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National Bank of Kuwait's Q3 results out; partial sale of UAE's Najm explored

* The EU removed the United Arab Emirates from its list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions, saying the country passed the necessary reforms to implement measures to improve its tax policy framework and is now fully compliant with the bloc's tax cooperation commitments. Meanwhile, the EU also found Mauritius to be compliant with all commitments on tax cooperation and removed them from its grey list.

* The World Bank cut its 2019 growth projection for Sub-Saharan Africa to 2.6%, 0.2 percentage point lower than its previous forecast in April and compares to a 2.5% growth in 2018. The organization said recovery in Sub-Saharan Africa's three largest economies — Nigeria, South Africa and Angola — remained sluggish and is weighing on the region's prospects.

* The ECB and German financial markets regulator BaFin have rejected the appointment of Jürg Zeltner to the supervisory board of German lender Deutsche Bank AG due to a conflict of interest, insiders told Reuters. Zeltner was set to represent the interests of Qatar's royal family, Deutsche Bank's largest shareholder.

* The U.K. Serious Fraud Office has claimed that former top executives of Barclays PLC must have been aware that the British lender had to pay Qatari investors hefty fees to secure their participation in an emergency fundraising for the bank in 2008, and that the payment of the extra commissions could not be carried out openly, the Financial Times reported.

GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL

* National Bank of Kuwait SAKP reported third-quarter profit attributable to shareholders of 93.1 million dinars, up from 86.5 million dinars a year earlier.

* Kuwait-based Warba Bank KSCP has listed $500 million of sukuk on Nasdaq Dubai, Mubasher reported.

* Dubai-based Majid Al Futtaim Holding LLC is exploring options for its Najm credit card business and hired U.S. investment bank Moelis & Co at the start of the summer to advise and manage a partial sale, insiders told Reuters. Mashreqbank PSC, First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC and Citigroup Inc. have reportedly been shortlisted as bidders for the business, which is valued between $200 million and $250 million.

* The UAE's central bank has reduced the early settlement fee for borrowers seeking to exit their mortgage early to 1% of the outstanding mortgage amount or 10,000 dirhams, whichever is less, from 3% previously, Arabian Business wrote.

* Saudi Arabia-based Vision Capital Group has changed its name to Areeb Capital after obtaining approval from the country's Capital Markets Authority.

REST OF MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA

* Central Bank of Iran Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati said the merger of five banks and credit institutions affiliated to the country's armed forces with state-owned Bank Sepah will be completed by the end of the year, Financial Tribune reported.

* Israeli insurance technology firm Sapiens International Corp. NV entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Spain-based insurance consulting and managed services provider Calculo SA.

* Egyptian Arab Land Bank Vice Chairman Amr Gadallah said the state-owned lender's loan portfolio has increased to 13.2 billion Egyptian pounds at the end of September this year from 5.2 billion pounds at the end of October 2017, Amwal Al Ghad reported. Gadallah also said the bank is looking to increase total customer deposits to 50 billion pounds by the end of 2019 from 48 billion pounds currently.

* Egyptian central bank Sub Governor Ayman Hussein said the regulator is looking to launch a holding company focused on managing its financial technology investments before the end of 2019, Amwal Al Ghad wrote.

* Capital Intelligence Ratings lowered Morocco-based Banque Marocaine du Commerce Extérieur SA's long- and short-term foreign-currency ratings to BB+/B from BBB-/A3 and assigned the lender bank standalone and core financial strength ratings of "bb-", with a stable outlook on the long-term foreign-currency rating and bank standalone rating.

EAST AND WEST AFRICA

* The U.S. has called on Seychelles to counter money laundering risks associated with offshore banking and to put in place legislation to address loopholes in its financial regulation, Seychelles News Agency wrote.

* A Kenyan court ordered Trident Insurance Co. to pay Saham Assurance Co. 33.4 million shillings with interest over Trident's failure to compensate a supermarket when one of its branches caught fire in 2015, Business Daily Africa reported.

* Kenya-based Standard Investment Bank Ltd. has launched Mansa-x, a fund that will invest in currencies, commodities and precious metals, after obtaining a license from the Capital Markets Authority, Business Daily Africa wrote.

* The IMF said Nigeria's central bank may have to reconsider new rules to spur lending due to potential unintended consequences on banks' asset quality, maturity structure, prudential buffers and the inflation target. The central bank last week fined 12 banks for failing to meet the 60% minimum loan-to-deposit ratio requirement after raising the target to 65%, and warned that those who fail to meet the new target by December will be required to maintain higher cash reserves.

* Shareholders of LASACO Assurance PLC authorized the Nigerian insurer's board to raise additional capital through the issuance of 9,250,000,000 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at 1.20 kobo per share via a special or private placement.

* The Nigerian Stock Exchange amended rules related to the minimum trade quantity required to change prices for equity securities traded on the bourse, saying the changes are aimed at ensuring overall market stability, efficiency and fairness in pricing NSE securities.

* The West African Monetary Union adopted new legislation to combat money laundering, according to Financial Afrik.

CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN AFRICA

* S&P Global Ratings said it sees no immediate pressure to change South Africa's sovereign rating in the near term despite the country's weak economic growth and growing debt burden, Reuters reported. The agency currently rates South Africa at sub-investment grade.

* Sanlam Ltd. CEO Ian Kirk said the South African insurer might get more time to execute its strategy of expanding existing operations as its rivals Liberty Holdings Ltd. and Momentum Metropolitan Holdings Ltd. scale back activities on the continent and Old Mutual Ltd. faces a dispute with former CEO Peter Moyo, Bloomberg News reported.

* South African micro finance firm African Dawn Capital Ltd. named David Simon Danker CEO, with immediate effect. James Slabbert, currently executive chairman of the company's board of directors, will also move to the role of nonexecutive chairman.

* Equatorial Guinea's oil minister, Gabriel Obiang Lima, said new currency restrictions enforced by the Bank of Central African States could hurt the Gulf of Guinea's oil and gas sector and "destroy" the country's economy, Reuters wrote.

IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

Asia-Pacific: JPMorgan sets up Singapore firm; China fines 4 banks; Vietcombank in Australia

Europe: Banks' Brexit market mayhem plans; Tryg earnings; cum-ex conviction

Latin America: Panama extends intervention at AllBank; inflation in Brazil falls

North America: Fidelity latest to cut trading fees; SEC rejects Bitwise bitcoin ETF proposal

Global Insurance: Prudential Financial reclassifying vapers; CNA Hardy exit; Hagibis targets Japan

Deza Mones, Henni Abdelghani, Pádraig Belton and Mariana Aldano 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. Descriptions in this news article were not prepared by S&P Global Ratings.