GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL
* Gulf Union Co-operative Insurance Co. CEO Munir al-Burno told Argaam that the company's planned merger with Al Ahlia Insurance Co. for Cooperative Insurance
* The board of Al Rajhi Banking & Investment Corp.
* Dubai-based private equity firm Abraaj Group Ltd.
* Kuwait's General Organization for Social Insurance said its former Director General Fahad al-Rajaan approved a $731.8 million loan to Abraaj Holdings without conducting due diligence, Al-Qabas reported. The organization recovered $346.1 million of the amount.
* Sovereign wealth fund Kuwait Investment Authority reportedly said it does not see any conflict of interest in a possible merger between Kuwait Finance House KSCP
* Kuwait has formally requested that Dubai unfreeze and return the $496 million of investor funds belonging to private equity fund Port Fund that have been held in Noor Bank PJSC.
* Bahrain Islamic Bank BSC
* Former Barclays CEO John Varley, along with three former colleagues at the British bank, is set to appear in court today over charges of conspiracy to commit fraud in connection with the lender's controversial capital increase in 2008 involving Qatari investors, news outlets including Reuters reported.
* Doha Bank QPSC
REST OF MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
* Central Bank of Iran Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati said the regulator presented a bill to the government proposing to remove four zeros from the Iranian rial in a bid to strengthen the currency, Reuters reported, citing IRNA. The proposal has been floated since 2008 but gained traction after the rial lost more than 60% of its value last year following the reimposition of U.S. sanctions.
* Iran's Expediency Council, a body that resolves disputes between parliament and the Guardian Council, approved the changes to an anti-money laundering bill as part of the country's efforts to comply with standards set by the Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental organization combating money laundering and terrorist financing, according to the Financial Tribune.
* Jordan Insurance Federation President Majed Smeirat said he expects five to seven insurance companies to exit the local market if the government implements the solvency margin requirement, Al Ghad reported.
* Businessman Tawfiq Fakhouri has transferred 81.6 million of his shares in Bank of Jordan PLC
* Egypt's Financial Regulatory Authority filed a criminal case against Beltone Financial Holding SAE
* The board of Société Arabe Internationale de Banque SAE
EAST AND WEST AFRICA
* Bank of Ghana Governor Ernest Addison said the country now has 23 "well-capitalized" lenders, down from 34 previously, after the central bank raised the minimum capital requirement to 400 million cedis in a bid to clean up the banking sector, Bloomberg reported.
* GN Bank Ltd.
* Ghana's finance ministry said the government has established the Ghana Amalgamated Trust, a special purpose vehicle to support "solvent and strong" indigenous banks to meet the central bank's new minimum capital requirement, stressing that it is not a bailout program for banks that have been resolved by the Bank of Ghana. The program's beneficiaries are Agricultural Development Bank Ltd., National Investment Bank Ltd., OmniBank Ghana Ltd./Bank Sahel Sahara Ghana (OmniBank/BSIC), Universal Merchant Bank Ltd. and Prudential Bank Ltd. Graphic Online covered.
* Consolidated Bank of Kenya Ltd.
CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN AFRICA
* Banco Nacional de Angola withdrew the licenses of Banco Postal and Banco Mais after missing a 2018-end deadline to comply with new capital requirements, Reuters reported. The central bank said that the two small lenders should be declared bankrupt.
* Angola's state-run Banco de Poupança e Crédito SA, which has been plagued by high levels of bad loans in recent years, has failed to open three branches that were installed in Zaire province several years ago, Jornal de Angola reported.
IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD
Asia-Pacific: China to cut banks' reserve requirement ratio; India merges 3 banks
Deza Mones, Henni Abdelghani, Sophie Davies and Helen Popper contributed to this report.
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