Features

Cash is still king in Myanmar; banks are still trying to figure out what to do with the power of technology.

The financial industry has been a mess, hit by defaults, rising bad loans, corporate governance scandals, frauds and, most recently, the government rescue of Yes Bank - the worst may be over, but things aren’t tidy yet.

The spectacular collapse of a fast-growing private lender in early March has dealt yet another blow to India’s already shaky finance industry, led to the arrest of its founder and thrown a spotlight on the bank’s aggressive lending practices.

President Joko Widodo is planning southeast Asia’s biggest infrastructure project in building his new capital city in remote Kalimantan; it promises to be a party for bankers – but first they will have to negotiate some quirky local characters.

Covid-19 has pushed down global stock markets, led to alarming projections about global growth, and forced millions out of work and most of the rest to work from home. Asiamoney considers the likely impact on banks in the region

The country’s banks have worked hard to develop their digital capabilities, but customers are slow to join the revolution.

Sean Turnell, adviser to Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi, discusses the liberalization, international opening and digitalization of the country’s banking sector.

The chief executives of People’s Bank and Bank of Ceylon have both been ousted as part of the government’s new hard line on state-owned banks it considers are not doing enough to help the struggling economy.

The payments company has attracted a who’s who of investors – but as competition rises, its founder is now pushing for more, not less, regulatory oversight.