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Category: Finance

Retail News Asia is committed to providing both local and global retailers with the latest Finance news throughout the Asian market. This on a daily base.

  • Citigroup to exit consumer banking in Vietnam

    Citigroup to exit consumer banking in Vietnam

    America’s Citigroup will exit 13 international consumer banking markets, including Vietnam, to shift its focus to four wealth centers.

    The move is part of the bank’s strategic decision to direct investments and resources to businesses with the greatest scale and growth potential, it stated, adding its main markets will include Singapore, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates and London.

    Apart from Vietnam, 12 other markets to be affected are Australia, Bahrain, China, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Taiwan and Thailand.

    “While the other 13 markets have excellent businesses, we don’t have the scale we need to compete. We believe our capital, investment dollars and other resources are better deployed against higher returning opportunities in wealth management and our institutional businesses in Asia.”

    The bank has not specified when it would leave Vietnam.

    Citigroup in 1994 became the first U.S. financial institution licensed to open a branch in Hanoi. It opened its second branch in Ho Chi Minh City in 1998.

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  • US removes Vietnam from currency manipulator list

    US removes Vietnam from currency manipulator list

    The U.S. has removed Vietnam from the list of economies it considers currency manipulators, reversing a decision made by the Trump administration in December.

    Its Treasury Department said Friday that no economy currently meets the U.S.’s criteria to be labeled manipulators, but warned that Vietnam, Switzerland, and Taiwan would be under enhanced monitoring.

    There is insufficient evidence to conclude they are manipulating their exchange rates.

    A country is labeled a currency manipulator if it sells its currency and buys U.S. dollars to depreciate the former to benefit its exports.

    “For calendar year 2020, we have not made a finding regarding the manipulation designation,” a department official told reporters.

    Vietnam had last December rejected the U.S.’s currency manipulator allegations, reiterating that its monetary policies do not target unfair trade advantages and that it would continue to work with the U.S. to ensure a “harmonious and fair” trade relationship.

    The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) said Saturday that Vietnam’s monetary policies in recent years have only sought to control inflation and ensure economic stability, and not derive unfair trade advantages.

    It said it has been working to increase exchange rate flexibility, resulting in improvements in the foreign currency market, and these efforts have been acknowledged by the U.S. Treasury Department.

    Vietnam would continue to work with the U.S. to ensure a harmonious and fair trade relationship, it said.

    Truong Van Phuoc, former chairman of the National Financial Supervisory Commission, said that the U.S. Treasury’s lifting of the label could make Vietnam more confident in its trade and monetary policies.

  • DBS Targets Zero Thermal Coal Exposure

    DBS Targets Zero Thermal Coal Exposure

    As part of its efforts to support the transition to a low-carbon future, the bank has set a target of 2039 to cut its thermal coal exposure to zero.

    DBS, Southeast Asia’s largest bank, has announced plans to reach its goal of zero thermal coal exposure by 2039, and will focus instead on the development of renewables, according to a statement on Friday.

    The bank will stop onboarding new customers that derive more than 25 percent of their revenue from thermal coal with immediate effect, and stop financing customers that derive more than half their revenue from thermal coal from January 2026. These thresholds will also be lowered over time, DBS said.

    DBS will use its sustainable and transition finance framework to help sectors reliant on thermal coal to transition.

    Every year counts in the journey towards a low-carbon future and we recognize the increasing need for transition financing to help industries gradually navigate away from brown to green, Tan Su Shan, DBS group head of institutional banking, said.

    Tan said the bank hopes to help energy players in the region scale the reach and supply of renewable energy in the near future.

    In 2020, DBS grew its exposure to renewable energy projects to S$4.2 billion ($3.15 billion), up from S$2.85 billion the year before.

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  • HSBC Singapore Offers Flexibility as Employees Return

    HSBC Singapore Offers Flexibility as Employees Return

    The bank has outlined a vision for its approach to flexible and hybrid-location working and will give its employees the opportunity and choice to return to the office.

    HSBC Singapore’s Future of Work plans will be underpinned by ensuring customer focus; flexibility for how, when, and where employees work; and ensuring that its offices are designed and used to build collaboration and networks, according to a statement on Friday.

    Forward-looking companies are change-makers. This includes creating working environments that enable employees to set up arrangements that deliver high customer impact whilst suiting their personal lives, Brandon Coate, head of human resources, said.

    The bank, which has about 3,300 employees in Singapore, has made a number of policy, location, technology, and cultural changes in the past year, including becoming the anchor tenant of Marina Bay Financial Centre Tower 2, which it moved to last year after its lease at 21 Collyer Quay ended.

    It will upgrade its offices at MBFC and at its split-site at Mapletree Business City, in preparation for a more permanent shift to hybrid and flexible working, the bank noted. This includes state-of-art design, technology, and sustainability, and moving from traditional fixed-desk seating to an activity-based workplace, where employees have a variety of individual and shared spaces available to work or collaborate with others.

    As more employees prepare to return to the workplace, following an extended period of working from home, HSBC said it will maintain operational and business continuity risk.

    For example, it is allowing a maximum of 65 percent of its total staff in the office, and not allowing cross-site deployment.

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  • Citi Boosts Hong Kong Wealth Headcount

    Citi Boosts Hong Kong Wealth Headcount

    Citi unveiled its hiring plans for its wealth management business in Hong Kong – one of the few remaining markets the bank will place its renewed focus on after announcing a series of planned exits.

    Citi will look to hire up to 500 people in its Hong Kong wealth unit, according to a statement.

    The hires will include 300 relationship managers in the next five years as part of plans to triple the number of clients and double assets under management (AUM) by 2025 in Hong Kong.

    With various Greater Bay Area initiatives, such as Wealth Management Connect on the horizon, the opportunities are strong for further client-led growth in Hong Kong wealth management,» said Hong Kong chief executive and consumer business manager Lawrence Lam.

    Hong Kong is one of the four wealth hubs where Citi will operate its consumer banking business after it announced planned exits to 13 markets in Asia and EMEA.

    The remaining hubs are London, UAE and Singapore where it also aims to triple its clients and double AUM by 2025.

    The latest Hong Kong hiring ambitions for the Hong Kong wealth unit follow previously announced plans to hire up to 1,700 people across businesses in the city.

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  • Wirecard Dismantles Asia Empire

    Wirecard Dismantles Asia Empire

    Following a spectacular collapse, Wirecard is disposing of its assets in the region, leaving only its business in India. The insolvent German firm has agreed to sell its legal entities in the Philippines, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Thailand as well as the company’s regional data warehouse in Singapore to Nomu Pay.

    The deal includes Wirecard’s clients, licenses and more than 120 staff. The acquisition will help the payments firm, backed by Amsterdam-based venture capital company Finch Capital build an e-commerce and payments company in Asia, the report said.

    The report did not specify the size of the deal but noted it was below the €200 million Wirecard paid Citi in 2017 to acquire its merchant clients in 11 Asia-Pacific countries.

    Wirecard sold its unit in Indonesia to a local technology holding company in a deal that included 360 staff and operations in Malaysia too. The company has already divested operations in the Americas, U.K., and continental Europe.

    Wirecard was at the center of one of the region’s biggest corporate accounting scandals in recent years, having admitted that €1.9 billion ($2.25 billion) is missing from its financial accounts. The collapsed German fintech’s sacked operating chief went to the extreme – and adventurous – lengths to bamboozle auditors, according to a German report.

    In October 2020, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) ordered Wirecard Singapore to cease payment services in the country and to return all customers’ funds.

  • Ex-UBS Chief Sergio Ermotti Shifts from Banker to Statesman

    Ex-UBS Chief Sergio Ermotti Shifts from Banker to Statesman

    Less than six months after leaving UBS, ex-CEO Sergio Ermotti is now chairman of the world’s largest reinsurer. He signaled he will use the job as a platform to lobby for Switzerland as a business center.

    The former CEO of UBS, Sergio Ermotti, had promised a blackout after leaving the Swiss wealth manager at the end of October. He resurfaced publicly on Friday, when 96.4 percent of Swiss Re investors backed him as the reinsurer’s next chairman, after a year of understudying with long-standing overseer Walter Kielholz.

    In my new role, I look forward to advocating for Switzerland as an attractive location for the insurance industry,» the 60-year-old Ticino native told shareholders in an annual meeting held online. Insurance represents as much of Swiss gross domestic product as Switzerland’s heavyweight banking sector, and also a more consistent one.

    Nearly every eleventh Swiss franc in Switzerland is generated by the wider financial industry, according to data compiled by research institute BAK Economics. Insurance alone generates 30.5 billion Swiss francs ($33 billion) annually, according to BAK.

    Switzerland is the world’s third-largest location for reinsurance, Ermotti said – and he plans to use his new job to help make sure it stays that way. «That is why Swiss Re is actively engaged in ensuring that the Swiss financial center remains attractive and internationally competitive» in terms of framework conditions, the banker-turned-overseer said.

    He’s earning far less than at UBS, where he regularly topped league tables as Europe’s highest-paid banker and left on a 13.3 million franc payday high. He earned just 151,000 francs for 2020 after his election last April; by comparison, Kielholz took home 3.8 million francs.

    Ermotti remains a big UBS investor, with more than 4 million shares to his name (it translates to less than 0.3 percent of voting rights over the Swiss giant) – likely not including a big personal bet. His extracurricular activities include chairing the family’s Lugano-based Fondazione Ermotti and serving on the Swiss-American chamber of commerce’s board.

    While at UBS, he was widely viewed as sincere in his concern for Switzerland and its financial center when commenting on Swiss political matters of economic and business relevance, like immigration. Ermotti, who began his career in finance as an apprentice at Cornèr Bank in Lugano in 1975, is also on the board of the Global Apprenticeship Network – and a SPAC backer.

    The banking veteran spent the bulk of his career abroad including in London as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. The Swiss Re move represents the culmination of what Ermotti reportedly couldn’t clinch at UBS: the chairman’s seat. At the Swiss bank, long-standing chairman Axel Weber looks set to extend his tenure, instead of exiting next April.

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  • HSBC Shifts Top Execs to Hong Kong

    HSBC Shifts Top Execs to Hong Kong

    HSBC will relocate some of its top executives from London to Hong Kong as the British lender places increasingly greater emphasis on the region.

    Global banking and markets co-head Greg Guyett, wealth and personal banking chief executive Nuno Matos, and global commercial banking chief executive Barry O’Byrne will relocate to Hong Kong in the second half of the year, according to an internal memo.

    They will also be joined later in the year by the bank’s head of asset management Nicolas Moreau.

    Though some other roles will also be shifted to join the top executives, there is no planned large-scale movement of jobs from London to Hong Kong.

    The relocated executives lead divisions that makeup nearly all of HSBC’s global revenue, signaling a stronger focus on Asia, which accounted for 59 percent of operating income in 2020.

    An important part of our global strategy is to base more of our leadership population in Asia, said HSBC CEO Noel Quinn in the note.

    The bank is undergoing restructuring to further focus its resources on growth opportunities in the region. Part of its plans includes redeployment of over $100 billion of capital to Asia, where it is particularly focused on investing in Hong Kong, China and Singapore.

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  • First Digital Trust Partners Crypto Storage Firm Amid Asia Demand

    First Digital Trust Partners Crypto Storage Firm Amid Asia Demand

    The multi-asset custodian will work with Fireblocks, a blockchain-based platform for securely moving, storing, and issuing digital assets in the finance industry, to cater to the increasing demand from fintech companies seeking custodial solutions in Asia.

    Hong Kong-based First Digital Trust (FDT) will integrate Fireblocks’ digital asset infrastructure on its platform to improve institutional-grade digital asset custody and protection in Asia as investor interest and demand grows, according to a joint statement on Wednesday.

    Fireblocks will automate the depositing of assets into FDT’s custodial structure, which will allow it to provide more interoperable custody solutions by enabling fintech clients to instantly send money to various digital asset providers without needing to see a wallet address.

    FDT will also be able to provide investors access to DeFi, lending and staking, as well as more than 200 trading venues and 300 tokens, enabling them to expand their revenue streams from day one, the announcement said.

    The collaboration with Fireblocks will enable us to build a strong bridge between the East and the West for fintech visionaries in Europe and the US who are looking to tap into the Asian market, Vincent Chok, CEO of First Digital Trust, said.

    Digital asset trading activity in Asia is equivalent to the U.S. and Europe combined, and accounts for more than 90 percent of ethereum and bitcoin derivatives volumes.

    Since launching in June 2019, Fireblocks has opened offices in Hong Kong and Singapore, and has raised $46 million in funding to support its growth ambitions.

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  • Citi Names Wealth Co-Heads for Asia Pacific

    Citi Names Wealth Co-Heads for Asia Pacific

    Citi made a raft of new appointments to its wealth management unit including the promotion of its Asia head of private banking.

    Citi named Steven Lo co-head of the wealth unit in the region alongside APAC head of retail banking Fabio Fontainha, according to an internal memo.

    Lo was named Asia head of the private bank in 2017, succeeding ex-head Bassam Salem.

    The bank also appointed Ida Liu – most recently head of the private bank in North America – as the global head of private banking, overseeing the bank’s private capital group, global trust, and private bank global marketing operations.

    Other notable appointments for the wealth business include chief operating officer Eduardo A. Martinez Campos and chief of staff Running Du.

    Chief investment officer and global head of investments David Bailin will form a group that combines investment teams from the private bank and consumer bank globally.

    Head of investment finance for the private bank Giuliano Malacarne will expand his remit and coordinate the delivery of banking and lending products to wealthy clients.

    The appointments coincide with the bank’s reorganization of its wealth business to encompass the full spectrum from emerging affluent to high net worth clients.

    Our clients are looking for more — whether it’s access to investment opportunities and advice, tools and analytics, a focus on environmental, social and governance concerns or more engaging digital experiences, said Jim O’Donnell, Citi’s head of global wealth in the memo.

  • StanChart Wealth Planning App Debuts in Singapore

    StanChart Wealth Planning App Debuts in Singapore

    The bank joins other players in providing digital wealth advisory with its new SC Goals Planner app, now available on SC Online Banking and SC Mobile.

    Standard Chartered has launched a free, do-it-yourself online financial planning solution developed in collaboration with Singapore-based fintech BetterTradeOff, which advanced leverages data analytics for clients to make data-led decisions when it comes to wealth planning, the bank announced in Wednesday.

    The SC Goals Planner app allows customers will be able to independently plan and track their financial goals through real-life simulations and insights specific to their life stages and financial status. Users will also be able to educate themselves on the planning process and financial fundamentals, the announcement said.

    Banks have been quick to capitalize on the heightened interest in wealth planning – Julius Baer also launched its digital advisory platform in Asia this week, while DBS rolled out personal digital advisory to its financial planner last week.

    Standard Chartered said there has been more interest in better financial planning as a result of the pandemic. Through the platform, Standard Chartered hopes to close the financial literacy gap and empower clients to play a more active role in their financial planning.

    This is one of the many steps we are taking to strengthen the client-bank wealth and financial planning dialogue, Eugene Puar, head of wealth management, Singapore, ASEAN and South Asia said.

    Singapore-based BetterTradeOff (BTO) was founded in 2015 and offers a software-as-a-service (SaaS) life planning tool to clients through a white-label enterprise solution. It currently operates in Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines, UAE, and Switzerland.

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  • HSBC Swims Against Crypto Tide

    HSBC Swims Against Crypto Tide

    The bank banned customers of its online trading platform InvestDirect from adding MicroStrategy stock to their portfolios, calling them a «virtual currency product.

    HSBC has no appetite for direct exposure to virtual currencies [VCs] and limited appetite to facilitate products or securities that derive their value from VCs,» a HSBC spokesperson said in a statement.

    Last week, a message from the bank to InvestDirect customers dated March 29 surfaced on social media, saying that it will only allow the holding, sale and outgoing transfer of MicroStrategy shares, and will ban new purchases or incoming transfers.

    MicroStrategy, a business intelligence and cloud-based software company founded in 1989 by bitcoin evangelist Michael Saylor, currently holds about $5.5 billion in bitcoin, or about 80 percent of its $6.8 billion market capitalization.

    The company adopted a policy last year to primarily hold bitcoin instead of cash, and has been purchasing the cryptocurrency with its extra cash and paying its directors in BTC.

    HSBC said the ban on MicroStrategy follows its policy on cryptocurrencies, which has been in place since 2018. Its move comes against the growing number of financial firms and companies that are embracing cryptocurrencies.

    Other companies that also have large holdings of bitcoin on their balance sheets include carmaker Tesla and payments processor Square, though it is not clear if a similar ban would apply to their shares.

    Goldman Sachs has said it would offer investments in bitcoin and other digital assets to its wealth clients, while Morgan Stanley will roll out a bitcoin offering to wealth management clients.

    Outside of the U.S., notable global banks that have also launched crypto offerings include Standard Chartered and DBS.

    MicroStrategy shares soared on Tuesday, up about 18 percent to $848.5, as the price of bitcoin reached a new high of $63,000, 7 percent higher than the day before.

    The surge in investor interest comes ahead of a hotly anticipated direct listing of CoinBase, the U.S.’ largest cryptocurrency exchange, on Nasdaq on Wednesday.

  • Chinese Banks Accelerate Branch Cuts

    Chinese Banks Accelerate Branch Cuts

    Chinese lenders are increasingly closing down branches as online and mobile banking penetration continues to rise.

    Mainland lenders have closed 430 branches in the first three months of 2021, according to data from the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission’s (CBIRC) annual report.

    This marks an accelerated reduction after the industry closed 1,300 branches in 2020.

    As a major leader by digital penetration of its population, China saw strong growth for transactions not executed via physical bank locations – or «off-counter rates.

    Such transactions, which include online and mobile banking, rose 12 percent to 2,308 trillion yuan ($352.5 trillion), according to the CBIRC report.

    Mobile banking transactions alone soar 31 percent to 439.2 trillion yuan – nearly one-fifth of total off-counter transactions.

    In addition to growing digital adoption, the branch cuts are part of a broader industry move to reduce costs especially after a year of concessions where borrowers were offered cheap loans, deferred payment options, and top Beijing officials even called for a 1.5 trillion yuan sacrifice of profits.

    Mainland lenders are also rebalancing the mix of their remaining branch network with a focus on maintaining brick-and-mortar locations in counties or rural areas as part of Beijing’s goal to promote financial inclusion.

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  • ZA Tech Opens Fintech Center in Singapore

    ZA Tech Opens Fintech Center in Singapore

    The Singapore-based center aims to explore financial services innovation and help industry partners in the region to build new products that will accelerate their digital ambitions.

    ZA Tech Global has opened its first Asia Fintech Center (AFC), which will specialize in solving specific use-cases in insurance and financial services in collaboration with industry partners, according to an announcement by the Chinese firm, which provides proprietary insurtech capabilities and applications

    The center will have an initial focus on insurance use-cases by co-designing innovative propositions with insurers in ASEAN, the announcement said. It will also partner with local universities to develop further fintech expertise and talent.

    The internet economy continues to rapidly reshape consumer expectations across Asia, digital transformation is becoming as crucial as ever for financial services firms, Bill Song, CEO of ZA Tech, said, adding that the AFC is an important pillar of its regional ambitions.

    George Kesselman, ZA Tech’s head of commercial, will take on the additional responsibility as a leader of the AFC.

    ZA Tech Global is the business entity established by ZhongAn Technologies International, the international arm of Chinese online insurer ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance.

    The company previously inked micro-insurance partnerships with Grab and NTUC Income in Singapore, Ovo in Indonesia, and regionally with AIA

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  • ABBank seeks to hike capital through rights issuances of shares

    ABBank seeks to hike capital through rights issuances of shares

    ABBank plans to increase its charter capital by 65 percent to VND9.4 trillion ($407 million) through rights issuances of shares to existing shareholders.

    There will be two issuances, one each in the second and third quarters of this year, the Hanoi-based lender said in a plan it outlined to shareholders.

    The bank, established in 1993, plans to use the money raised for expansion and ensuring capital adequacy.

    It targets increasing pre-tax profits by 44 percent this year to VND1.97 trillion. It achieved 10 percent profit growth last year.

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