US bank quarterly earnings rise to $43bn

WASHINGTON: US banks’ earnings jumped 7.3 per cent in the April-June period from a year earlier as revenues increased and the volume of soured loans banks had to write off fell to the lowest level since before the financial crisis.

The data issued Wednesday by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. showed continued improvement for the banking industry seven years after the crisis struck. The number of “problem” banks continued to fall and some big banks had reduced expenses for legal settlements following large amounts paid out previously to resolve crisis-related cases.

The FDIC reported that US banks earned $43 billion in the second quarter, up from $40.1bn a year earlier.

Nearly 60pc of banks reported an increase in profit from a year earlier. Only 5.6pc of banks were unprofitable.—AP

Standard Chartered, OLPL sign agreement

KARACHI: Standard Chartered Bank (Pak) Ltd has entered into an amalgamation and sale purchase agreement with Orix Leasing Pakistan Ltd (OLPL), the companies said in a stock filing on Wednesday.

The agreement envisages: Amalgamation of Standard Chartered Leasing with OLPL; divestment of its 100pc stake in Standard Chartered Services Private (SCSP) and divestment of its 20pc stake (10pc directly and 10pc indirectly through SCSP) in Standard Chartered Modaraba.—Equities Correspondent

PSO donates Rs8.5m to cancer hospital

KARACHI: Pakistan State Oil (PSO) has donated Rs8.5 million to The Cancer Foundation (TCF), which is building a nonprofit cancer hospital in Karachi.

The donation has particularly been for the purchase of laboratory equipment, says a press release on Wednesday.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2015

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