Virgin Money has appointed former Lloyds TSB chairman and CEO Sir Brian Pitman as its chairman and former RBS deputy CEO Norman McLuskie as a director, indicating a serious push into financial services.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Bank Indonesia have jointly commenced a new cross-border payment-versus-payment link to remove settlement risk in foreign exchange transactions between the US Dollars and Indonesian Rupiah.
Credit Suisse is cutting planned payouts to senior staff by more than a third, becoming the first to pass on the bulk of a British supertax on bonuses to bankers.
BNY Mellon is reportedly in talks to buy PNC Global Investment Servicing for $2.5b.
Middle East
Kuwait-based Burgan Bank has become a majority stakeholder in the Bank of Baghdad after it increased its stake to 50.6% by buying an extra 5.3% stake for $10.7 million.
A group of Mashreqbank customers are reportedly seeking talks with the UAE central bank to air grievances about the bank’s interest rate, which they claim has raised monthly payments by as much as 30%.
Dubai Holdings is planning on selling its stake in Bank Muscat to try to meet its debt obligations; its 15% stake in the Oman-based bank is worth more than $350 million.
Boubyan Bank, one of Kuwait’s three Islamic banks, has begun a major rights issue to raise its capital by 50% to $609.4 million. The central banks in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait have halted lending to the public sector from January 1, 2010 as part of the plan to create a common monetary union for
Indochina
The Vietnam Bank for Social Policies will be selling two-year bonds to earn $162 million. The debt will be underwritten by the Vietnamese and will be traded on the Hanoi market.
Vietnam’s central bank has directed its branches in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City penalize banks that charge fees, resulting in interest rates that are 3-4% higher than allowed. This practice also goes against a regulation which ordered financial institutions not to charge any fees related to lending transactions.
In 2009, Vietcombank’s pre-tax profit rose 46% to $279 million, while Vietin Bank saw a 10% increase to $162 million and Eximbank saw a profit increase of 60% to $61.75 million. Asia Commercial Bank’s profits were $151.68 million.
South Asia
The Union Bank of India (UBI) will commence its JV mutual fund operations in association with Belgium-based KBC Group by 2011, with UBI keeping a controlling stake of 51%.
Bhutan's Druk PNB Bank, is a joint venture with India’s Punjab National Bank, which has a 51% stake in the bank, while three Bhutanese promoters own the remaining stake. An eventual IPO is expected to raise $4 million.
Bangladesh’s central bank has directed consumer banks to present loan status declarations together with credit information bureau reports while seeking consent for directorship appointments.
Australia/New Zealand
National Australia Bank is set to acquire AXA Asia Pacific in a $10.8 billion deal, after its proposal of an all-cash alternative was accepted by AXA’s board of directors.
Jamie McPhee will become the CEO of Members Equity Bank on February 8th. McPhee became the CEO of Adelaide Bank in 2006, but lost the position when his bank merged with Bendigo Bank.
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney has hired Matthey Comyn as its new Australia head, poaching him from Commonwealth Bank of Australia where he was Managing Director at Commonwealth Securities.
China
ICBC, CCB and China Merchants Bank have tightened their credit extension quota since January after the CBRC pushed for a slower pace of credit increase in 2010.
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China received a banking permit in Vietnam, the first Chinese bank to do so in 14 years.
Bank of China, is planning to sell $5.9 billion convertible bond sale and $25 billion in stocks to preserve a capital adequacy ratio of at least 11.5%.
China CITIC Bank will raise $2.2 billion in subordinated bonds.
Hong Kong
HSBC’s CEO and his support staff will be relocating to Hong Kong, while the bank’s chairman will remain in London. The move to Hong Kong is aimed at focusing its attention on the Chinese market.
Bank of East Asia finalized the acquisition of a 75% stake in ICEA Finance Holdings, a joint venture with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China for $48 million. The company is now 100% owned by Bank of East Asia.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority saw investment income of $13.27 billion in 2009 through its Exchange Fund, which is used to peg the Hong Kong dollar to the US dollar.
Indonesia
The president director of Bank Danamon, Sebastian Paredes, will leave the bank at the end of March. The bank has not yet named a successor.
A complaint submitted by HSBC’s labour workers to the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry and Bank Indonesia, said that the bank had employed at least 13 expatriates who had no official permit to work and stay in the country.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono strongly denied reports that he planned to remove his reformist Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati over her role in the bailout of a small bank.
Japan
Japanese banks are returning to profitability: in the April to December period, Mizuho saw profits of $1.4 billion, whereas in the same period one year earlier it had lost $560 million, while Resona Holdings saw a 5.6% profit increase to $1.34 billion.
Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ will join six banks on Dubai World's creditors committee to monitor the firm’s debt payment proposal. The coordinating committee, which acts for nearly a hundred creditors of Dubai World, includes four UK banks and two UAE banks.
The Tokyo branch of JPMorgan Chase has received its foreign bank agency licence allowing it to represent itself as an agent on behalf of its overseas offices for wholesale banking operational segments and to intermediate between its overseas bureaus and customers in Japan.
Korea, South
The Financial Supervisory Service may take legal action against Kookmin Bank for allegedly leaking a memo regarding a regulatory enquiry into the company.
Kookmin Bank has sold $333.5 million in two-year samurai bonds in two tranches.
Woori Financial is reportedly suing for mismanagement Hong Dae-hee, former vice president of Woori Bank, and Hyun Sang-soon, former president of Woori Global Markets Asia, over a $1.25 CDO and CDS investment losses.
Malaysia
The Malaysian government is planning to approve an Islamic banking licence for the National Bank of Abu Dhabi. The move is in line with the government’s strategy to develop Islamic finance in the country.
Alliance Bank Malaysia has named Eric Lee as its group CFO. Lee was previously the CFO of a major global company and was based in China.
Bank Islam’s Managing Director Zukri Samat has reportedly announced that the bank wants to acquire other banks in Southeast Asia.
Philippines
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has permitted all banks to lend directly to farmers. Currently, big banks lend to farmers through intermediary banks, including rural banks. The move is aimed at increasing lending to the agriculture sector.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has agreed to Philippine Deposit Insurance’s plan to use bridge banking as a means to liquidate the assets of failed banks.
BPI Globe BanKO, the new thrift bank unit of Bank of the Philipine Islands, will open its first branch on February 23, 2010. The bank aims to open five more branches by the end of the year.
Singapore
The Monetary Authority of Singapore announced that the provisional reciprocal currency deal worth $30 billion that was set up with the US Federal Reserve on 30 October 2008 will expire on 1 February 2010, as previously announced.
OCBC Bank has finalized its acquisition of Singapore-based ING Asia Private Bank (IAPB)and its units for S$2,024 million as a wholly-owned private banking subsidiary. It will merge the new business with its own private banking business under the brand Bank of Singapore.
A 94-year-old woman is suing OCBC for freezing her account; lawyers for the bank reportedly told a judge that there was a concern that she had lost the mental capacity to make financial decisions.
Taiwan
State-owned Taiwan Co-operative Bank is reportedly selling $625 million in subordinated bonds. Fubon Financial Holdings will raise $245 million, while Fubon Commercial Bank will raise $145.4 million. Hua Nan Commercial Bank will raise $625 billion, First Commercial Bank will raise $250 million and E.Sun Commercial Bank will raise $312.5 million.
Singapore’s DBS is planning to increase its number of branches and employees in Taiwan and has plans to add three more branches, bringing its total number of branches to 43, and increase the number of employees to 1,400.
Taiwan announced that its ban on Chinese investment in local banks is here to stay. It will also prohibit Chinese banks from setting up subsidiaries in Taiwan and will only allow Chinese banks that are among the world's top 200 to open representative offices in Taiwan.
Thailand
Bank of Thailand has issued letters of instruction to the heads of all banks which require them to justify loan rejections. The directive comes as a result of the central bank receiving complaints from prospective borrowers that they received vague explanations from financial institutions regarding loan rejections.
Kasikornbank has signed an agreement with China Minsheng Banking Corporation to increase the amount of funds the two banks will lend to Chinese SMEs to $180.8 million from $27 million.
Copyright protected. The Asian Banker®
No part of any content in this website may be used worldwide without permission. Click here on details for requests to reuse, publish, disseminate or distribute any content in this website.
