Opinion
LATEST ARTICLES
-
AsiamoneyAs banks focus more on climate adaptation across their businesses, are they conceding that mitigation efforts are futile?
-
China’s Project Whitelist, launched at the start of the year, exists to ensure bank funding for property development. But it is there to protect projects, not the developers behind them.
-
Encumbered by an impotent fiscal policy and a sluggish stock market, bank lending could be China’s only route to economic recovery.
-
In the wake of heavy losses and mis-selling to retail investors, there is an urgent need for an overhaul of risk management in the banking sector.
-
Chinese fintech Ant Group has offered UBS a reported $250 million for Credit Suisse’s China joint venture, outbidding Citadel Securities. It is a timely reminder that despite its current malaise, Asia’s largest economy is still a great long-term place to invest.
-
As Beijing works to underpin the equity market, China's fund houses and investment banks are betting on exchange-traded funds as the next big thing. That reflects a market corseted by regulation, where limited options compel a collective herd mentality.
-
At the start of 2023, analysts sized China and liked what they saw: an economy reopening after three years of Covid isolation, and ready once again to roar. Nothing of the sort has happened and corporates and institutional investors are now fleeing the market in droves.
-
Restrictions may come at a cost as MSCI considers developed market status.
-
As the Chinese property crisis deepens, a new round of bank-led rescue efforts is on the horizon. While banks must shoulder part of the blame for the crisis, their options for action are limited.
-
Thailand wants to give almost every adult in the country money through a digital wallet. It’s an interesting step towards bringing digital finance to the mainstream.
-
The travails of Zhongzhi, a key player in China’s poorly regulated $3 trillion shadow financing market, underline why a future crisis in the country is more likely, not less.
-
The great and the good have assembled again for the Global Financial Leaders investment summit in Hong Kong.
-
Rakuten needs money – and lots of it – as its mobile telecommunications arm continues to burn cash. But it is running out of things to sell, while its debt profile is miserable.
-
While no charges have been laid against the Adani Group, a new Sebi rulebook addresses a key concern that came from the January stock-market controversy.
-
Singapore’s DBS Bank has spent the past decade transforming itself into one of the world’s best digital banks. But a series of lengthy service outages over the past year has wrongfooted senior management, who have been left to issue apologies and pledge to do better.
-
A local asset management company in Liaoning province just bailed out Shengjing Bank – by borrowing the capital it needed from the very same ailing regional lender.
-
Global banks spent years trying to make China’s vast market work for them, mostly in vain. Today, though, China’s manufacturers are investing in Europe and the US, and turning to Western lenders for advice. The real China opportunity starts here.
-
KVS Manian has been overlooked in favour of ex-Barclays man Ashok Vaswani. What does it mean for one of India’s finest banks?
-
The Singapore regulator MAS has set guidelines for banks transitioning to net zero. Unusually, it cautions against moving too fast.
-
Pressure is growing on Japan’s self-imposed caps on government bond yields. Positive rates must be around the corner, but what will that mean for banks and public debt?
-
While foreign investment in China has fallen, supply-chain shift is a different story. Rather than transferring their main production away from China, manufacturers are cultivating deep regional supply chains across Asia and beyond.
-
Beneath the Great Game geopolitics of US-Vietnam relations, there are some intriguing possibilities in the detail.
-
The enormous re-listing of Arm Holdings is unrepresentative in many ways, but it still contains a valuable lesson for those coming down the pipe.
-
AsiamoneySoutheast Asia is driving increased equity market activity within the region, but it’s a different game further north.
-
A debate in Australia arguing for the liquidation of the sovereign wealth fund has relevance to the global fund community.
-
HKEx chief executive Nicolas Aguzin opened the group’s latest new office in London on Wednesday. His aim: to get more global firms to IPO in Hong Kong and convince investors to put money to work there. But against the backdrop of China’s economic situation, his team will have its work cut out.
-
A handwritten note brings down the curtain on a 38-year journey for bank founder.
-
AsiamoneyFrom dealing with the Credit Suisse-UBS AT1 fallout, to tackling financial inclusion, change is afoot across the region.
-
How on earth, in this environment, did the bank deliver one of its best-ever quarters in Asia?
-
Tech-related bank deals can still get away, but investors call the shots now.
-
AsiamoneyThe worst is not over, but Asia’s banks and regulators can feel some relief for having robust capitalization requirements in place.
-
Don’t expect a flood of IPOs, but there are still placements across Asia Pacific.
-
Yet another multi-billion-dollar loss on investments in SoftBank’s Vision Funds speaks to a malaise that is hurting the tech teams of investment banks in Asia.
-
The southern Chinese city has set out ambitious plans to become one of the world’s top wealth-management centres. With one of China’s largest onshore pools of private wealth, there is everything to play for.
-
Will investment banks in Asia be able to survive another difficult year? That is a big question as firms enter 2023 on a weaker footing than in 2022.
-
Fund managers see big opportunities in Asia’s private credit market.
-
AsiamoneyAsia’s capital markets have swung from euphoria to despair in the past year. The days of bumper deal flow are over, now followed by a relative drought – cancelled or smaller trades, market volatility, and talk of the need to trim back large teams. Heading into the second half of the year, the mood is set to get even grimmer.
-
-
AsiamoneyLack of clarity from Chinese authorities amid stalemate with the US means investors should have expected the unexpected
-
Two critical developments in China caught the financial markets off guard in 2021.
-
AsiamoneyAs more and more issuers jump on the environmental, social and governance bandwagon, it raises important questions.
-
Asiamoney’s second Women in Finance special report shows that diversity is becoming more embedded within banks, influencing how they recruit, retain and propel women up the career ladder.
-
AsiamoneyThe rapidly unfolding political situation in different parts of Asia threatens to further upend the region’s financial markets.
-
China's latest crackdown of three of its technology companies has a clear message for firms looking to list in the US — and investors wanting to buy their shares.
-
AsiamoneyBritish economist John Maynard Keynes famously wrote more than 80 years ago that people’s behaviour in the financial world is often driven by “animal spirits” that suggest “spontaneous optimism rather than mathematical expectations”. The current craze for special purpose acquisition company (Spac) listings is a good example.
-
AsiamoneyAsian lenders have often balked at dividend recaps. They should reconsider.
-
How should investors incorporate political risk into their view of asset markets?
-
The results are in and the signs are good. Asia’s banking industry appears to be making some progress on gender balance in the workforce.
-
AsiamoneyAre financial markets too divorced from reality?
-
AsiamoneyMost governments in Asia have resorted to some form of economic shock therapy, but there is only so much the monetary and fiscal authorities can do.
-
AsiamoneyBanks are better prepared than in 2008, because lessons were learned from the last crisis.
-
AsiamoneyDigital banks have long talked about the importance of efficient online and mobile banking services at the expense of face-to-face meetings and physical branches; the coronavirus crisis means there is now little argument against this model.
-
-
AsiamoneyAsiamoney has achieved its goals for the past three decades – and looks forward to doing it for the next 30 years.
-
-
AsiamoneyThe region is near perfect for such an accolade, so why the digital dawdling?
-
China's banking sector faces a tough year, but 2019 might also offer great opportunities for foreign banks.
-
Since May, when the country had its 'Berlin Wall moment' – putting an end to its virtual one-party state – economic and political signs have been positive… but inevitably there are looming flashpoints.
-
China’s financial regulators have undergone dramatic changes since president Xi Jinping took power five years ago.
-
-
In May 1989, the Sydney news magazine ‘The Bulletin’ published a cover story of characteristic Australian bluntness: ‘Why the banks are bastards.’
-
The opening up of the Chinese financial sector to majority foreign ownership is an important and strategic move, but the guidelines curtailing banking sector liberalization make it look like one step forward, two steps back.
-
A novel green loan for Singapore-listed Wilmar has highlighted the dearth of such ESG-based borrowings in Asia, but now that the agribusiness company has provided a template, the onus is on banks and borrowers to push for change in the region.
-
Big names in finance are in the Chinese authorities' sights – perhaps that's why they are hiding from journalists.
-
The two licences awarded to JPMorgan and Citi in the Chinese bond markets this week look like progress, but need closer examination.