Posts tagged 'Kabul Bank'

Kabul Bank: of fraud and airplane food trays

David joined the FT in 2011 as a Marjorie Deane fellow. He covered emerging markets, equities and currencies before making the jump over to FT Alphaville in May 2012.

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| Nov 28 2012 11:04 | Comment |

This has been a while coming… Afghanistan has just got a new independent report published into what has previously been described as a Ponzi scheme operated at Kabul Bank, the country’s biggest lender.

It’s grim, grubby stuff, detailing how the men at Kabul Bank and their friends and relatives got rich off $861m in bogus loans and sparked a bank run in 2010, while political interference has since hampered the clean-up of the mess. Read more

Lehman homage in Afghanistan (of sorts)

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

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| Sep 14 2010 15:25 | Comment |

Writing the day before the second anniversary of Lehman Brothers’ fall, Gideon Rachman argues that ’9/15′  might matter more to America in the long run than 9/11.

While you can argue with that, there is now another parallel of sorts between the two dates, thanks to the Afghan central bank. Read more

Kabul steps in to protect bank

| Sep 07 2010 05:13 | Comment |

Afghanistan’s financial institutions have stepped in to stop a run on Kabul Bank, the country’s largest private lender, as customers withdrew about 60% of the bank’s cash deposits after its two top executives resigned amid corruption allegations, the FT reports. News emerged last week that the central bank had taken control of Kabul Bank, forcing its senior two managers to resign. Bloomberg quotes Afghanistan’s central bank governor saying on Monday that Kabul Bank was “out of danger” and has enough liquid assets. Read more

Kabul steps in to stop run on biggest bank

Cardiff writes mostly about US macroeconomic issues, with daily excursions into other topics about which he claim no expertise. Before Alphaville, Cardiff spent a little more than two years as a reporter at Dow Jones Financial News covering investment banking, asset management, and private equity. Along the way he has written freelance pieces on a variety of other topics from behavioural psychology to Muay Thai, the latter also being a personal interest that involves frequently getting kicked in the shins (and torso, and head).

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| Sep 06 2010 22:24 | Comment |

Afghanistan’s financial institutions have stepped in to stop a run on Kabul Bank, the country’s largest lender, as customers withdrew about 60 per cent of the bank’s cash deposits after its two top executives resigned amid corruption allegations, the FT reports. Mahmoud Karzai, a shareholder of Kabul Bank and brother of Afghan president Hamid Karzai, told the Financial Times that “the government has stepped in to reassure people”. The Washington Post reported last week that the central bank had taken control of Kabul Bank, forcing its senior two managers to resign. Mahmoud Karzai, speaking from Dubai, said the situation at the ailing bank was improving. “Withdrawals have now almost stopped,” he said. “Almost $300m has been withdrawn, and [the bank] had about $500m in cash before, so they still have about $200m.” Read more

Afghans eye Kabul Bank rescue

| Sep 06 2010 04:58 | Comment |

Afghanistan’s government on Sunday inched closer to bailing out the country’s largest bank, setting aside hundreds of millions of dollars that could be used to keep Kabul Bank solvent, reports the WSJ, citing Afghan officials. The move came as depositors continued to pull their money from the lender, mobbing branches in Kabul and other parts of the country. Reuters adds that an opposition leader on Sunday urged Afghanistan’s government and central bank to give clear answers on Kabul Bank after its top two directors resigned. Read more