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More Middle Eastern firms explore M&A; African states to discuss Chinese yuan

* Switzerland-based Banque de Commerce et de Placements SA said it halted all new transactions with Iran and is in the process of winding down its activities in the Middle Eastern country following the withdrawal of the U.S. from the nuclear deal, Reuters reported. Indian lenders IndusInd Bank Ltd. and UCO Bank, meanwhile, asked exporters to close their financial dealings with Iran by Aug. 6.

* Malaysia-based Islamic Financial Services Board is expanding its Islamic finance guidance for national regulators following the IMF's decision to incorporate Islamic finance into its financial sector assessments of certain countries beginning next year, Reuters wrote.

* Seventeen top central bank and government officials from 14 countries in eastern and southern Africa will meet in Harare, Zimbabwe, to discuss the possible use of China's yuan as a regional reserve currency. African Development Bank officials are also expected to join the talks, which will address the weakening external positions of most member countries following an economic slowdown.

* Twenty-six global banks, including Egypt's Commercial International Bank (Egypt) SAE, South Africa's Standard Bank Group Ltd. and Nigeria's Access Bank PLC, have teamed up with the United Nations to redefine banking principles to include social and environmental responsibilities and align them with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change.

MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA

* S&P Global Ratings said the overall impact of the new new IFRS 9 accounting rules on the financial profiles of banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council appears to be manageable as it initially predicted in May 2017.

* Economic growth is expected to pick up in the United Arab Emirates in 2018 but profits at the federation's banks are expected to be impacted by a new VAT regime and the implementation of IFRS 9 accounting standards, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

* The UAE Insurance Authority is set to oblige foreign insurance branches operating in the country to disclose assets of their parent companies that are available to offset risks in the country, Argaam reported. The move is part of a draft regulation seeking to implement Takaful's solvency requirements on branches of foreign insurance companies operating the UAE.

* Separately, the regulator said it is cooperating with the government to punish insurance companies failing to hire Emirati nationals, Emarat Al Youm reported.

* Abu Dhabi National Takaful Co. PSC CEO Osama Abdeen said the company is looking for expansion opportunities through M&A, Al Bayan reported. He also said the company plans to open new branches across the country.

* Analysts said the implementation of the new IFRS 9 accounting standard will likely push up Saudi Arabian banks' provisions in the near term, with lenders expected to exercise more caution to thwart future net income volatility, Argaam wrote.

* Data from the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority showed that listed banks saw a 20% year-over-year increase in aggregate net profit to 4.34 billion riyals in April, Argaam wrote. Meanwhile, the banking sector's aggregate earnings rose 11% on a yearly basis to 16.52 billion riyals year-to-date.

* S&P Global Ratings affirmed Saudi British Bank's long- and short-term issuer credit ratings at BBB+/A-2. The outlook remains stable.

* SABB Takaful Co.'s board of directors appointed Bander Almuhana an independent director, effective May 31, replacing Waleed Kayal, who is stepping down.

* Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait KSCP CEO Michel Accad said the lender is seeking potential acquisition opportunities with a particular preference for institutions in the Gulf Cooperation Council. He added that the bank is looking to increase income from nondomestic operations to about 33% in three to four years from the current level of roughly 20%.

* Kuwait-based Noor Financial Investment Co. sold a further 3,026,400 ordinary shares in Pakistan-based Meezan Bank Ltd. to foreign institutional buyers at 70 Pakistani rupees apiece, equating to 0.28% of the latter's total issued and paid-up capital, Pakistan Today wrote. Noor Financial last week sold a 2.49% stake in Meezan Bank.

* German lender Deutsche Bank AG will shutter its Dubai-based equity research department as part of a global restructuring of its equities business, insiders told Bloomberg News. The lender will cut eight jobs as part of the department closure.

* Emirates NBD Bank PJSC has teamed up with Diebold Nixdorf to launch the region's first integrated digital kiosk, which will function like a branch and offer a variety of bank services, Gulf News wrote.

* The Jordan Insurance Federation urged the government to withdraw a draft income tax bill aimed at increasing the tax rate on insurance companies to 40% from 24%, the Middle East Insurance Review wrote. The association noted the decline in insurers' profits, which reached 3.9 million Jordanian dinars in 2017, down 85.3% from a year earlier.

* Abdullah Salim Al Samli, executive president of Oman's Capital Market Authority, urged insurers to ease claims processing for clients that suffered losses from Cyclone Mekunu, which hit the Dhofar region last weekend, Times of Oman wrote.

* Lebanon's finance minister, Ali Hassan Khalil, said the government wants to swap $5 billion of new foreign currency bonds for Lebanese pound debt with the country's central bank, Reuters reported. The minister said the swap will help cut the cost of servicing the country's debt pile by $1.5 billion and boost the central bank's foreign currency assets. Meanwhile, the central bank sold $3.022 billion of eurobonds, more than the $1 billion it initially intended to sell following high investor demand.

EAST AND WEST AFRICA

* Central Bank of Kenya Governor Patrick Njoroge said a draft bill aimed at regulating the conduct of financial institutions in the country would "emasculate" the regulator as it would limit the central bank's powers, Reuters reported. The Financial Markets Conduct bill, proposed by the country's finance ministry, seeks to establish a regulator in addition to the central bank to deal with banks' conduct.

* Coris Bank Senegal launched a Coris Baraka agency dedicated to providing Islamic finance products, with an initial capitalization of 500 million CFA francs, Financial Afrik said.

* Ivory Coast's auto insurance providers have agreed on minimum price guidelines, ending the price war, Abidjan's Fratmat.info reported.

CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN AFRICA

* Prosecutors in Angola named Jean-Claude Bastos de Morais, head of Swiss asset manager Quantum Global, as a suspect in a criminal investigation, Reuters wrote, citing Jornal de Angola. It is unclear what the executive is being investigated for. Quantum Global, which was contracted by Angola's $5 billion sovereign wealth fund to invest money on its behalf, is accused by the fund of mismanagement.

* The African Export-Import Bank is to lend Angola $2 billion for essential imports including pharmaceutical products and food, Reuters reported. The financing will also enable selected Angolan banks to issue credit notes, which will be backed by Afreximbank, to guarantee the import of essential items.

* Angola has asked to borrow another $15.5 billion from China to finance a series of road-building and infrastructure projects in the oil-exporting African nation, Novo Jornal reported, noting that the financing would sharply increase Angola's existing debt to China, which already reached $16.6 billion between 2000 and 2014.

* CBZ Holdings Ltd. named Blessing Mudavanhu its new group CEO, effective June 1, 263Chat wrote. Mudavanhu replaces Never Nyemudzo, who has retired.

* India's Bank of Baroda, which has links to the politically connected Gupta family, has given a formal notice of its intention to exit South Africa, fin24.com wrote, citing South African Reserve Bank Deputy Governor Kuben Naidoo.

IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

Asia-Pacific: Ant Financial closes US$10B fundraising; China's Huifu to launch HK IPO in June

Europe: UK readying RBS stake sale; Italian bank stocks fall amid political turmoil

Latin America: Brazil currency, stocks drop amid strike; ILC's Q1 profit rises 7.8%

North America: Scotiabank fiscal Q2 profit up; customer data breach at 2 Canadian banks

North America Insurance: Proxy advisers split on AmTrust deal; reinsurance M&A may pick up again

Sheryl Obejera, Henni Abdelghani, Pádraig Belton, and Helen Popper contributed to this report.

The Daily Dose Middle East and Africa has an editorial deadline of 5 a.m. London time. Some external links may require a subscription. Links are current as of publication time, and we are not responsible if those links are unavailable later.

This S&P Global Market Intelligence news article may contain information about credit ratings issued by S&P Global Ratings, a separately managed division of S&P Global. Descriptions in this news article were not prepared by S&P Global Ratings.