ANZ Australia And New Zealand Banking Group Limited

ITAU UNIBANCO

Brazil's Recession Cited as Net Falls

Itau Unibanco Holding SA, Brazil's second-largest bank by assets, reported a 9.3% drop in net profit for the third quarter, as recession reduced demand for new loans and the bank assumed more provisions for nonperforming loans.

Profit was 5.4 billion Brazilian reais ($1.7 billion) compared with 5.95 billion reais a year earlier.

After nearly a decade of profit increases, the bank's earnings have shown signs of deterioration in recent quarters due to the country's struggling economy.

Brazil's gross domestic product contracted 3.8% last year and is expected to shrink around 3.2% this year, according to economists.

Itau Unibanco ended the third quarter with a credit portfolio of 605.7 billion reais, down 11% from 680.1 billion reais a year earlier.

The decline was attributed to poor demand from companies. Its corporate-loan portfolio declined nearly 17%. Individual loans fell 1.9%.

Total assets were valued at 1.39 trillion reais, down from 1.44 trillion reais a year earlier.

--Rogerio Jelmayer

ANZ

Lender Intensifies Retreat in Asia

Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. is further scaling back in Asia, selling its retail and wealth-management businesses in five markets to focus on institutional banking in the region.

Facing the need to invest more to build up the Asia retail business, ANZ said it had instead agreed to sell operations in mainland China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore and Taiwan to Singapore's DBS Group Holdings Ltd. The businesses include about 11 billion Australian dollars (US$8.36 billion) in gross loans and A$17 billion in deposits.

Major banks in Australia and around the world are focused on building capital and improving returns under the pressure of sluggish revenue growth, low interest rates and rising funding costs.

ANZ, which expanded in Asia more energetically than its local peers, said it continues to look at opportunities to exit from other businesses.

"It is all about focus," Chief Executive Shayne Elliott said, adding that the bank remains committed to Asia but is consolidating resources in core areas such as trade finance, debt capital markets and cash management. Returns and capital ratios have become increasingly important for all major banks, and Asia is a competitive market, served by a large number of local banks plus global heavyweights, said David Ellis, an analyst at Morningstar.

--Robb M. Stewart

Standard Chartered

Chief Steps Down at Unit Under Scrutiny

Greg Karpinski is stepping down as chief executive of Maxpower Group Pte. Ltd., a power company in Indonesia controlled by Standard Chartered PLC that is at the heart of a U.S. investigation into alleged bribery.

Mr. Karpinski, who left Standard Chartered's Singapore private-equity unit to become Maxpower's CEO last year, will be succeeded by Syamsurizal Munaf, a longtime executive in Indonesia's oil-and-gas industry, a person familiar with the matter said.

Possible bribery and other misconduct at Maxpower were identified last year in a legal review of an internal audit and have led to a U.S. Justice Department investigation into whether Standard Chartered had adequate controls in place at its investment and whether bank executives were aware of, or approved, the alleged misconduct, The Wall Street Journal has reported. The Justice Department has declined to comment.

Maxpower and Mr. Karpinksi didn't respond to requests for comment about a change in leadership. Maxpower has previously said it was investigating allegations of misconduct, had shaken up management and had enhanced internal controls.

Standard Chartered declined to comment about a CEO change. The bank has previously said it conducted its own review into the alleged misconduct and "proactively" notified authorities about the matter.

--Margot Patrick, Ben Otto

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 01, 2016 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)

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