trending Market Intelligence /marketintelligence/en/news-insights/trending/uvldpcrlpv7syhz_4dxcia2 content esgSubNav
In This List

Hong Kong fines Citi unit; Indonesia hikes rate; ANZ to exit Cambodian JV

Podcast

Street Talk Episode 87

Blog

A New Dawn for European Bank M&A Top 5 Trends

Blog

Insight Weekly: US banks' loan growth; record share buybacks; utility M&A outlook

Blog

Banking Essentials Newsletter 2021: December Edition


Hong Kong fines Citi unit; Indonesia hikes rate; ANZ to exit Cambodian JV

GREATER CHINA

* Hong Kong's securities watchdog imposed a fine of HK$57 million on Citigroup Global Markets Asia Ltd. for allegedly failing to provide adequate supervision while carrying out sponsor work on Real Gold Mining Ltd.'s listing application and for not conducting enough due diligence on the mining firm's customers.

* Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission ordered the island's 14 financial holding companies and 16 banks — institutions with assets of more than NT$1 trillion — to add more professional directors to their boards of directors and supervisors, Taiwan's Central News Agency reported. The order will take effect July 2019.

* Grace Jeng, president of Taiwan's First Commercial Bank Co. Ltd., said the lender now has 1.02 million credit cards in circulation and it will expand the number of credit cards to 1.1 million by the end of 2018, the island's Liberty Times reported.

JAPAN AND KOREA

* Japan's Toa Reinsurance Co. Ltd. is planning to launch a new underwriting platform, Toa Re Europe, in Switzerland to enable writing European third-party business.

* Dai-ichi Life Holdings Inc. increased its stake in U.K.-based Janus Henderson Group PLC to 15.3% from 8.6% following the merger between Janus Henderson's U.S. and U.K. operations, Tokyo's The Nikkei reported.

* Japan-based convenience store chain operator FamilyMart Co. Ltd. will increase the number of Japan Post Bank Co. Ltd. ATMs in its stores from about 1,800 to about 4,700 following the expiration of its ATM contract with Resona Bank Ltd., The Nikkei reported.

* Shinhan Bank Vietnam Ltd., a unit of South Korea's Shinhan Bank Co. Ltd., opened three branches in Ho Chi Minh and another in Hanoi on May 17, bringing the number of its branches in Vietnam to 30, more than any other foreign bank in the country, The Chosun Ilbo in South Korea reported.

ASEAN

* The Bank Indonesia raised its benchmark seven-day repo rate by 25 basis points to 4.50%, its first hike since November 2014, after the bank's governor, Agus Martowardojo, signaled the need to take preemptive action to support the currency earlier this week.

* Siam Commercial Bank PCL's economic intelligence center expects the Bank of Thailand monetary policy committee to keep the policy interest rate unchanged at 1.5% throughout 2018, but it said the rate may be increased at the end of the year if the economy expands well or there is a risk in the system requiring such a decision, Thai Rath reported.

* Philippine Savings Bank's net income in the first quarter jumped 25% to 641.1 million pesos from 511.1 million pesos in the prior-year period. The bank attributed the increase to strong revenues from net interest margin and other operating income.

* The Monetary Authority of Singapore revised reporting standards for the country's banks to better identify potential risks to the banking system by improving efficiency and accuracy of submitted data. The key regulatory changes that will take effect Oct. 1, 2020, include the collection of more granular data of banks' assets and liabilities, among other things.

SOUTH ASIA

* Central Bank of India's standalone net loss for the fourth quarter ended March 31 widened to 21.14 billion Indian rupees, or 10.55 rupees per share, from 5.92 billion rupees, or 3.11 rupees per share, in the prior-year period.

* India-based HDB Financial Services Ltd. plans to raise US$150 million in senior debt through U.S.-based International Finance Corp. to expand its microfinancing business to small and midsize enterprises in India, the Business Standard reported May 17, citing the World Bank's investment arm.

* India-based Inditrade Capital Ltd. is set to sell its equity broking unit to financial firm Choice International for 320 million rupees, The Economic Times reported, citing two unnamed sources.

* India's Ujjivan Small Finance Bank plans to postpone a planned public listing in order to merge with its parent Ujjivan Financial Services Ltd., which launched its own IPO in 2016, Mint reported, citing bank CEO and Managing Director Samit Ghosh. Ghosh said the bank aims for a reverse merger in five years, which would allow Ujjivan Financial Services to transfer its listed status to its banking subsidiary.

* Bank of Kathmandu Ltd. and Gurans Life Insurance Co. Ltd. entered into a bancassurance agreement under which the bank will offer Gurans Life Insurance's policies through its branches, The Himalayan Times in Nepal reported.

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

* Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. agreed to sell its entire 55% stake in Cambodian joint venture ANZ Royal Bank (Cambodia) Ltd. to Japan-based J Trust Co. Ltd. for about ¥11.40 billion. J Trust said the deal is expected to close in May 2019.

* Pally Bargri resigned as chief risk officer of AMP Ltd.'s advice division, which is at the center of a misconduct scandal that has rocked the company, The Sydney Morning Herald reported, citing Bargri's LinkedIn post and an AMP spokeswoman.

*Macquarie Group Ltd. is laying off about 30 private wealth staff as it confirmed plans to merge its private bank and private wealth divisions and focus on targeting more than one million potential customers with assets of more than A$1.3 million, The Australian reported.

IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

Middle East & Africa: Saudi lenders Alawwal, SABB to merge; National Commercial Bank CEO steps down

Europe: Deutsche Börse to shed managers; NN Group, KBC post Q1 results; AIB selling NPLs

Latin America: Macri: Argentine currency crisis over; Grupo Aval's Q1 profit rises 1.8%

North America: KS, First Citizens settle; Vista Equity, Thoma Bravo seek billions in funds

North America Insurance: Sen. Graham in another ACA repeal effort; Travelers' cat bond to upsize

Janna Estares, R Sio, Sally Wang, Jonathan Cheah, Jaekwon Lim and Santibhap Ussavasodhi contributed to this report.

The Daily Dose has an editorial deadline of 6:30 a.m. Hong Kong time. Some external links may require a subscription. Links are current as of publication time, and we are not responsible if those links are unavailable later.