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Fitch lifts Qatar outlook; Mashreqbank seeks Saudi banking license

MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA

* Fitch Ratings revised Qatar's outlook to stable from negative and affirmed its AA- long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating, citing the country's resilience amid a now year-long diplomatic standoff with the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt.

* Mashreqbank PSC is seeking a banking license in Saudi Arabia, insiders told Reuters. The UAE bank did not confirm the application but said it is exploring the Saudi market.

* Separately, Mashreqbank named Sridhar Iyer head of marketing and head of its digital bank, Mashreq Neo.

* Japan's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Tsukasa Uemura, told Arab News that three major Japanese banks will become operational in the Middle Eastern country by October.

* Ahmed bin Sulaiman al-Rajhi stepped down as deputy chairman of Al Rajhi Co. for Cooperative Insurance following his appointment as Saudi Arabia's minister of labor and social development, Argaam said.

* The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority approved Al-Buruj Co-Operative Insurance Co.'s proposed 20% capital hike to 300 million Saudi Arabian riyals through a bonus share issuance. Meanwhile, the board of Allianz Saudi Fransi Cooperative Insurance Co. proposed boosting the company's capital through a 400 million riyal rights issue.

* Fitch affirmed the Islamic Development Bank's long- and short-term issuer default ratings at AAA/F1+. The outlook on the long-term rating is stable.

* Qatar-based Commercial Bank PSQC issued a $500 million, five-year senior unsecured bond, The Peninsula Qatar wrote.

* Bahrain's Arab Banking Corp. BSC named Ammar Khalil senior executive officer for its branch at the Dubai International Financial Centre.

* Banks in Oman saw their asset-quality metrics weaken in 2017 due to a challenging operating environment, while rising interest rates have pushed their margins down, according to Fitch.

* Dhofar Insurance Co. SAOG said conservative estimates indicate that the company's exposure to Cyclone Mekunu will not exceed 1 million Omani rials, net of reinsurance.

* KAMCO Investment Co. KSC is working on setting an investment bank in Egypt as part of its expansion efforts, Al Seyassah reported.

* The European Investment Bank Group is resisting an EU plan for it to start doing business in Iran in a bid to offset the re-imposition of U.S. sanctions on the Middle Eastern country and save the 2015 nuclear accord, insiders told Reuters. The EIB, which raises much of its funds on U.S. markets, is reportedly concerned that the threat of sanctions could drive away bond buyers.

* Société Générale Marocaine de Banques acquired a 34.95% stake in Moroccan consumer credit firm Societe d'Equipement Domestique et Menager (EQDOM) SA from SG Financial Services Holding, a subsidiary of France-based Société Générale SA, according to Financial Afrik. The transaction, which was priced at more than $72 million, takes SGMB's total stake in Eqdom to 53.72%.

* Sadiq al-Kabir, governor of Libya's central bank in Tripoli, said officials in the capital have agreed to implement key reforms, including measures that address the exchange rate, by July-end, Reuters wrote. The country's official exchange rate was unchanged at 1.4 dinars to the dollar, while on the black market, the rate is at around 7 dinars to the dollar.

EAST AND WEST AFRICA

* The Bank of Ghana issued a 2.2 billion Ghanaian cedi bond and gave it to GCB Bank Ltd., which took over UT Bank Ghana Ltd. and Capital Bank Ltd., to compensate for the asset shortfalls of the two failed lenders, Bloomberg News wrote. Anthony Asare, GCB's head of treasury, said the bank also received 400 million cedis in overnight loans from the regulator on two occasions in October 2017 to help deal with an increase in withdrawals by UT Bank and Capital Bank customers.

* Banks in Côte d'Ivoire are struggling to recoup up to 200 billion CFA francs in loans granted to cocoa exporters during the country's 2016-2017 cocoa crisis, bank officials told Reuters. Lenders impacted by the fallout from the crisis include NSIA Banque and BGFIBank Côte d'Ivoire.

* Kenya's National Treasury is weighing plans to increase the maximum compensation for depositors with more than 100,000 Kenyan shillings in banks that collapse to 500,000 shillings from 100,000 shillings currently, The EastAfrican wrote.

* Ethiopia's parliament yesterday approved the government's decision to end the country's state of emergency two months ahead of schedule, Reuters wrote. The state of emergency was imposed in February following Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn's resignation amid public unrest in the country.

* NMB Bank PLC shareholders approved the board's proposal to distribute dividends amounting to 32 billion Tanzanian shillings.

CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN AFRICA

* Ebe Mba, chairman of Banque Nationale de la Guinée Equatoriale, said the bank is planning to open a subsidiary in Cameroon soon, Financial Afrik wrote.

IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

Asia-Pacific: PICC Group's Shanghai IPO gets nod; StanChart eyes Asian ops consolidation

Europe: UK raises £2.5B from RBS stake sale; SocGen settles US probes for $1.3B

Latin America: Bci-TotalBank deal gains final approval; Agibank sets price range for IPO

North America: Legg Mason to pay $64.2M to settle probe; Wells Fargo sues team of ex-advisers

North America Insurance: AmTrust adjourns meeting; Fidelis launches sidecar; Cigna in Asia data breach

Leo Magno, Henni Abdelghani, Sophie Davies and Mariana Aldano contributed to this report.

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