Business

IMF Warns Global Inflation Could Stay High Until 2025

Published

1 year ago

April 11, 2023

Editor

The underlying drivers of historically-high global inflation could persist until 2025, the International Monetary Fund’s chief economist told AFP on Tuesday.

Prices around the world have surged since the rapid reopening of the global economy after the Covid-19 pandemic. Inflation was further fueled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, which caused commodity prices to spike.

“Inflation is still with us,” Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas said in an interview in Washington, shortly after the IMF raised its forecast for inflation this year to seven percent.

Despite an aggressive, concerted, campaign by central banks to slow price increases by raising interest rates, inflation in many countries remain well above the two percent target set by the US Federal Reserve and others.

“Core inflation in particular has not started to come down significantly back towards the target,” Gourinchas said, referring to a measure that strips out volatile food and energy prices.

“It probably won’t be until the end of 2024, maybe into 2025,” he added.

“The persistence of core inflation means that central banks may have to keep their interest rates higher for longer“, he said.

Such a move would put additional strains on a financial sector already rocked by the dramatic collapse of Californian lender Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) last month.

SVB’s fall was swiftly followed by the failure of another US regional lender and the merger under pressure of Swiss investment banking giant Credit Suisse with its regional rival UBS.

Gourinchas said “very forceful intervention” by the Fed, Swiss National Bank and others had helped to tackle the immediate challenges unleashed by SVB’s failure, but warned that “pockets” potential challenges remained.

“We’re in a situation where there is elevated levels of nervousness in the market,” he said.

An area of concern is the real estate sector, in part due to the slow post-pandemic return to offices in many cities around the world.

Gourinchas warned that there may be other financial institutions like SVB that are over-exposed to interest rate risks, which could cause problems if rates stay high while central banks fight inflation.

Countries without the fiscal tools to help fight inflation could also suffer, Gourinchas warned.

“One should be very vigilant going ahead to make sure that the places that look weak are reinforced, are buttressed,” he said.

Business

FULL LIST: CBN Publishes List Of Licensed Deposit Money Banks

Published

10 hours ago

May 8, 2024

Editor

The Central Bank of Nigeria has released a comprehensive list of licensed Deposit Money Banks operating within the country.

The list, which was made public on the CBN’s official website on Tuesday, provides insights into the banking landscape in Nigeria.

Banks with international authorisation include Access Bank Limited, Fidelity Bank Plc, First City Monument Bank Limited, First Bank Nigeria Limited, Guaranty Trust Bank Limited, United Bank of Africa Plc, and Zenith Bank Plc.

Commercial banks with national authorisation include Citibank Nigeria Limited, Ecobank Nigeria Limited, Heritage Bank Plc, Globus Bank Limited, Keystone Bank Limited, Polaris Bank Limited, Stanbic IBTC Bank Limited, Standard Chartered Bank Limited, Sterling Bank Limited, Titan Trust Bank Limited, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Unity Bank Plc, Wema Bank Plc, Premium Trust Bank Limited and Optimus Bank Limited.

Commercial banks with regional licenses are Providus Bank Limited, Parallex Bank Limited, Suntrust Bank Nigeria Limited, and Signature Bank Limited.

Players in the non-interest banking sector with national authorisation include Jaiz Bank Plc, Taj Bank Limited, Lotus Bank Limited, and Alternative Bank Limited.

In the merchant banking category, the apex banks listed, are Coronation Merchant Bank Limited, FBN Merchant Bank Limited, FSDH Merchant Bank Limited, Greenwich Merchant Bank Limited, Nova Merchant Bank Limited, and Rand Merchant Bank Limited.

The financial holding companies listed were Access Holdings Plc, FBN Holdings Plc, FCMB Group Plc, FSDH Holding Company Limited, Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc, Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, and Sterling Financial Holdings Limited.

The Mauritius Commercial Bank Representative Office (Nigeria) Limited was listed as the sole representative office.

Business

[ICYMI]FULL LIST: 16 Banking Transactions Exempted From CBN’s New

Published

2 days ago

May 7, 2024

Editor

The Central Bank of Nigeria on Monday directed all banks to commence charging a 0.5 per cent cybersecurity levy on all electronic transactions within the country.

The apex bank stated this in a circular signed by the Director, Payments System Management Department, Chibuzo Efobi; and the Director, Financial Policy and Regulation Department, Haruna Mustafa; a copy of which was obtained by The PUNCH.

The circular, which was directed to all commercial, merchant, non-interest, and payment service banks, among others; noted that the implementation of the levy would start two weeks from Monday, May 6, 2024.

“The levy shall be applied at the point of electronic transfer origination, then deducted and remitted by the financial institution. The deducted amount shall be reflected in the customer’s account with the narration, ‘Cybersecurity Levy,’” the circular partly read.

In this piece, The PUNCH highlights all the 16 banking transactions that are exempted from the CBN’s new cybersecurity levy:

Loan disbursements and repayments
Salary payments
Intra-account transfers within the same bank or between different banks for the same customer
Intra-bank transfers between customers of the same bank
Other Financial Institutions instructions to their correspondent banks
Interbank placements,
Banks’ transfers to CBN and vice-versa
Inter-branch transfers within a bank
Cheque clearing and settlements
Letters of Credits

Banks’ recapitalisation-related funding – only bulk funds movement from collection accounts
Savings and deposits, including transactions involving long-term investments such as Treasury Bills, Bonds, and Commercial Papers.
Government Social Welfare Programmes transactions e.g. Pension payments
Non-profit and charitable transactions, including donations to registered non-profit organisations or charities
Educational institutions’ transactions, including tuition payments and other transactions involving schools, universities, or other educational institutions
Transactions involving bank’s internal accounts such as suspense accounts, clearing accounts, profit and loss accounts, inter-branch accounts, reserve accounts, nostro and vostro accounts, and escrow accounts.

Business

ICYMI: Five Things To Know About The New Cybersecurity Levy To Be Paid By Nigerians

Published

2 days ago

May 7, 2024

Editor

The Central Bank of Nigeria, on Monday, directed banks and other financial institutions to start charging a cybersecurity levy on all banking transactions.

According to the circular sighted by The PUNCH, the implementation of the levy would start in two weeks.

The circular read in part, “Following the enactment of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) (amendment) Act 2024 and pursuant to the provision of Section 44 (2)(a) of the Act, ‘a levy of 0.5% (0.005) equivalent to a half percent of all electronic transactions value by the business specified in the Second Schedule of the Act,’ is to be remitted to the National Cybersecurity Fund, which shall be administered by the Office of the National Security Adviser.”

Here are some things to know about the cybersecurity levy to be paid by Nigerians, according to the CBN circular:

1. A new levy of 0.5%, equivalent to half per cent, is applied to electronic transactions as mandated by the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) (amendment) Act 2024.

2. The levy is paid by the originator of the electronic transaction and deducted by the financial institution. The deducted amount shall be reflected in the customer’s account with the narration: “Cybersecurity Levy.”

3. Financial institutions will deduct the levy and remit it to the National Cybersecurity Fund administered by the Office of the National Security Adviser.

4. Deductions shall commence within two weeks from the date of the circular, May 6, and financial institutions must remit collected levies in bulk to the NCF account domiciled at the CBN monthly by the fifth business day of the following month.

5. Financial institutions have deadlines to update their systems to handle levy deduction and remittance. Failure to remit the levy can result in penalties, including a fine of up to 2% of a financial institution’s annual turnover.