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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.

  • Singapore Fintech Association Launches Networking Club

    Singapore Fintech Association Launches Networking Club

    The initiative aims to foster deeper social engagements among local fintech professionals and corporates and enhance the vibrancy of the industry ecosystem.

    Members of Singapore’s fintech community can look forward to more industry networking, upskilling opportunities, and lifestyle privileges with the launch of the SG Fintech Club by the Singapore Fintech Association and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

    Among its programs are talent matchmaking sessions, industry expert mentorship programs, and masterclasses organized by SFA. The Institute of Banking and Finance (IBF) and J.P. Morgan have also been brought on board to curate skills and career development events, the announcement said.

    The rapid shift towards digital acceleration and increasing competition in the ecosystem has made it more urgent for fintech professionals to stay relevant, connected and competitive, Damien Pang, MAS deputy chief fintech officer, said in the announcement.

    He said he hopes the club will help build a tight-knit community of talents, facilitate more collaboration within the industry and bring more value to the fintech ecosystem.

    The lineup of events for the next month is already packed, and includes fireside chats with fintech founders, strategy sessions, and masterclasses. Find out more at https://club.singaporefintech.org.

  • UBS Issues First Green Bonds

    UBS Issues First Green Bonds

    UBS has issued its first green bonds which it will use to finance mortgages for low-energy buildings.

    Major Swiss bank UBS Tuesday issued its first «green bonds»

    They are in two tranches, one of 500 million euros ($595 million) with a five-year maturity and a seven-year one of 250 million francs ($272 million), the bank said in a press release.

    UBS said the bonds were issued under its Green Funding Framework which is based on international rules. The framework defines green investments in the form of mortgages on Swiss buildings which meet the Minergie standard for low-energy buildings. The bank intends to expand the pool of suitable assets continually.

    The bonds will help UBS kill several birds with one stone. It will be keeping its promise to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across its entire business by 2050 as well as helping its clients with sustainability.

    The «green bonds» will also bolster its balance sheet by helping refinance its mortgage book on a broader basis.

    Environmental Balance Sheet

    They will also help its environmental balance sheet. A recent study showed 35 percent, or $13.4 billion, of UBS’ loans book’s exposure to what the bank terms climate-sensitive industries was in real estate.

    Reducing high-carbon positions on the balance sheet is more important than simply cutting exposure to climate-sensitive sectors such as real estate. We don’t serve the community better by reducing real estate lending, rather, by making real estate lending greener.

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  • DBS Launches Digital Bond Marketplace

    DBS Launches Digital Bond Marketplace

    The bank is launching a marketplace that for issuers to directly issue their own bonds connect with investors.

    DBS is launching the Fixed Income Exchange (FIX) to digitalize and make the bond issuance process more efficient, the bank announced on Tuesday in a statement.

    FIX allows issuers to directly issue bonds to the marketplace, and fully digitalizes and automates issuance-related documentation. It also supports issuers in generating digital bond-ready transactions, which can be listed and traded on the DBS Digital Exchange (DDEx).

    Keppel Corporation is the first corporate issuer on the platform, with a $1 billion Euro-Commercial Paper Programme.

    With FIX, DBS said it hopes to make capital markets access more time and cost-efficient, while also developing the breadth and depth of Asian bond markets at a faster pace.

    The time is ripe for traditional ways of bond origination to make way for a more digital approach, to do what has been aspired for so long – by taking the first step towards the creation of an independent platform that allows bond issuers efficient and effective direct access to the market place and bond investors, Clifford Lee, global head of fixed income at DBS, said in the announcement.

    Just last week, domestic rival UOB piloted the digital issuance of its latest bond offering on exchange-operated digital asset issuance platform Marketnode, a joint venture between Singapore Exchange and Temasek.

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  • Vietnam’s credit growth doubles

    Vietnam’s credit growth doubles

    Bank credit growth from January 1 to June 15 was 5.1 percent, double the rate recorded in the same period last year.

    The jump came despite the fourth wave of Covid-19 because the State Bank of Vietnam made monetary policy more flexible and directed banks to focus on funding manufacturing and reduce lending to sectors with high risks, its deputy governor, Dao Minh Tu, said Monday.

    Average loan interests in April fell by 0.3 percentage points from December, he added.

    The central bank has also directed banks to delay debt payment or lower or scrap interests on customers affected by the Covid-19 pandemic to help their business recovery.

    Nearly 676,700 customers have seen the interests of their debts removed or reduced with a total outstanding loan of nearly VND1,278 trillion.

    The bank will continue to pursue a flexible monetary policy until the end of the year keep inflation under control and support an economic recovery.

    The pandemic has boosted demand for online payment. In the first four months, internet payment value surged 31 percent year-on-year.

  • HSBC Agrees to French Retail Bank Sale

    HSBC Agrees to French Retail Bank Sale

    HSBC has agreed to sell its French retail bank to Cerberus-backed My Money Group, furthering the British lender’s non-Asia retreat.

    HSBC has agreed to sell its French retail bank to the Paris-based banking group in a deal that includes 244 branches, 3,900 staff alongside 21.5 billion euros ($25.5 billion) in customer loans and 18.9 billion euros in deposits, according to a statement.

    If agreed by employees of both firms, as per French law, the deal could be signed off by the second half of this year and completed by 2023.

    According to HSBC, the sale prices will be a nominal 1 euro which will result in a loss of around $2.3 billion. At the time of deal completion, the bank expects net asset value to total $2 billion and it agrees to make up any shortfall should that valuation decline.

    The signing of an [memorandum of understanding] for the potential sale of our French retail banking business represents a significant step in progressing the actions we announced during our strategic update earlier this year, said HSBC group chief executive Noel Quinn.

    It will enable us to dramatically simplify our business in Continental Europe and allow us to accelerate the transformation of our European wholesale banking franchise.

    According to My Money CEO Eric Shehadeh, the firm aims for the newly acquired bank to return to profitability three years after taking control with commitments not to cut jobs until 2024 or 2025.

    The acquisition, if successful, will further add to U.S. private equity firm Cerberus’ portfolio of European banking stakes which includes ownership at Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank.

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  • OCBC Appoints Group COO

    OCBC Appoints Group COO

    OCBC has appointed a new group chief operating officer in an effort to drive and accelerate transformation at the Singapore-based bank.

    Lim Khiang Tong has been named group COO – a newly created role – according to a statement, effective June 21 this year. Lim will report to recently appointed group chief executive Helen Wong.

    Lim has 30 years of management experience in strategic tech development, information technology, process reengineering, project management, and banking operations. He joined OCBC’s IT management team in 2000 before being appointed to lead the unit in 2002. In 2007, he was named head of group IT and in 2010, he assumed the role of head of group operations and technology.

    Lim will take on the expanded role in an effort to «optimize and intensify» investments across tech, product processes, and people.

    Lim has been instrumental in building our operational and technology capabilities and in driving our digital transformation efforts, Wong said. He is highly regarded by colleagues, business partners and industry peers. It is only fitting that he assumes this new role.

    Lim has already made various efforts to bolster the bank’s tech capabilities including the development of the first technology command center monitoring and managing both cybersecurity and daily operations – the OCBC Regional Data Center.

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  • DBS says Tsunami of Money is Flowing to ESG Investments

    DBS says Tsunami of Money is Flowing to ESG Investments

    Companies that focus on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) tend to be high-performing companies, therefore investing in a basket of ESG stock will you cannot do too badly with a portfolio ESG stock, DBS chief executive Piyush Gupta said.

    The truth is that there is a tsunami of money being directed at ESG investments, and therefore, even if the fundamentals don’t bear out, the supply-demand equation will Gupta said at the virtual CNBC Evolve Global Summit on Thursday.

    ESG assets are expected to bring in $1 trillion in investments, Gupta noted. If nothing else, that’s going to take prices up, he said, responding to a question of whether ESG is a passing fad or long-term strategy.

    DBS recently announced a revised sustainable financing target of S$50 billion ($37.53 billion) by 2024, up from its initial target of S$20 billion.

    The bank said there has been renewed focus on sustainability as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and as more companies seek to advance their corporate sustainability agenda through sustainable financing,

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  • Open Finance Startup to Expand Across Southeast Asia

    Open Finance Startup to Expand Across Southeast Asia

    Singapore-based Finantier has closed an oversubscribed seed financing round at more than 20 times its pre-seed valuation.

    Finantier plans to strengthen its presence in Indonesia and Southeast Asia after raising seven figures in seed funding in a round led by Global Founders Capital and East Ventures, it announced on Wednesday.

    Founded in 2020, the fintech provides an application programming interface (API) platform for financial institutions to access and analyze consumer financial data. The new funds will also go towards scaling and enhancing its product offerings and double the size of its team.

    Southeast Asia’s large unbanked population presents challenges for financial institutions who lack access to consumer financial data, handicapping them in providing financial services such as payments, lending, and insurance, among others, Finantier explained.

    To address this, the company works with over 150 companies to aggregate data from alternative sources to give its clients access to a more comprehensive range of datasets and enable the unbanked population to benefit from their digital data footprint.

    Finantier’s clients and partnerships have seen over 50 percent monthly growth in 2021, while its team has grown fivefold to 50 employees, the company said.

    Open finance is an extension of open banking data-sharing principles to enable third-party providers to access customers’ data across a broader range of financial sectors and products, including savings and investments.

    With open finance facilitating the open exchange of consumer data, companies can leverage it to reach more customers while creating more personalized financial services, Diego Rojas, Finantier co-founder and CEO, said.

    Rojas previously worked closely with the co-founders of NYSE-listed LendingClub and was the technical lead at the founding team of GIC-backed Chinese online lending marketplace Dianrong.

    COO Edwin Kusuma was previously from Google and was also formerly CEO of P2P lending firm 360Kredi and director of operations at Kredinesia, while CPO Keng Low was the technical lead for a payments startup in Silicon Valley and previously an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at East Ventures.

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  • UOB Taps Digital Platform for Bond Issuance

    UOB Taps Digital Platform for Bond Issuance

    The bank has priced S$600 million of perpetual capital securities at a fixed coupon rate of 2.55 percent – the lowest for benchmark perpetual securities for banks in Singapore.

    UOB is piloting the digital issuance of its latest bond offering on exchange-operated digital asset issuance platform Marketnode, the bank said in an announcement on Wednesday.

    The non-call seven-year additional Tier 1 (AT1) capital securities offering is the industry’s first public capital issuance to reference the Singapore Overnight Rate Average Overnight Indexed Swap (SORA-OIS) rate. The digital bond is run in parallel with the conventional issuance process.

    UOB said the transaction saw a subscription rate of 1.7 times, supported by an extensive investor base comprising both quality institutional accounts and private banking investors

    Marketnode is a joint venture between Singapore Exchange and Temasek. It uses distributed ledger technology to connect various parties – from issuers to investors – and to tokenize capital securities so that smart contracts can be created and conducted for greater efficiency.

    UOB said it is fully behind the development of Singapore’s digital capital markets infrastructure and the smooth transition to a SORA-centred financial market.

    As more global issuers and investors come on board and participate in Singapore’s digital capital markets, we will see further strengthening of Singapore’s status as the region’s financial hub, Wee Ee Cheong, UOB deputy chairman, and CEO, said

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  • HSBC AM Establishes Alternatives Unit

    HSBC AM Establishes Alternatives Unit

    The combined unit will have a 150-strong team and combined assets under management and advice of $53 billion.

    HSBC Asset Management has announced that it is bringing its alternatives capabilities under a single business unit, HSBC Alternatives, which will comprise of HSBC Alternatives Investments (HAIL), which includes the multi-manager hedge fund and private market teams, as well as the firm’s private debt, venture capital, and direct real estate teams.

    With its alternative assets doubling over the past four years, the move is the firm’s the next step in its strategy to reposition the business as a core solutions provider and specialist Asia, emerging markets, and alternatives asset manager, HSBC said in an announcement on Wednesday.

    HSBC has enlisted current global chief investment officer Joanna Munro to lead the combined unit. She will continue to be based in London, reporting directly to Nicolas Moreau as a member of the management committee. Munro joined HSBC in 2005, and held roles including CEO multi-manager and CEO Asia Pacific before becoming CIO in 2019.

    She has been tasked with enhancing and expanding the range of alternative investments available to the firm’s wealth and institutional clients, across indirect and direct alternatives including hedge funds, private markets, and real estate, and will look to grow the firm’s capabilities in Asia, the announcement said.

    Xavier Baraton, currently global CIO for fixed income, private debt, and alternatives, will succeed Munro as global CIO. Reporting to Nicolas Moreau, he will join the management committee and continue to be based in Paris.

    Baraton brings almost 20 years’ experience in investment management. He joined HSBC Asset Management as global head of credit research in 2002 and has been CIO for fixed income since 2010.

  • HSBC Private Banking Launches Online Trading in Asia

    HSBC Private Banking Launches Online Trading in Asia

    HSBC has opened access to online trading for private banking clients in Asia as part of $100 million of investment in its core banking and digital platforms in the coming two years.

    HSBC Private Banking has launched its online trading platform in Asia, according to a statement, opening access to 10 financial markets including Hong Kong, mainland China, Singapore, Japan, the Philippines, Australia, U.K., U.S., Germany, and France.

    Technology is redefining wealth management, giving greater access, flexibility, and control over the management of investments globally,» said APAC regional head of HSBC Private Banking Siew Meng Tan.

    The current offering will include cash equities and exchange-traded funds before expanding to listed warrants and callable bull bear contracts (CBBC), FX spot and forwards, structured notes, non-complex funds, dual currency instruments, and fixed income by 2022.

    Clients can buy and sell securities during market hours with a maximum trade of $2 million per transaction and $10 million per day.

    A dedicated support team will provide coverage of 20 hours per day across each market’s opening hours.

    According to Tan, the private bank will look to invest $100 million over the next two years to build and innovate its core banking and digital platforms.

    Earlier this year, HSBC announced that it planned to invest over $3.5 billion in the next five years in its wealth and personal banking unit which includes private banking.

    HSBC Private Banking has already made various upgrades over the last two years including a new internet banking application; integrated and direct client communications; an investment and research platform with personalized alerts; and instant messaging.

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  • Thailand Reins in Speculation in Digital Assets

    Thailand Reins in Speculation in Digital Assets

    The country’s finance regulator is banning licensed digital asset exchanges from trading meme coins, fan-based tokens, NFTs and social coins as part of its ongoing regulatory action against crypto trading.

    The Thai Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is prohibiting exchanges in the country from providing services related to utility tokens or cryptocurrencies to ensure customer protection and ward off attempts by anyone using digital assets to operate a grey business, the regulator announced on Friday.

    As a result, meme coins like Doge, which has attracted the interest of investors in the past year as its price surged by as much as 10,000 percent this year, will no longer be allowed to be traded in Thailand. The SEC said such coins have «No clear objective or substance or underlying, and whose price [runs] on social media trends.

    The move came amid reports that publicly listed mobile phone retailer Jay Mart was making plans to launch the country’s first non-fungible tokens (NFTs) linked to nine local stars and celebrities. However, Jay Mart said it would go ahead with the launch this week as planned, though the NFTs will be listed on foreign exchanges.

    NFTs have garnered increasing popularity in recent months, particularly as a way to sell and invest in digital artworks as verification of authenticity and ownership are stored on the blockchain.

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  • Thailand Reins in Speculation in Digital Assets

    Thailand Reins in Speculation in Digital Assets

    The country’s finance regulator is banning licensed digital asset exchanges from trading meme coins, fan-based tokens, NFTs, and social coins as part of its ongoing regulatory action against crypto trading.

    The Thai Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is prohibiting exchanges in the country from providing services related to utility tokens or cryptocurrencies to ensure customer protection and ward off attempts by anyone using digital assets to operate a grey business, the regulator announced on Friday.

    As a result, meme coins like Doge, which has attracted the interest of investors in the past year as its price surged by as much as 10,000 percent this year, will no longer be allowed to be traded in Thailand. The SEC said such coins have «No clear objective or substance or underlying, and whose price runs on social media trends.

    According to «The Bangkok Post,» the move came amid reports that publicly listed mobile phone retailer Jay Mart was making plans to launch the country’s first non-fungible tokens (NFTs) linked to nine local stars and celebrities. However, Jay Mart said it would go ahead with the launch this week as planned, though the NFTs will be listed on foreign exchanges.

    NFTs have garnered increasing popularity in recent months, particularly as a way to sell and invest in digital artworks as verification of authenticity and ownership are stored on the blockchain

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  • Technology Banker Returns to UBS

    Technology Banker Returns to UBS

    Swiss bank UBS enticed a key technology banker back, after a six-month stint at Wells Fargo.

    UBS is hiring Paul McEwen as its head of technology services. McEwen had previously overseen the Swiss bank’s cloud services before leaving six months ago for Wells Fargo, which hired him as head of the infrastructure.

    He will be back at UBS next month, the newswire reported, and report to Mike Dargan, who was recently elevated into UBS’ top management.

    Dargan now oversees technology as well as UBS’s group corporate services. CEO Ralph Hamers has called the new job crucial in differentiating UBS.

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  • Citi to End Small Biz Banking in Singapore

    Citi to End Small Biz Banking in Singapore

    The bank will shut its consumer unit serving small businesses in Singapore in mid-August.

    Citibank has decided to close its Citibusiness unit, which will affect some 2,000 customers, following an ongoing strategic review of the business.

    About 20 to 30 staff will be affected by the changes, saying that Citi would be re-allocating its resources and our people to support other growth areas and sharpen its client focus.

    Citibusiness, which serves small-sized businesses, is part of its consumer banking division. The bank will continue to serve small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) clients through Citi Commercial Bank.

    Singapore is a priority market for Citi. We continue to invest and focus on growth areas of the bank including the SME and commercial banking business,» the spokesperson said.

    Citi recently announced that it is considering downsizing its consumer business worldwide, with an eye on selling some of its businesses in the Asia Pacific region.

    At the same time, the U.S.-headquartered bank has placed its bets on four wealth hubs, which includes Singapore, as it consolidates its operations globally.

    It aims to double its wealth management market share in Singapore from the current 5 percent and triple the number of clients by 2025. To achieve this, it is looking to hire over 330 relationship managers.