Top Goldman Sachs executives are likely to receive their annual bonus in stock this year rather than cash as part of a pay review that could affect thousands of the Wall Street bank’s rank-and-file employees
Bank of America has reached an agreement with regulators to pay back $45bn in funds from the Troubled asset relief programme, selling $18.8b in stocks.
BBVA, Spain’s second-largest bank has announced that it had spent a further $1.5b to lift its stake in China CITIC Bank, cementing its strategic position in the mainland’s banking market.
Middle East
Deutsche Bank is set to become a shareholder of Gulf Finance House after the former converts a third of its $100m Islamic financial instruments into 78.95m shares.
The CEO of Emirates NBD has reportedly said that the bank may raise up to $2b next year to fund loan growth.
Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank has the largest single bank exposure to Dubai World, at over $1 billion. National Bank of Abu Dhabi, the largest UAE lender by assets, has disclosed that it has $345m exposure to Dubai World – the only bank in the UAE to have revealed its exposure to the troubled institution.
Indochina
The Chairman of Vietinbank, Pham Huy Hung has officially assumed the presidency of the ASEAN Bankers Association for the 2010-2011 term at the 39th meeting of the association.
State Bank of Vietnam allowed ANZ Bank to issue and underwrite onshore bonds. ANZ Vietnam is permitted to provide underwriting services for bonds to be issued in the domestic market. With the permission, ANZ Bank Vietnam can expand its banking activities on the country’s primary bond market.
Export-Import Bank of Thailand and Russia’s VTB Bank have signed a Documentary Operations Agreement, which is expected to promote Thai-Russian trade and investment between the Russian Federation and the Kingdom of Thailand, and to improve interbank cooperation between VTB Bank and EXIM Thailand.
South Asia
State-owned IDBI Bank has scrapped plans to sell its wholly-owned unit IDBI Home Finance, its top official said on Wednesday.
The Reserve Bank of India will give banks six months more to set aside extra funds from their profits to cover non-performing assets, stretching an earlier deadline of September 2010.
Five domestic commercial banks and two finance companies have acquired 51% stake in the Indian venture of Experian UK — Experian Credit Information Company (ECIC).
Australia/New Zealand
Westpac CEO Gail Kelly reportedly does most of her banking with UBS and Commonwealth Bank of Australia, similar to her predecessor David Morgan.
The Australian Securities Exchange has reportedly fined UBS A$55,000 over a trading mix-up that caused Suncorp-Metway’s price to plummet.
NAB has admitted it has exposure to Dubai World, but would not disclose the amount. The bank says it does not expect material losses.
China
The People’s Bank of China has warned its banks to monitor credit card defaults as overdue payments have jumped 126.5% in the first three quarters of 2009 when compared with the same period last year.
ICBC has extended the deadline to pay Bank of East Asia $73.1 million for 70% of its Canadian unit.
The China Banking Regulatory Commission has told credit cooperatives that don’t meet CAR shouldn’t increase new loans, as it expects NPLs to rise following the credit boom of this year.
Hong Kong
AIG has chosen Hong Kong to list its AIA insurance operations, hoping to raise $5-10 billion.
China Pacific Insurance is seeking to raise up to $3.82 million in a Hong Kong IPO.
Indonesia
Indonesia’s state-owned Bank Mandiri is establishing a subsidiary Mandiri International Remittance in Malaysia with eight branches, focussing on the remittance business.
Bank Mandiri, Bank Negara Indonesia and Bank Muamalat Indonesia have signed $700 million of loans and trade-finance agreements with the Asian Development Bank.
Bank Mandiri is establishing a subsidiary Mandiri International Remittance in Malaysia with eight branches, focussing on the remittance business.
Japan
Nomura, the Japanese brokerage, has been fined $2.92 million, by Britain’s Financial Services Authority after one of its Hong Kong traders helped trigger an overvaluation of complex financial instruments.
Japan’s FSA may ease classification standards for NPLs to help banks cope with government measures to force them to give SMEs in trouble better terms.
The Japanese government on November 30th passed into law a conditional moratorium on loan repayments by SMEs and home owners. SMEs borrow 70% of all bank loans in Japan.
Korea, South
KB Financial Group has finally confirmed Kookmin Bank CEO Kang Chung-won as its new chairman.
UBS has made Michael Chin the CEO of UBS Hana Asset Management, the joint venture it has with Hana Financial Group.
The Financial Services Commission is considering imposing stricter loan to deposit ratio.
Malaysia
CIMB Group announced that it had received approval from the Minister of Finance for the proposed disposal of part of CIMB Bank’s non-performing loans to a special purpose company, Southeast Asia Special Asset Management.
The Central Bank of Malaysia Act 2009 came into force, repealing the Central Bank of Malaysia Act, providing a more robust governance framework that provides for a high degree of accountability and transparency.
HSBC Amanah Malaysia Bhd, HSBC Kazakhstan and HSBC Bank Middle East Ltd signed a memorandum of understanding recently with the Development Bank of Kazakhstan (DBK) to boost investments in the central Asian nation.
Since early this year, the central bank, Bank Negara, has closed down 49 money-changing firms after raids by its enforcement division revealed that many operators were illegally remitting funds to countries such as Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Philippines
Philippine banks decided to lower remittance fee to P50 per transaction for overseas workers, following an agreement between Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Association of Bank Remittance Officers and several bank associations to use central banks real-time gross settlement system as the link to send remitted money to the beneficiaries accounts in other banks.
HSBC Philippines has, in association with its strategic partner, Bank of Communications, completed its first cross-border renminbi trade settlement. Meanwhile Bank of China announced Clearing and Settlement agreements of RMB Trade Settlement with a number of commercial banks in Asian, such as Bank Central Asia and a number of Bank of China subsidiaries.
The long-delayed merger of Philippine National Bank and Allied Banking Corp. is expected to finally push through with the sale of owner Lucio Tan’s stake in a California-based bank by the middle of next year.
Singapore
DBS Bank has partnered with the State Bank of India to offer an online remittance service from Singapore to India. Through the service, DBS and POSB customers will be able to transfer funds to beneficiary accounts in India quickly and conveniently.
DBS announced that its total exposure to Dubai is approximately $1.28 billion.
UOB Asset Management has signed an agreement with HI Asset Management, a Hundai group company, to tap distribution networks and seek advice.
Taiwan
Taiwanese banks reportedly have $20 million exposure to Dubai World. The firms with the largest exposure are Taiwan Financial Holdings ($30 million), Cathay Financial Holdings, and Mega Financial Holdings.
Bank of Taiwan hopes to be the first Taiwanese bank to handle cross-strait currency settlements between new Taiwan dollar and the renminbi when an agreement allowing banks in the two markets to engage in direct currency trading is signed soon.
Chinatrust’s plan to launch a $1.4 billion rights issue has been rejected by the Financial Supervisory Commission.
Thailand
Thailand's central bank rescue arm expects to complete the sale of its 47.58% stake in Siam City Bank in the first quarter of 2010, earlier than anticipated.
The Bank of Thailand (BoT) has encouraged entrepreneurs, who are now operating businesses with China, to use the Chinese yuan currency, while some commercial banks have started to use yuan currency for entrepreneurs in their transaction. The BoT is now studying whether a Bilateral Swap Agreement (BSA) is necessary between Thailand and China, in order to increase security in the Thai baht and Chinese yuan currency exchange as urged by commercial banks.
The Thai Finance Ministry and Bank of Thailand see the potential of Thailand Post, which offers postal services, to become a player in microfinance, a key channel under financial industry reform. However, the state-owned enterprise will not specialise in banking so if it wants to enter microfinance it has to tie up with financial institutions.
The Bank of Thailand (BoT) has encouraged entrepreneurs, who are now operating businesses with China, to use the Chinese yuan currency, while some commercial banks have started to use yuan currency for entrepreneurs in their transaction. The BoT is now studying whether a Bilateral Swap Agreement (BSA) is necessary between Thailand and China, in order to increase security in the Thai baht and Chinese yuan currency exchange as urged by commercial banks.
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