Asia Pacific

Is a bank called a trust a bank to trust?

With consumer business sales mostly finalized in Asia, attention turns now to Jane Fraser’s commitment to devote the proceeds to growth in the region. We are seeing early signs.

Park Jung-ho is a key executive in three arms of the SK chaebol, Korea’s third-largest. In more than 30 years he has developed a reputation as a dealmaker, whose key transactions – buying Hynix, Toshiba’s memory business and a major division of Intel – are seen as corporate landmarks. He explains his approach to Euromoney in Seoul.

China’s approach to ESG is a jumble of grandiose and contradictory state planning alongside often marvellously successful bottom-up plans by banks and fintechs to instil in consumers a more sustainable lifestyle.

Yoon Suk-yeol, South Korea’s new president, is seen as pro-business and pro-market reform. Bankers are delighted, but there’s also a nagging doubt that populist policies that favour retail investors over institutional have crept in to win votes.

As Covid fatalities rise fast, senior bankers are fleeing a city that, despite today's relaxation of some rules, is increasingly cut off from the world. Will Hong Kong ever be the same again?

China’s approach to central bank digital currency offers clues to how it may build a unique version of decentralized finance.

Despite China’s ambitious plans for its digital currency, the e-yuan will struggle to become a lead player in international trade finance without notable changes, most importantly to capital controls.

Few could understand the reasoning when Berkshire Hathaway bought into Japan’s five creaking, antiquated trading houses in 2020. But a spate of record results has vindicated Warren Buffett’s decision.

The prospect of China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System vying with or supplanting Swift grabbed attention in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But CIPS isn’t ready for the big time. It is too small and underdeveloped, and is a policy vehicle dominated by Beijing for the purpose of globalizing the yuan.

In just a few years, the New Eurasian Land Bridge, which conveys rail freight between China and Europe, became a key part of Beijing’s fading Belt and Road Initiative. Thanks to sanctions levied against state operator Russian Railways, that vital trade link threatens to be disrupted – and possibly severed.

Not all heroes wear capes. But some do.

Chinese policymakers may have become more relaxed about fluctuations in the yuan, but no one should doubt their willingness to intervene if the currency moves too far in either direction.

Why do Saudi Arabia and Malaysia still overwhelm every other state in Islamic asset management?

The trial of former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng over the 1MDB scandal has been filled with so much tawdry and tantalizing detail that it can be easy to overlook some of the less sensational, but nevertheless remarkable, material.

Until recently, poor nations joined the Belt and Road Initiative to secure access to funds flowing to the vast infrastructure project. Then the funds started to dry up. Does this presage a full-scale financial pull-back from the world by China?

Toshiba has unveiled a new restructuring format, but its roster of activist shareholders would much prefer the business be taken private.

For four years, a criminal case brought by an Australian regulator against Citi, Deutsche Bank, ANZ and six bankers who were facing jail has looked ill-judged, acting retrospectively against common market practice in a share placement. Now it has collapsed and lessons need to be learned

HSBC’s head of global private banking in China, Jackie Mau, explains the lender’s onshore ambitions, the future of Wealth Connect, plans for new offices and how and why China differs from other private wealth markets.

Ravi Raju has hired some seasoned names and is extending the bank’s reach into south Asia and the Middle East.

Citi’s global head of private banking Ida Liu sits down with Euromoney to discuss her journey to the top of the industry, the value of wellbeing and the importance of eliminating friction from client engagement.

The censure from the Monetary Authority of Singapore will sting far more than any capital impact for a bank that prides itself on being a peerless digital innovator.

The float of LIC will shatter all of India’s records in the equity capital markets. It is also an opportunity to prove a newfound maturity in India, already illustrated by a range of highly successful tech deals in 2021.

Of all the 13 consumer businesses on the block in Citi’s Asia revamp, Taiwan was the most prized. DBS’s successful bid bolsters an already profitable business – and doing so required some hard thinking about geopolitics by the Singapore bank’s board.

Will the bank’s payouts after a phishing scam set a precedent?

Analysts are keeping a close eye on regional as well as US monetary policy as they attempt to plot a course for the currencies of the countries that form the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Southeast Asia markets enjoyed a record 2021. Can they build on this?

In a good deal for both parties, Citi makes progress on its programme of consumer business sales in Asia, while UOB gets an instant boost to its heft in Asean.

A ‘remarkable’ global dollar bond from Airport Authority Hong Kong raises the question of whether any member of the aviation sector should include a green tranche within its funding structure.

As legacy banks plough billions into fintech, their valuations – especially compared to standalone fintech players – are far from seeing the desired benefit. Spin-offs and subsidiary IPOs are part of a growing push to make these fintech investments more independent and visible, and to force a sum-of-parts valuation. Is the answer to restructure into a listed financial holding company, of which the legacy bank would just be one part?