Retail News CRM

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.

  • LPBank appoints new CEO

    LPBank appoints new CEO

    Lender LPBank, formerly LienVietPostBank, has named Ho Nam Tien its new CEO.

    Tien, 52, has been with the bank since 2010 and has 30 years of experience in the financial and banking sector, including in senior positions at several companies.

    He replaces Pham Doan Son, who resigned as CEO in March due to personal reasons.

    LPBank is focused on digital transformation in the next five years and has ambitions of becoming the top retail bank in Vietnam.

    LPBank targets a pre-tax profit of VND6 trillion this year, up 11% from 2022.

    The company eyes to increase its capital by VND11 trillion ($468 million), mostly by rights issue.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Avaloq Partners With World’s Largest Asset Manager

    Avaloq Partners With World’s Largest Asset Manager

    Swiss banking software maker Avaloq is partnering with Blackrock. Together, the companies aim to make their services available to private banks and wealth managers.

    According to a joint announcement Wednesday, Avaloq and Blackrock are entering into a strategic partnership. Furthermore, Blackrock has acquired a minority stake in Avaloq. Details of the Deal were not disclosed.

    Under the agreement, Avaloq’s software will dock onto Blackrock’s investment engine Aladdin, with the aim of giving private banks and wealth managers access to comprehensive end-to-end technology and investment solutions, it said.

    Streamline Processes

    Avaloq’s leading core banking is used by institutions with a total of approximately $4 trillion in assets under management and will now be linked to Blackrock’s, Aladdin.

    This partnership will help us empower our clients to streamline processes, enhance risk analytics, and make more informed portfolio decisions, ultimately delivering greater value to their clients, Avaloq’s Co-CEO Martin Greweldinger,  said.

    With the Avaloq partnership, Blackrock will gain access to the core banking IT system which is widely used in Europe and Asia. At the same time Avaloq can benefit from Blackrock’s platform, which collects data from all accessible investments and is used to calculate the risk of around 10 percent of all assets under management in the world. In Switzerland, users include UBS.

    BlackRock and Avaloq joining forces will help clients reduce the complexity and friction inherent in many of today’s digital transformations. Our combined offering will make it extremely convenient for clients to implement and adopt Aladdin Wealth’s industry-leading capabilities as it will be deeply integrated with Avaloq’s core banking solutions, Venu Krishnamurthy, Global Head of Aladdin Wealth Tech, said.

    With the new offering, the two partners want to appeal to both new customers and existing users of Aladdin and the Avaloq software, they said. The joint solution, which will be sourced from the data cloud as a pure «software as a service» offering, is currently being implemented into two of Avaloq’s customers.

    The combined offer also meets Swiss data protection requirements, the statment said, adding that Aladdin Wealth anonymizes the client portfolios that the technology creates on behalf of third parties.

    For Avaloq in particular, the collaboration with the US giant is the first of a new slate of offerings the company is working on under the wing of its parent company NEC.

    Avaloq no longer sees itself as a mere software supplier, but increasingly as a coordinating force that orchestrates emerging digital ecosystems in finance.

    Lees ook:

  • Bitcoin Suisse’s Profits Crash Amid Crypto Slump

    Bitcoin Suisse’s Profits Crash Amid Crypto Slump

    Bitcoin Suisse saw profits plunge in 2022, making it all the more urgent for the crypto start-up to restructure its business model. At the same time, it is bringing on prominent people to its board of directors as it sets the path to become an institution.

    Bitcoin Suisse’s operating income fell to 37 million Swiss francs from 84 million Swiss francs in 2022 from the previous year, its CEO Dirk Klee, said in an interview with finews.com, adding that trading collapsed in the face of various scandals in the crypto industry.

    The market correction also impacted Bitcoin Suisse own holdings, deposited across trading centers worldwide, which fell by around 23 million Swiss francs. «Proprietary trading» category is not proprietary trading in the conventional sense, but rather corresponds to current assets used for operational business, Klee said.

    Although the setback was also due to the large drops in the value of altcoins (alternative digital assets), Bitcoin Suisse will continue to maintain these holdings, Klee said. Admitting these were not «pretty numbers,» for Klee they show the volatility in crypto brokerage.

    Furthermore, the company can stomach the results which were expected due to the market situation. Bitcoin Suisse continues to be solidly financed and «very well prepared» for a possible upturn in the crypto industry, he added.

    Bitcoin Suisse has had to cut one in four jobs at the company since the end of 2021. Overall, the headcount has fallen from over 300 to around 220 full-time positions during this period. A major round of layoffs occurred last January, but Klee says that some measures were cushioned by natural employee turnover.

    The recent market turmoil that followed the lawsuits filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission against leading crypto exchanges Binance and Coinbase has even led to many inquiries from customers, Klee said. «We expect that the turmoil could prove positive for solid and Swiss-based providers like us,» he added.

    Philipp Roesler, the former leader of the German Free Democratic Party (FDP), who also served as a finance minister and vice chancellor under Angela Merkel, is joining Bitcoin Suisse’s board of directors according to Klee.

    The crypto company is hoping to gain from Roesler’s international network. The 50-year-old former politician, who lives in Zurich, has a strong affinity for crypto and is active in Switzerland’s crypto scene, Klee said.

    Marco Menotti, worked for 15 years at UBS, before moving to the Swiss stock exchange SIX’s executive board in 2018. He left SIX in mid-2022 to pursue various mandates at smaller companies.

    Both Roesler and Menotti will stand for election at the annual general meeting on June 29. The Zug-based crypto broker has undoubtedly scored a coup with Roesler’s candidacy on Bitcoin Suisse’s board. However, Roesler’s candidacy is not about gathering celebrities on the board of directors – but about helping the crypto startup on its way to becoming an institution, Klee said.

    Furthermore, Roger Studer is leaving the board after a three-year term to concentrate on various other mandates. Studer headed investment banking at Zurich-based Vontobel and led a financing round for Bitcoin Suisse as an investor in 2020, before becoming an entrepreneur.

    Bitcoin Suisse is currently preparing to apply for a Swiss banking license after withdrawing its previous application in 2021. Part of these preparations include the commissioning of a crypto-compatible core banking system and strengthening of governance and compliance, Klee told finews.com

    Bitcoin Suisse, which has had a strong trading focus, is aiming to position itself as an asset manager going forward. A shift that could also result in more steady earnings.
    Staking, a service whereby the entity – in this case, Bitcoin Suisse – holds tokens and coins to validate blockchain transactions and gives customers token rewards in return, is also in focus.

    The Zug-based company says it is already among the five largest providers worldwide of staking services.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Kuehne + Nagel and HSBC Filling Void Left by Credit Suisse

    Kuehne + Nagel and HSBC Filling Void Left by Credit Suisse

    Next week, Credit Suisse shares will be delisted, bringing a 167-year history to an end. Two firms are lined up to fill the void.

    On June 12, Credit Suisse shares are to be delisted from the Swiss stock exchange. The following day its shares will drop out of the Swiss blue-chip SMI, to be replaced by freight forwarder Kuehne + Nagel, according to the stock exchange operator SIX.

    Semiconductor supplier Meyer Burger moves up in the SMIM index of mid-sized companies, while chocolate producer Lindt & Spruengli moves up in the Swiss Leader Index SLI.

    In Asia, HSBC is replacing Credit Suisse at one of the major financial events in In Hong Kong, where the Swiss bank held the annual Asia Investment Conference, of which the 26th and final one was held in March.

    HSBC is planning to hold a conference in Hong Kong from April 8 to 10 and expects more than 2,000 visitors. The event will be held at the Conrad Hotel, the same venue where Credit Suisse held its Asia conference for years.

    Lees ook:

  • Swiss National Bank Expands Activities in Singapore

    Swiss National Bank Expands Activities in Singapore

    The SNB takes a step to better optimize operations in a number of different currencies, markets, and time zones.

    The Swiss National Bank’s operating unit will start a two-year pilot project from August 2023 under which it will split operations between Zurich and Singapore, according to information received by finews.com. With that step, it intends to improve processing and execution in different currencies, markets, and time zones, an SNB spokesperson confirmed.

    As part of that, two individuals will be based there to handle securities, currency, and derivatives transactions while managing overall financial market asset inventories. In Singapore, the central bank employs 11 people in total and it is currently the SNB’s only foreign branch.

    Carolin Reiss leads it and has been since October 2022, when she succeeded Marco Huwiler, who subsequently returned to Switzerland. Reiss has been working for the SNB for ten years, mainly in the currency trading department and as an advisor for its so-called Department III (money markets and foreign exchange, asset management, banking operations, and information technology).  She is a native German citizen from Hannover who previously worked at Commerzbank and she possesses a Masters’s Degree from Humboldt University in Berlin although she also studied at the University of Zurich.

    The Singapore branch has stood the test of time given that it is celebrating ten years of existence this year. Its presence in the city-state allows it to more efficiently manage currency reserves in Asia and Oceania in local time zones while assisting with monetary policy operational requirements in foreign exchange markets. Its close proximity to regional market participants allows it to profit from a network of local institutions and market participants.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • UBS Expects to Ink Government Loss Guarantee Tomorrow

    UBS Expects to Ink Government Loss Guarantee Tomorrow

    In a regulatory filing with the SEC, UBS said it expects to wrap up its agreement with the Swiss government over loss guarantees as part of its government-orchestrated takeover of Credit Suisse.

    When UBS agreed to take over troubled Credit Suisse at the behest of the Swiss government, part of the deal was for the federal government to absorb up to nine billion Swiss francs ($9-9 billion) of losses related to Credit Suisse after UBS shouldered the first five billion.

    That agreement, which is one of the final pieces of the puzzle that needs to be completed for the takeover, is expected to be finalized tomorrow.

    UBS Group AG expects that the Loss Protection Agreement will be finalized by June 7, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which will allow it to proceed with the takeover.

    UBS said it expects to complete its formal acquisition of Credit Suisse as soon as June 12, subject to the registration statement being declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and to the satisfaction, or waiver by UBS of remaining closing conditions. The shares will then be delisted on the SIX Swiss and New York Stock exchanges.

    A great deal of complexity surrounds the completion of the deal. So much so that UBS is said to be considering delaying its interim results, according to additional reporting by finews.com.

    Losses over 14 billion francs which were not included in the Special Ordinance making the merger possible, «requires a separate legal basis in the form of a parliamentary approval in the ordinary legislative procedure as well as the commitment credit,» the SEC filing said.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • UBS Holding on to Spanish Business

    UBS Holding on to Spanish Business

    A few years after selling its wealth management business in Spain, UBS will soon serve wealthy clients on the peninsula again.

    UBS will keep Credit Suisse’s private banking business in Spain, citing a statement by a spokesperson.

    In an effort to «restore calm» among bankers and clients after recent turbulences related to its takeover of Credit Suisse, the report said that Spain’s private wealth market is the first UBS has committed to openly.

    In 2021 UBS sold its Spanish office to Singular Bank for an undisclosed amount.

    Lees ook:

  • Foreign Bank Expansion Slows in Mainland China

    Foreign Bank Expansion Slows in Mainland China

    The opening of China’s financial sector has hit a speed bump, particularly amongst US banks, due to a changing business environment.

    In 2019, China decided to accelerate the opening of its financial sector with the introduction of various new measures, including the elimination of foreign ownership limits. At the time, mainland China’s financial market had an estimated value of $45 trillion and numerous global banks lauded the opportunity to compete onshore in the world’s second largest economy.

    The environment has changed in less than four years following the nation’s zero-Covid policy and a significant shift in US-China relations. Onshore expansion by global banks is expected to slow down for various reasons.

    US banks are headlining the retreat, primarily due to a dented outlook. Goldman Sachs, for example, reportedly revised projections for its five-year plan in China after the business environment drastically changed with a reduction of more than one-tenth of its workforce in the mainland after doubling its headcount to over 600.

    Morgan Stanley is opting against building an onshore brokerage unit, instead making a smaller investment of about $150 million in its futures and derivatives businesses. On Monday, the bank received regulatory approval to set up its futures unit in China.

    It will be a longer journey than we would wish to build up scale and reputation to do business gradually,» said JPMorgan China chief executive Mark Leung in an interview on the bank’s plans in the mainland

    Elsewhere, foreign bank expansion is being slowed down by structural changes outside of China.

    The combination of UBS and Credit Suisse is expected to create some challenges due to existing exposure in China by both Swiss lenders. Under the current regulations of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, a company cannot be a majority shareholder in more than one securities firm nor hold stakes in over two asset management firms.

    This would require the newly enlarged UBS to offload shares, creating further complications to an already complex integration.

    Nonetheless, not all banks are hit by worsened sentiments or structural hurdles with HSBC being one of the most notable optimists, as part of its broader plans to pivot its global business to Asia.

    The British lender currently owns 49 percent of its asset management joint venture, HSBC Jintrust Fund Management, and has reportedly reached an agreement earlier this month to purchase the remaining 51 percent.

    The bank is also rapidly growing its wealth business onshore with the rollout of various new product capabilities, such as an upgraded legacy planning offering in April. According to chief financial officer Georges Elhedery, HSBC is on track to hire around 2,000 private wealth managers in China’s insurance sector over the next two years, after adding 1,000 in 2022.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • UBP Acquires Japanese Asset Manager

    UBP Acquires Japanese Asset Manager

    Swiss-based Union Bancaire Privée has acquired a new asset manager specializing in Japanese small-cap equities.

    According to a statement, UBP has acquired 100 percent of the shares issued by Angel Japan Asset Management (AM). Founded in 2001, Angel Japan AM is a Tokyo-based independent investment advisor specializing in Japanese small-cap equities.

    Hirotaka Usami leads the firm and houses five investment professionals including four portfolio managers with an average experience of 24 years.

    It currently manages three strategies (IPO, new growth and steady growth) with total assets under advisory of $1.2 billion.

    Following the transfer of ownership, Hirotaka Usami will become chairman of Angel Japan AM’s newly created board of directors while current chief operating officer Ryota Bando will be appointed chief executive officer.

    Angel Japan AM’s current employees are expected to remain with the firm.

    Other than the changes to its governance structure and directors, there will be no changes to Angel Japan AM’s current investment process, investment philosophy, investment style and investment team.

    The acquisition follows a successful partnership since 2018 with Angel Japan AM advising UBP’s Japanese small-cap equities strategy and outperforming the relevant benchmark.

    The acquisition of Angel Japan AM underscores UBP’s high conviction on the investment opportunities in the global small-cap equity segment, notably in Japan, and as to the team’s unique ability to seize them, said UBP asset management co-CEO and head of institutional clients Nicolas Faller.

    Taking on the ownership of Angel Japan AM will not only broaden our distribution channels to onshore Japanese clients but will also strengthen our in-house capabilities and value proposition to serve our offshore clients better.

     

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Vontobel CEO Plans to Step Down

    Vontobel CEO Plans to Step Down

    After 22 years at Vontobel the CEO of Bank Vontobel plans to retire from his CEO post next year.

    CEO Zeno Staub has asked the board of directors to resign his mandate at next year’s Annual General Meeting in April, Vontobel said in an emailed statement Wednesday. Staub served as the investment company’s CEO for 12 years.

    Staub plans to become more active in Swiss politics and will run as the top candidate for Switzerland’s Center Party «Die Mitte» in the National Council elections in the fall of 2023.

    It is a sign of a strong democracy when citizens such as Zeno Staub, who can look back on a long and successful career in business, want to assume a political role. We wish Zeno Staub every success in his endeavors, Chairman Andreas E.F. Utermann said in the statement.

    However, Staub is not cutting off all ties to Vontobel: After a one-year cooling-off period, he will stand for election as an ordinary member of the board of directors at the general meeting of shareholders 2025.

    Chief Operating Officer Felix Lenhard, is also stepping down at the end of the year, the statement said. Lenhard, who sat on the executive committee of Vontobel Holding and Bank Vontobel, wishes to spend more time with his family.

    Lenhard’s successor will also be determined by year-end.

  • Company fined $37,000 for not disclosing stock market transactions

    Company fined $37,000 for not disclosing stock market transactions

    Thai Son Investment Solutions Jsc has been fined VND870 million (US$37,100) for selling and buying back a stock in October last year without disclosing the information.

    The State Securities Commission of Vietnam announced the fine recently and prohibited the company from trading on the stock market for three months starting May 19.

    Thai Son surreptitiously sold 1.5 million shares of Electricity Investment Service Trade Jsc (EIN) on October 19, 2022, and bought 1.4 million shares three days later.

    The SSC recently placed Tan Viet Securities under restrictions for four months for publishing its unaudited financial statements.

    The company had been fined VND745 million in 2021 and 2022 for multiple stock market violations.

  • Meme coin Pepe craze causes thousand-dollar losses

    Meme coin Pepe craze causes thousand-dollar losses

    Thanh Nam from Binh Duong Province sold half his Bitcoin for US$5,000 to buy the hot meme coin Pepe at its peak.

    But he was recently only able to sell the coin for a total of $2,000.

    When the Pepe coin price hit $0.000004 on May 5 (bringing its market capitalization to $1.63 billion), Nam’s initial investment could have returned $7,000.

    But he wanted more, so he decided to wait.

    However, Pepe’s price plummeted to $0.0000017 only one week later. Nam then sold his tokens at a loss of $3,000

    “If I had waited more, I would have lost even more”, he said.

    Nam is just one of many who joined the Pepe craze recently.

    According to crypto price tracking website CoinMarketCap, Pepe’s price spiked after its launch in mid-April. It peaked on May 5, then lost most of its value afterwards.

    Meme coins are still widely considered a joke in cryptocurrency, however popular they get.

    Pepe was built on the BRC-20 standard of Bitcoin, different from many other meme coins which use Ethereum’s ERC-20.

    On its project homepage, Pepe’s developer said: “$PEPE is a meme coin with no intrinsic value or expectation of financial return. There is no formal team or roadmap. The coin is completely useless and for entertainment purposes only.”

    Despite such disclaimers, new meme coins like Pepe still attract lots of investment.

    Kyle Doane, who is in charge of transaction review at digital asset management company Arca, said that quite a few people sold parts of their top coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum to join the Pepe frenzy.

    When Pepe peaked on May 5, both those coins’ value dropped by 10%, a considerable value reduction after four straight months of growth.

    Joe Rotunda, director of enforcement at the Texas Securities Commission, said that when the hype surrounding a meme coin goes away, most people who invested in the coin suffer significant losses.

    Even when one gains from a meme coin, obtaining the profit is not easy.

    Merav Ozair, fintech expert at Cornell University, said he saw many who hit million-dollar jackpots investing in meme coins unable to withdraw their profits.

    Meme coins like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, which are still highly valuable, are the exceptions, not the rule.

    Experts suggest that if investors want to try their luck with meme coins, they should only invest a small amount, and be ready to lose it all.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • CIMB Thai, Positive Thinking Company partner to establish software development center

    CIMB Thai, Positive Thinking Company partner to establish software development center

    CIMB Thai Bank and Positive Thinking Company, a leading technology company in Asia-Pacific, have announced to establish an expert software development center for CIMB Thai in Hanoi.

    The Vietnam Software Development Center in Hanoi is expected to add powerful engineering expert resources and accelerate the digital journey of CIMB Thai, a member of CIMB Group.

    “With the vision of becoming a digital-led bank with ASEAN reach, we look forward to the collaboration to help accelerate our ambitious digital evolution roadmap aimed at offering customers a best-in-class digital banking experience,” said Paul Wong Chee Kin, President & CEO of CIMB Thai.

    “The Vietnam Software Development Center in Hanoi will be the latest highlight in our fast-moving digital journey, joining existing digital hubs in Bangkok and Chiang Mai as a collective engine of excellence that will support our long-term digital aspirations.-

    The partnership will scale up digital resources and drive products and services across CIMB Thai’s offerings.

    Pieter van Diermen, CEO of Positive Thinking Company APAC, a member of Collaboration Betters The World (CBTW) Group, said the strategic tech partnership would help CIMB Thai set up their first software development center in Vietnam, through the distinctive Build Operate Transfer (BOT) model of Positive Thinking Company.

    “During our 20 years of experience in building custom software and product development centers in Vietnam, we have witnessed the local market grow an ever more talented pool of highly motivated and well-rounded software engineers,” said Pieter van Diermen.

    “The Vietnam Software Development Center will be a powerful addition to the current expert engineering teams of CIMB Thai and will make remarkable contributions to its inspiring digital journey.”

    The Vietnam Software Development Center kicks off with a team based in Hanoi. The team is working closely with the CIMB’s engineering teams in Thailand to deploy new features and enhancements on the CIMB Thai mobile banking application as well as other digital touchpoints.

    With an average of 55,000 new engineers graduating each year, Vietnam’s software development sector is flourishing and becoming a major player in the worldwide software product engineering market.

    Vietnam is also predicted to become the second-largest digital economy in Southeast Asia by 2025.

    Through its scalable and cost-effective BOT model, Positive Thinking Company has established more than 15 software development centers in Vietnam to assist its global clients in accelerating their product roadmaps and digital transformation journeys.

    Positive Thinking Company is a founding partner of Collaboration Betters The World, a global tech group and ecosystem with a global team of 4,000 tech talents. Its core expertises in APAC include software product engineering (developing web and mobile apps, enterprise apps, platforms & eCommerce) and the unique Build Operate Transfer (BOT) Model (building custom software and product development centers on behalf of global clients such as Atlassian, National Australia Bank, and many more).

    CIMB Thai Bank Public Company Limited is driven by its vision to be a digital-led bank with ASEAN reach delivering wealth management, treasury, consumer banking, corporate banking and ASEAN-related products and services.

    CIMB Group is a leading focused ASEAN bank and one of the region’s foremost corporate advisors. The group is headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and offers consumer banking, commercial banking, investment banking, Islamic banking and asset management products and services.

    The bank had around 33,000 staff and over 20 million customers as of the end of December 2022.

    Lees ook:

  • Bank deposit interest rates continue to fall

    Bank deposit interest rates continue to fall

    Many banks have cut deposit interest rates this month, bringing the average rate to below 9.

    The rate is half a percentage point lower than at the start of this year for terms of less than six months, and one point lower for longer tenors.

    Some banks offered nearly 10% earlier this year.

    As of May 15 more than half the banks offered rates of up to 7-8%, and the rest, slightly higher.

    After a period of rapid growth at the end of 2022, deposit interest rates began to plateau at the beginning of this year as liquidity became abundant, even excessive, according to analysts, especially compared to the end of October last year when a run occurred on Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB).

    Besides, bank lending has eased off, meaning funds mobilization is not an urgent need for them.

    Deposits of less than six months carry a maximum interest rate of 5.5%.

    Banks that offer the highest rates, ranging from 8.5% to 8.9%, include SeABank, ABBank, VietABank, HDBank, and VietBank.

  • BNP Paribas Bags Credit Suisse Specialist Team

    BNP Paribas Bags Credit Suisse Specialist Team

    The revolving door at Credit Suisse keeps spinning, as the Swiss bank loses a team of specialists to BNP Paribas.

    BNP Paribas is strengthening its equities team in London by hiring Credit Suisse’s event-driven team. Susan Stryker Marinello, an event-driven specialist for the EMEA region at the Swiss bank, and risk arbitrage traders Andy Martin and Simon Scott are joining the French bank.

    Before their stint at Credit Suisse, the team of specialists previously worked together at Citi.

    The hiring of the unit is an important step following BNP Paribas’ acquisition of Exane in 2021, the sources added. As part of that acquisition, BNP Paribas brought equity trading, research, and derivatives activities in-house after a 17-year partnership with Exane. It said the new hires are part of BNP’s expansion into cash equities following Exane’s return.

    Neither Credit Suisse nor BNP Paribas had any comment.