Goldman Sachs gets South African bank licence

Goldman Sachs Group Inc got approval from South African regulators to operate a bank, as the Wall Street firm seeks to tap into fast-growing economies on the continent.

The company also became a member of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange's interest-rate and currency-derivatives market, Goldman Sachs said in a statement Monday.

It will offer fixed-income products, foreign exchange and South African government securities, to corporate and institutional investors.

Goldman Sachs, which has been present in South Africa for more than 20 years, in December appointed Jonathan Penkin as head of the local business.

The firm already provides advisory, wealth- and assetmanagement services to corporations, investment firms, government institutions and individuals.

The expansion comes as brokerages including Macquarie Group Ltd., Arqaam Capital Ltd., Deutsche Bank AG and Credit Suisse Group AG either pare back their operations or close down some businesses because of a moribund South African economy.

Still, the country has the biggest, most liquid and most sophisticated capital markets on the continent, which is home to six of the world's fastest growing economies.

Luis Arce, credited with steering Bolivia through years of economic growth, will be a presidential candidate in May elections, Bolivia's exiled former leader Evo Morales said.

Bolivians will choose a new president May 3, more than six months after a disputed ballot sparked violent street protests and the resignation of Morales, who fled to Mexico and then Argentina.

Bolivia's interim government has banned Morales himself from standing and has issued a warrant for his arrest should he return. Arce, 56, who also fled his homeland after Morales's downfall, was a major part of successive Morales governments after 2006 that slashed the poverty rate and presided over rapid economic growth fuelled by gas exports.

Bolivia became one of Latin America's fastest-growing economies, but Arce had to temporarily step aside in 2017 for health reasons.

He will be backed in the election by Morales's Movement for Socialism (MAS) party, the former leader said in Buenos Aires.

Arce's vice presidential candidate running mate will be former foreign minister David Choquehuanca, 58, Morales said. Arce is "a combination of the city and the countryside to continue the process of change," said Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president.

"Our peasant movement does not exclude people and does not marginalize people." He led the country for almost 14 years until his resignation on November 10, but in December said he was convinced his party would win the next ballot.