measures announced in November 2014 with the aim of saving $400 million (€340 million) in 2015.

The closure of the loss-making institutional cash equities, equity research and ECM operations will deliver a further $100 million (€85 million) of cost savings in 2016, and will impact approximately 200 roles across seven of the Group’s 70 markets. In 2015 run-rate savings will broadly offset restructuring costs.

Mike Rees, Deputy Group Chief Executive said: “As part of the Group’s on-going review of its client strategy, the decision has been taken to exit the institutionally focused cash equities business with immediate effect. While this has sadly resulted in a number of colleagues leaving the Bank, a transition team will remain to manage the interim period and support our clients.”

Further cuts have been made to the bank’s retail sector, as it moves to a more digital platform, which has resulted in around 2,000 job cuts announced or completed in the last three months, with a reduction of a further 2,000 expected during 2015. Standard and Chartered closed 22 branches in the second half of 2014.

Peter Sands, Group Chief Executive, said: “We are demonstrating action and progress as the management team focuses on delivering returns for shareholders. We are continuing to take significant action on costs by exiting or reconfiguring non-core and underperforming businesses, and by increasing the efficiency of our core businesses. We are well on track to deliver at least $400 million (€340 million) of cost saves for 2015, and we are now focusing on achieving further cost savings for 2016 and beyond as we continue creating capacity to invest in the Group’s core businesses.”

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Retail bank IT investment in 2015 will be focused on driving revenue growth, according to new research from Ovum, the global analyst house. Digital channels will be at the heart of this activity, particularly as the improving economy has meant reducing costs and headcount is no longer a priority. The large majority of investment made in 2015 will be focused on progressing with an omnichannel experience for customers.

Across the senior IT executive respondents in Ovum’s ‘ICT Enterprise Insights’ survey, 43% highlighted supporting revenue growth as one of the top three strategic priorities for 2015. In recent years, many banks have neglected the back office to focus on creating a strong consumer-facing platform, therefore improving the efficiency of internal business processes is a core focus for 38% of banks.

“The need to grow top line revenue through sales and customer conversion rates is driving investment into digital channels,” said Kieran Hines, Practice Lead, Financial Services Technology, Ovum. “Due to this, the areas that will see the greatest spending in 2015 are mobile and online banking, with 52% and 51% of banks respectively seeing their budgets grow. Product development will see the largest magnitude of budget increase, with over 17% of banks expecting investment to increase by more than 6%.”

Regionally, North America and North Asia are tightly focused on the consumer, while this is less of a priority in Western Europe. Banks in the US and Canada cited customer origination and customer experience as their two priorities. In North Asia, 58% of banks hold streamlining customer application and management processes as a pressing issue. Reflecting the less positive economic outlook in Western Europe, the leading IT priority for banks in the region is simply to support revenue growth.