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Tag: bank

  • UBS’s Sergio Ermotti Lines Up Wall Street Gig

    UBS’s Sergio Ermotti Lines Up Wall Street Gig

    Sergio Ermotti is returning to his roots in high finance – cashing in on a boom in a niche style of stock-listing with potentially huge payoffs.

    The long-standing CEO of UBS, Sergio Ermotti, isn’t abandoning Wall Street altogether when he leaves the wealth manager next week: He is listed as the chairman of a so-called black-check company, which is seeking to raise $350 million, from January 1, citing U.S. securities filings.

    The 60-year-old Swiss banker is a veteran City trader who began his career in investment banking in 1987 in equity derivatives and capital markets at Merrill Lynch. Ermotti, who is withdrawing from UBS altogether after he hands over to successor Ralph Hamers next week, already took a board job at Swiss Re, where he is poised to take over as chairman in April.

    Ermotti is the latest potent financial sponsor to put his name on a Spac, which has raised eyebrows for their opaque set-up, huge fees, and tendency to attract short-term shareholders versus long-term investors. The highest-paid banker in Europe, Ermotti has realized more than 50 million francs in pay since taking the helm at UBS in 2011.

    He is also passionate about the wealth manager’s prospects and apparently still a trader at heart: nearly two years ago, he doubled down with a $13 million personal bet on his own stock – effectively, one year’s pay worth of UBS shares. Ermotti is the biggest UBS shareholder in top management (4 million shares, or 0.2 percent voting rights).

    Once relegated to a corner of Wall Street, the blank-check playbook is to create a shell company, seek a public listing for it, and then use the money raised through the listing to merge with an actual business.

    The potentially lucrative special-purpose acquisition companies, or Spacs, have emerged primarily in the U.S. equity market. That is about to change: a Spac focused on European targets raised $600 million this month.

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  • Vietcombank profit plunges

    Vietcombank profit plunges

    The pretax profit of state-owned lender Vietcombank in the third quarter fell over 20 percent to VND4.9 trillion ($210.9 million) over pandemic impacts.

    The bank said that provision for bad debt, which rose 35 percent year-on-year to VND2.02 trillion, and lower net interest income were the main reasons for the profit slump.

    Although the bank remains the most profitable lender in the country, its bad debt increased 15 percent in the first nine months to nearly VND7.9 trillion.

    Rising bad debt has become a major concern for Vietnamese lenders this year as the Covid-19 pandemic crippled key industries. With businesses finding it very difficult or impossible to repay loans, banks are forced to increase their bad debt provisions.

    Banks have lowered deposit interest rates from 7 percent earlier this year to 5.8 percent after the State Bank of Vietnam cut policy rates four times, seeking to boost lending to revive the economy, which has posted decade-low growth in the second and third quarters.

    Vietcombank, the fourth-largest lender in Vietnam in terms of assets, also reported that its Q3 revenue fell to near 4 percent year-on-year to VND11.6 trillion.

    The research unit of top brokerage SSI Securities Corporation has recently forecast that the bank’s pretax profit is set to fall by over 13 percent year-on-year to VND20 trillion due to Covid-19 impacts.

    The State Bank of Vietnam in April ordered state-owned lenders to cut profits by 30-40 percent this year to lower lending rates and support economic recovery.

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  • UBS as Training Ground for Female Executives

    UBS as Training Ground for Female Executives

    Schwyzer Kantonalbank, one of the plethora of Swiss cantonal, or state, banks, has appointed a new female CEO. She joins the bank from banking giant UBS. The switch away from the big firm is not a first. Schwyzer Kantonalbank (SZKB) is early out of the starting block and has found a replacement for outgoing CEO Peter Hilfiker. Hilfiker is handing over responsibility for the bank at the end of March 2021 and will retire.

    Susanne Thellung has been selected as his successor. She joins from UBS, where she currently heads the business management corporate and institutional clients. From 2004 through 2018 Thellung was working for UBS Switzerland, including as regional head of all customer segments for the entire central Swiss region.

    She will be the first female head of a cantonal bank. These banks, typically owned by the regional tier of the Swiss state, have some catching up to do in respect to the representation of female top managers.

    In 2018, the share of female managers at 19 such banks was 45 percent. In the middle management though the share was 17 percent and among top managers, the number dropped to a paltry 9 percent, ie less than one in ten. The executive boards had 8 percent women, while 18 percent of supervisory board members was female, with 16 percent of the chairs taken by women. The background of Thellung comes as less of a surprise. UBS has a good reputation as a training ground for female managers. But, equally so, a perceived difficulty to tie the women to the bank. For a variety of reasons, they tend to leave earlier or later.

    One such example is Laura Meyer. She is managing director and head of digital distribution and analytics at UBS Switzerland. At the end of the year, Meyer will join Hotelplan, the travel agency of Swiss retail giant Migros. The company employs 2,100 staff and has sales of 1.54 billion Swiss francs.

    Another well-known case was Dagmar Kamber Borens. She first signed at the Swiss unit of Credit Suisse as chief operating officer (COO), before later joining Quintet, the private-banking group assembled by ex-UBS executive Juerg Zeltner.

    Kamber Borens had spent 17 years with UBS, having started in its private bank after her Ph.D. At the turn of the century, Kamber Borens joined the M&A-desk in London. For another four years, from 2004 through 2008, she worked in the personal staff of the chairman, before being appointed as chief of staff of the group finance.

    And sometimes they even retrace their steps and return to the fold. Simone Westerfeld (pictured below), who had been with the bank from 2000 to 2006 had then joined the University of St. Gallen. In 2015 she be CFO at Basler Kantonalbank and later had a spell as interim CEO of the bank (2018-2019).

    She has since rejoined UBS and received the position as deputy head of corporate and institutional clients international. There, she catered to the complex world of global corporate clients. In 2020, Westerfeld became head of personal banking, taking charge of the business with private clients for the bank in its home market of Switzerland.

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  • StanChart Eyes Mainland Brokerage Business

    StanChart Eyes Mainland Brokerage Business

    Standard Chartered is reportedly applying for a brokerage license in China, joining its peers in the wave of foreign entry into the mainland market.

    Mainland’s securities watchdog, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), has accepted an application from Standard Chartered Hong Kong on October 10 to set up a securities firm in the market, according to a report from state-owned media Xinhua.

    According to Standard Chartered, the bank was looking to further develop onshore business through acquiring new licenses.

    Since Beijing made good on a trade deal signed with the U.S. to scrap foreign ownership caps on securities and mutual fund firms, foreign financial institutions from the U.S., Europe, Japan and Singapore have been rapidly seeking to establish a presence to capitalize on new opportunities. Within brokerage, Japan’s SBI was the most recent to express greater interest in the mainland’s sub-sector due in part to growing political instability in Hong Kong.

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  • BNP Paribas Nabs Lombard Odier’s Head of Asian Equities

    BNP Paribas Nabs Lombard Odier’s Head of Asian Equities

    BNP Paribas Asset Management hired a trio from Lombard Odier, including a new Hong Kong-based head of Asian equities.

    The French asset manager appointed Zhikai Chen as head of Asia equities, according to a statement, replacing Arthur Kwong who will leave the firm to pursue other opportunities. Chen will report to Guy Davies, global CIO for fundamental actives equities.

    Chen is a 20-year veteran in the financial industry with a wide range of experience including the Monetary Authority of Singapore. He was most recently with Lombard Odier where he was its head of Asia ex-Japan equities since 2012.

    Asian equities is an important asset class for our clients in the region, said Steven Billiet, APAC head of BNP Paribas Asset Management. We will also continue to focus on bringing our Asian equities capabilities to our international client base which is eager to leverage on the growth dynamic of Asia.

    Joining Chen from Lombard Odier are two portfolio managers, Jinwen Ouyang and Roxy Wong.

    Ouyang has 13 years of industry experience and was a portfolio manager for Asia at Lombard Odier. Previously, she had also worked with Value Partners and Société Générale.

    Wong has 20 years of markets and technology experience and was most recently a senior portfolio manager for Asia at Lombard Odier. Previously, she held various tech research roles with Mirae Asset, RCM and Bear Stearns.

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  • Revolut Singapore Partners Income to Offer Insurance

    Revolut Singapore Partners Income to Offer Insurance

    Both platforms see customer empowerment and digitally-enabled collaborations as key to supporting customer needs. Snack by NTUC Income (Income) and Revolut Singapore will work together to incorporate lifestyle-based insurance offerings on Revolut’s digital banking app to provide more flexibility and boost customer empowerment in money management.

    Snack, launched in June, is a stackable, micro-insurance offering that embeds the purchase of coverage into daily activities. Its partners include Visa, EZLink, FoodPanda and more.

    The partnership with Snack layers insurance protection over our Revolut’s existing money management features and allows our customers access to micro-insurance products that are underwritten by NTUC Income. Customers will have the ability to purchase insurance products such as Term Life, Critical Illness and Personal Accident, with more products to be launched going forward, the announcement said. As part of the partnership, Revolut Singapore customers will also receive a one-time complimentary insurance coverage of S$500 ($367) when they sign up for an account on the Snack app.

    Snack’s modular approach to bite-sized insurance reimagines how people obtain and consume insurance. This provides tremendous flexibility in tailoring solutions based on the needs of customers and integrating it with partners’ platforms to create a unique experience, Peter Tay, Income chief digital officer, said.

    Revolut has reached over 70,000 signups in the republic since its launch one year ago. It has expanded its footprint this year with launches in the U.S., Australia and Japan. In the coming weeks, Revolut will be introducing fast and free top-ups using bank accounts and a prepaid debit card for children aged 7-17 to teach children to better manage money digitally.

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  • UBS Poaches Tech Executive From Credit Suisse

    UBS Poaches Tech Executive From Credit Suisse

    UBS is nabbing a prominent technology executive from crosstown rival Credit Suisse. It is the second such hire in short order.

    The Swiss bank is poaching David Tobin from Credit Suisse as its head of risk technology, a source familiar with the hire said. A spokesman for UBS confirmed the hire.

    Tobin relocates to Zurich for the job, effective October 19 and reports to Julie Shapiro, the Swiss bank’s head of risk and financial technology. He is currently the head of Credit Suisse’s investment bank credit risk as well as technology chief in Poland.

    The hire marks is the second high-ranking technologist UBS has poached from Credit Suisse in recent months: the larger bank also poached Jason Shane, a ten-year Credit Suisse veteran, as its new head of compliance, regulatory, and governance technology earlier this year.

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  • Standard Chartered Names Management Team for New Unit

    Standard Chartered Names Management Team for New Unit

    Announced in March, the Financing and Securities Services (FSS) unit brings together Securities Services (previously under Transaction Banking) and Portfolio Risk Management in the Financial Markets business.

    Standard Chartered Bank on Thursday named its FSS management team, who will support Singapore-based co-heads Margaret Harwood-Jones and Emmanuel Ramambason.

    Members of the FSS senior management team include:

    • Francois Verlaine – Regional Head, FSS, ASEAN & South Asia
    • Simon Kellaway – Regional Head, FSS, Greater China & North Asia
    • Luke Brereton – Global Head, FSS Sales and Business Development
    • Ryan Cuthbertson – Global Head, FSS Products
    • Liu Chee Wei – Head, Central Funding Desk and XVA, ASEAN & South Asia, Greater China & North Asia
    • Sam Phillips – Head, Central Funding Desk and XVA, Africa & Middle East, Europe & Americas
    • Madeleine Senior – Regional Head, FSS, Europe & Americas
    • Scott Dickinson – Regional Head, FSS, Africa & Middle East
    • Marten Bengt – Head, Modelling and Analytics Group
    • Tan Ying Ying – Chief Operating Officer, FSS

    The reorganization aims for the bank to become more client-centric and having targeted and integrated engagement with clients across various solutions and services, Standard Chartered said.

    Separately, the bank announced the addition of independent non-executive director Maria Ramos, with effect January 1, 2021.

    Based in South Africa, Ramos was chief executive officer of ABSA Group (previously Barclays Africa) from 2009 to 2019. Before joining ABSA, she was the group chief executive of state-owned freight transport and logistics service provider Transnet and served as director-general of South Africa’s National Treasury (formerly the Department of Finance).

    Standard Chartered also appointed independent non-executive director David Tang to the Board Risk Committee. Tang brings deep understanding of the bank’s key market of Greater China, and will contribute his expertise in relation to emerging technologies, digital and associated risks.

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  • DBS and Keppel to Collaborate Under MOU

    DBS and Keppel to Collaborate Under MOU

    Under the memorandum of understanding (MOU), the two sides will collaborate on a range of initiatives that harness digital technologies to better serve customers and suppliers.

    DBS Bank and Keppel Technology & Innovation have agreed to work together on digital technologies to create more opportunities and efficiencies for both companies, according to an announcement on Tuesday.

    Three areas are covered under the MOU: exploring synergies between Keppel Group’s consumer businesses like M1, Keppel Electric and City Gas, and DBS’ consumer marketplace platforms; developing 5G-enabled digital banking solutions, and developing digital tools and platforms to provide bundled services from both M1 and DBS to large corporates and small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs); and providing digital supply chain financing solutions to Keppel Group’s supplier ecosystem.

    The initiatives will be rolled out over the rest of the year, the announcement said.

    The value of knowledge grows when it is shared. Our collaboration with Keppel’s ecosystem of businesses exemplifies this by demonstrating how the cross-pollination of expertise and networks from different industries can help Singapore seize new opportunities here and in the global marketplace, Tan Su Shan, DBS group head of institutional banking, said about the partnership.

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  • UOB Kay Hian Partners Pico

    UOB Kay Hian Partners Pico

    The bank’s securities brokerage is working with the financial markets technology services provider, which will provide managed services and support for its new trading platform.

    Pico rapidly deployed a tailored platform for trading execution in the heart of Singapore’s liquidity hub that is engineered for seamless coordination of trading and risk strategies, it said in an announcement on Wednesday.

    UOB Kay Hian is one of Asia’s largest securities trading and investment firms. Headquartered in Singapore, it has offices in Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, London, Shanghai, and New York.

    Working with Pico has helped UOB Kay Hian lower its OpEx, while freeing it to focus on optimizing its trading strategies and business operations, said director Desmond Yeo.

    Pico works with firms as a specialist partner to design, build, host and manage their electronic trading infrastructure. It connects to liquidity providers via PicoNet, a private ultra-low latency, resilient and comprehensive proprietary network mesh with the fastest path connections between on-net co-location sites.

    Pico opened offices in Singapore and Tokyo in mid-2018, and a year later announced its continued expansion in Asia with new hires, additional offices, and an increased data center presence in the region.

    The firm said it has plans to add 20 more data centers by 2021, including in China, Australia, South Korea, and India, to complement its existing 30+ global locations.

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  • UBS Mulls VR-Based WFH Traders

    UBS Mulls VR-Based WFH Traders

    UBS is reportedly exploring the option for traders to work from home through simulated experiences via virtual reality headsets.

    The bank is experimenting with creating a trading floor simulation for its London-based staff, according to a report, using Microsoft’s HoloLenses.

    If people really can’t come to the office, can we create a virtual presence?» said Beatriz Martin, head of U.K. at the bank. «We are thinking about experimenting with the tools that are out there.

    The HoloLenses are a head-mounted unit that uses multiple censors, advanced optics and holographic processing that display information and images that can blend in with the real world.

    UBS’s work-from-home efforts extend beyond just its trading operations or the European region. The Swiss bank has already launched a «UBS Workspace» platform which allows employees to have mobile-based access to any files or the information in the exact same format at any time and place.

    Within Asia, 90 percent of employees are able to work from home via «UBS Workspace» with three-quarters of all staff across wealth management and investment banking already being enabled by the platform.

  • Barclays APAC Head of FX Trading Departs

    Barclays APAC Head of FX Trading Departs

    Barclays’ head foreign exchange trading in Asia Pacific will reportedly exit just 18 months after joining the British bank.

    Pritpal Gill, head of G10 FX and FX options trading in the region, has been let go by Barclays, according to a report citing unnamed sources, after joining its Singapore offices less than two years ago in January 2019.

    Prior to joining Barclays, Gill ran a family office and also worked with Citigroup.

    Gill’s exit is part of Barclay’s broader efforts to reduce costs by cutting 100 senior jobs mostly from its corporate and investment banking unit.

    Previous senior exits include Jonathan Kitei, Americas head of securitized product sales, and Anindya Das Gupta, India head of trading.

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  • UOB’s Private Equity Arm Achieves Impact Milestone

    UOB’s Private Equity Arm Achieves Impact Milestone

    The firm has also obtained verification from Ernst & Young for its Asia Impact Investment Fund’s alignment with the World Bank’s impact investing principles.

    UOB Venture Management (UOBVM) has issued its disclosure statement on the Operating Principles for Impact Management, becoming the first signatory of the Impact Principles in Southeast Asia to do so, the bank announced in a statement on Tuesday.

    UOBVM’s disclosure statement demonstrates how it upholds the Impact Principles through its impact investing strategy and approach, in particular for its Asia Impact Investment Fund (AIIF), ensuring that impact considerations are purposefully integrated into key stages of the investment process.

    Launched in 2015 together with Credit Suisse, the $55-million fund invests in high-growth companies from the education, healthcare, and agriculture sectors in Southeast Asia and China. It also focuses on investments that will help to improve financial inclusion, affordable housing, sanitation, clean energy, and water for the region’s low-income communities.

    The Impact Principles provide a clear market standard for investors looking to achieve social, economic or environmental impact alongside financial returns. With this disclosure statement and independent verification, UOBVM enters a new era of transparency for the benefit of impact investors, Nicolas Marquier, Singapore country manager of IFC, said.

    UOB has also opened its second impact fund for subscriptions. The fund has a target fund size range of $100 million and is expected to make equity investments of about $1 million to $15 million each, the announcement said.

    The need for impact investments is even more pressing now with the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately impacting low-income communities in Asia and pushing more people below the poverty line, Seah Kian Wee, chief executive officer of UOBVM, said.

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  • Citi Promotes APAC Head of Private Banking Ops

    Citi Promotes APAC Head of Private Banking Ops

    Citi has promoted its private banking head of operations and technology in Asia Pacific to an even larger role covering the same area for the broader group.

    Stacey N. Lacy has been named as APAC head of operations and technology for Citi, effective immediately, according to a statement from the bank. In her new Singapore-based role, Lacy reports to Mike Whitaker, Citi’s global head of enterprise infrastructure, operations, and technology as well as Peter Babej, APAC chief executive.

    Her responsibilities include «delivery of client-focused initiatives, operations, and technology and shared services deployment» for the bank across the institutional clients’ group and global consumer banking businesses in the region.

    Citi’s shared service centers in the region are located in India, Singapore, Malaysia, and China.

    Lacy joined Citi in Hong Kong as a global consumer bank management associate over 23 years ago in 1996 and has since then has taken on various ops and tech roles within the bank. She was previously Citi’s ASEAN head of ops and tech for four years and China head of ops and tech and shared services for another four years.

    In her most recent role as Citi Private Bank’s head of ops and tech, she as credited with «expanding the business’ transaction capabilities, driving digital adoption by clients and revamping key operations processes and products».

    Banking accomplishments aside, the statement also highlighted Lacy’s role as a «champion» for diversity and inclusion initiatives such as active mentorship and development of global female talent internally.

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  • StanChart Fined for 2007 Takeover Blunder in India

    StanChart Fined for 2007 Takeover Blunder in India

    India’s regulator fined Standard Chartered one billion rupees over violation of foreign exchange rules during a takeover of a local bank in 2007. India’s anti-money laundering agency slapped one of the country’s largest fines on a foreign bank in history following an 8-year probe that found it in violation of the foreign exchange management act which monitors offshore financial transactions.

    According to a report citing an order from India’s enforcement agency, Standard Chartered – the country’s largest foreign bank by branches – acted as a dealmaker and custodian for the transferal of Tamilnad Mercantile Bank (TMB) shares to a group of overseas investors 13 years ago without seeking permission from the local central bank.

    Senior officials at Standard Chartered saw an investment in TMB shares as an opportunity that might ripen into eventually larger ownership for the bank,» Sushil Kumar, the enforcement agency’s special director, said in the order.

    46,862 shares were transferred to foreign investors including GHI, Swiss Re Investors, FI Investments, Cuna Group and Sub-Continental Equities, an affiliate of Standard Chartered in April 2008. The transfers were made through escrow accounts with Standard Chartered, which acted as both a transaction agent and a lender to one of the investors on the deal.

    Standard Chartered through its affiliate Subcontinental was a proposed and eventually an actual investor in TMB shares to be purchased through the escrow agreement arrangements, Kumar added.

    Separately, TMB was fined almost 170 million rupees ($2.3 million) for similar charges.