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Tag: Banking

  • Hong Kong Launches Banker Bubble

    Hong Kong Launches Banker Bubble

    Top executives of financial firms in Hong Kong will be granted exemptions from quarantine in the city, according to the local regulator, giving the sector a first-mover advantage to reopening.

    Hong Kong authorities launched new rules, effective as of last week, that will enable alliterative traveling options specifically for senior executives in the financial sector with regional or global roles.

    The Chief Secretary for Administration of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government (Matthew Cheung Kin-Chung) has designated certain categories of persons in the financial services sector to be exempted from the compulsory quarantine arrangements in Hong Kong, according to a circular released last Friday night by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC).

    Senior executives of licensed corporations or their overseas affiliates who are fully vaccinated and meet the eligibility criteria may apply for exemption from the compulsory quarantine arrangements when they return or travel to Hong Kong, according to a circular released last Friday night by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC).

    In addition a senior position at a licensed firm, financial professionals seeking exemption from the otherwise compulsory 21-day quarantine must submit an application with a detailed itinerary for the proposed trip to be electronically approved by the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB).

    The applying senior executive will only be allowed to leave their designated accommodation for approved activities set out in the itinerary alongside other requirements such as coronavirus tests, point-to-point transport, self-isolation, and medical surveillance.

    Licensed financial firms will be provided with four exemptions per month with two for visitors and two for returning executives, according to the circular.

    Breaching self-isolation requirements from designated accommodation will result in compulsory 21-day quarantine and failure to observe other exemption rules could result in a HK$5,000 ($644) fine and six months of imprisonment.

    The new rules were announced one day after the Hong Kong-Singapore travel bubble was supposed to launch but were suspended for the second time due to an infection spike in the latter city-state.

  • DBS Triples Vacancies at Female-Focused Job Fair

    DBS Triples Vacancies at Female-Focused Job Fair

    The second edition of the bank’s virtual career fair sees vacancies for women technologists almost treble to 140.

    The bank is focusing its outreach efforts on filling five engineering roles: Engineering Lead; Solution Architect; ReactJS Developer; Full Stack Developer; and Software Development Engineering in Test, at its Women in Tech» career fair, which is returning in June 2021.

    We believe that by driving diversity in our engineering roles we will be able to incorporate a multiplicity of views and perspectives upstream so as to deliver outstanding digital experiences for our customers, Soh Siew Choo, DBS head of big data/AI and consumer banking technology, said in an announcement on Tuesday.

    Candidates must complete an online assessment by June 8, and shortlisted applicants will be invited to an online hiring day on 12 June 2021.

    According to DBS. there is a strong pipeline for of women for technology roles. The bank received more than 500 applications for 50 job opportunities at its inaugural virtual career fair, held amid the pandemic in October 2020.

    Among the new hires from last year’s edition was Lo Man Ling, vice president of consumer banking digital platform, who joined the bank after more than nine years in the public sector.

    DBS said the share of applications from women rose to over 30 percent, as compared to 5 percent in previous years, and the number of offers made to women also increased about five times, as a result of its efforts to reach out to women.

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  • Citi Appoints Credit Card Head in Singapore

    Citi Appoints Credit Card Head in Singapore

    Citi names a new Singapore head of credit cards and personal loans for its global consumer banking business.

    Citi appointed Serene Gay to the new role, according to a statement, to oversee customer growth, portfolio management, product management, and customer retention for credit cards and ready credit.

    Gay succeeds Vikas Kumar who will join Citi’s U.S. consumer unsecured leading team as head of personal installment after leading the Singapore credit card and personal loans unit for over four years.

    Gay has 16 years of experience at Citi across Singapore, Thailand and China, and was most recently the head of client growth, cards, and loans for APAC and EMEA.

    Singapore is one of four key markets – alongside Hong Kong, UAE, and London – for Citi after it made a major strategic overhaul to exit 13 other consumer banking markets, citing a lack of scale to be competitive.

    Our consumer business in Singapore is strategically important and a critical source of innovation and growth, said head of APAC and EMEA consumer bank Kartik Mani.

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  • Singlife Poaches From DBS

    Singlife Poaches From DBS

    A veteran in the financial services industry and longtime DBS manager joins Singapore’s Aviva Singlife as its new group CEO.

    Pearlyn Phau Yee Meng will join Singapore’s Aviva Singlife as Executive Director and group CEO, the firm announced in a media release on Monday.

    Subject to regulatory approval, Phau Yee Meng’s appointment as group CEO will be effective on 18 August 2021. Also subject to regulatory approval, she will take on additional roles as executive director and CEO of both of the Group’s two Singapore licensed insurers, Singlife and Aviva Singapore. The scheme of transfer that will combine the two entities has been approved by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). It is now subject to the approval of Singapore courts and is expected to complete later this year.

    Following Phau Yee Meng’s appointment in August, Nishit Majmudar, currently CEO of Aviva Singapore, will step down from his executive and board roles and become a senior advisor to the board. Walter de Oude, who has acted as group CEO prior to Phau Yee Meng’s appointment, will continue on the board as deputy chairman, Aviva Singlife Holdings. Both will therefore be well placed in their respective roles to assist Phau Yee Meng and ensure a smooth transition into her new role, the release states.

    A veteran in the financial services industry, Phau Yee Meng has held various senior leadership roles within DBS Group, both in Singapore and Hong Kong. She is currently the group head of consumer products, marketing and ecosystem partnerships with oversight across the product lines in the region and a mandate to scale growth exponentially via strategic partnerships. Prior to this, Phau Yee Meng was the deputy group head of consumer banking & wealth management and has also spent four years in Hong Kong as the head of consumer banking & wealth management, DBS Bank Hong Kong.

    Phau Yee Meng, a Singaporean, has an exceptional track record of executing key strategies and business transformation initiatives across regional retail and wealth franchises, including being a key driver of emerging digital banking strategies. She was also instrumental in the negotiation, construction, management and delivery of DBS’ principal bancassurance partnerships and has built a deep network within the wider insurance community in Singapore and the region.

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  • UBS Fined for Rigging European Bond Trading

    UBS Fined for Rigging European Bond Trading

    The European Commission censured seven investment banks for maintaining a cartel on European government bond-trading. The Swiss bank was hit with the largest fine, despite cooperating.

    Brussels extracted a total of 371 million euros ($453 million) on UBS, UniCredit, and Nomura for a seven-bank ring which colluded between 2007 and 2011 on prices and volumes of European government bonds, the commission said in a statement on Thursday.

    The other banks censured in the cartel were not fined: Natwest had blown the whistle on it, while Bank of America and Natixis escaped because their wrong-doing fell outside of a time period for which fines could be levied. Lastly, WestLB, now Portigon, generated zero revenue from the scheme in the last business year, capping its potential fine at nil.

    UBS, which racked up the biggest fine (174.2 million euros), told domestic agency AWP that it is considering an appeal. The fine will take roughly $100 million out of UBS’ second-quarter results, it said.

    The Swiss bank’s fine would have been 45 percent higher had it not cooperated with the commission, overseen by Brussels’ anti-trust chief Margrethe Vestager. The commission fined Nomura 130 million euros and Italy’s Unicredit, now run by UBS’ former top investment banker Andrea Orcel, 69 million euros.

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  • HSBC to Fund New Climate Solutions

    HSBC to Fund New Climate Solutions

    The bank is collaborating with the World Resources Institute (WRI) and WWF to unlock access to finance to help new climate-based projects create real-world impact. HSBC said it would put in $100 million of funding – half of which will be deployed in Asia – over the next five years to build towards a net-zero economy, according to a statement on Thursday.

    Keeping global temperature rises within safe limits requires new thinking and new technology. Asia is particularly vulnerable to climate change, but it is also where solutions are emerging fast, Peter Wong, HSBC deputy chairman and CEO said in the statement.

    The partnership covers 14 markets in Asia Pacific, including Australia, India, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Japan, mainland China, South Korea and Vietnam, across three funding streams: energy transition, nature-based solutions, and business innovation.

    The bank cited several projects as examples: improving industry access to renewables and green technologies in China, working with partners in Thailand to restore parts of Chiangmai’s degraded forests and advance sustainable agriculture, and supporting Hong Kong start-ups focused on climate innovations.

    Ignoring the human impact on climate will delay reducing inequality and achieving sustainable long-term growth in the region, the bank said.

    The Climate Solutions Partnership is part of the bank’s previously announced ambitious plans to combat climate change, under which it is setting aside $1 trillion in green financing to support customers in the transition to net-zero.

    Climate activists have criticized the bank for its support for the fossil fuel industry, alleging that it has invested some $80 billion in fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement in 2015.

    In March, the bank committed to phasing out support for the coal industry by 2030 in the developed world and by 2040 in the developing world, following pressure from activist investors.

  • Deutsche Bank Sets Up ESG Center in Singapore

    Deutsche Bank Sets Up ESG Center in Singapore

    Deutsche Bank has set up a Singapore-based center focused on developing environmental, social and governance-related solutions.

    Deutsche Bank’s center will focus on innovation in ESG and fintech to develop new products to address market gaps, according to a statement.

    In addition to internal activities, the center will also share global best practices with regulators and regional bodies in Asia, such as Asean and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation.

    The center will house a sizeable team that will work across all business divisions, developing solutions across impact monitoring, data management and payments to unbanked communities.

    The transition of Asia towards sustainable practices requires ESG transaction models, products, solutions and regulatory measures which meet international standards while supporting on-the-ground realities in Asia, said Deutsche Bank’s APAC head of ESG Kamran Khan.

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  • UBS Cuts 700 Jobs

    UBS Cuts 700 Jobs

    Swiss bankers are the first to go in the Swiss bank’s current round of cuts. UBS has started cutting jobs as part of its current round of cost-savings measures, with around 700 employees in Switzerland affected.

    Most of the cuts will be in the corporate center although 200 jobs will go in wealth management and UBS Switzerland. These are in addition to the roughly 125 jobs UBS was going to get rid of before the Covid-19 pandemic put those plans on ice

    UBS CEO Ralph Hamers announced a $1 billion cost-savings target during first-quarter results last month. UBS’s cuts are aimed at the jobs expected to become redundant as a result of its ongoing digitalization processes. finews.com reported on the plans in April. They are expected to be wide-ranging and take out 3,000 jobs in total.

    UBS has not confirmed the figure but it is realistic in view of the savings targets and the bank’s cost structures. It also announced that restructuring costs would total $300 million in the second quarter, most of which were in the scope of the cuts originally announced last year.

    According to Bloomberg, around a dozen managing directors as well as more junior bankers in the advisory and trading business were recently let go. In wealth management, about five managing directors and several executive directors were impacted. In the investment bank, most of those cuts were those responsible for wealth management clients.

    CEO Hamers said his current efforts are aimed at implementing and executing the transformation and digitalization strategy, which is expected to take about three years.

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  • UBS Quietly Advances Token Efforts With Clients

    UBS Quietly Advances Token Efforts With Clients

    UBS has been quietly running a tokenization trial with weighty institutional investors. The Swiss-based bank has been offering more than 100 institutional clients access to a pilot program to tokenize real assets. The project is operating on the Ethereum platform, the person said.

    This represents the next step in a push into putting assets on the blockchain and selling slices represented in coins. The project, being overseen by UBS investment banker Chetan Tolia, is looking at tokenizing traditional assets including debt, structured products, and physical gold.

    The Swiss wealth manager last week dipped its toes into cryptocurrencies, in a major concession to client demand. The tokenization program has quietly been running, separately out of UBS’ investment bank, for at least 12 months, the person said. UBS declined to comment.

    UBS has long held that it is interested in distributed ledger more than it is in cryptocurrencies themselves – which represent a threat to traditional banking. The Swiss bank transacts on we.trade, a blockchain-based trade finance platform, co-launched a so-called utility settlement coin with other banks, and is part of banking’s R3 blockchain consortium.

    It isn’t clear how long UBS intends to run the tokenization pilot or release it more widely, or which products it is tokenizing.

  • DBS Launches Crypto Trust Offering

    DBS Launches Crypto Trust Offering

    DBS enlarges its cryptocurrency offering with a trust solution from its private banking arm amid growing demand for the asset class even within wealth succession plans. DBS Private Bank launches its cryptocurrency trust solution via wholly-owned DBS Trustee, according to a statement.

    The new trust offering is limited to cryptocurrencies currently supported by the bank’s digital asset exchange – DBS Digital Exchange (DDEX) – which includes Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin Cash, and XRP.

    According to the bank, the solution will ensure that critical information like access instructions or wallet backups will be kept confidential when passing on wealth in succession plans due to the additional protection afforded to trusts and their exclusion from the probate process.

    Confidentiality, peace of mind and taxation often emerge as top-of-mind concerns in our conversations with clients, and we would advise them to set up trust structures rather than wills, which are subject to the probate process, said DBS Private Bank’s regional head of family office, wealth planning and insurance solutions Lee Woon Shiu.

    This is especially so considering that international regulations and protocols are still nascent in the digital asset space, which could give rise to complications or unnecessary confusion if proper measures are not in place to prevent them.

    DBS expands its crypto offering amid growing demand for the digital asset class with DDEX registering S$80 million ($59.9 million) in assets under custody and a 10-fold increase of trading volumes since launch to S$30-40 million.

    The exchange currently has 120 clients with more awaiting onboarding.

    In recent years, more clients have expressed interest or are already invested in digital assets, and we expect this trend to accelerate as cryptocurrencies turn more mainstream, said group head of DBS Private Bank Joseph Poon. «Our trust structure allows clients to conveniently hold these assets, with a peace of mind that they will be safely managed and passed on to their intended beneficiaries.»

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  • UOB’s Chan Kok Seong on Risk Culture and Hybrid Work

    UOB’s Chan Kok Seong on Risk Culture and Hybrid Work

    The protracted COVID-19 pandemic is no longer just a disruption to the way we work but has transformed permanently the world of work, Chan Kok Seong, UOB’s group chief risk officer, says in an interview.

    The future of work is shaping into a hybrid model that optimizes employee flexibility, autonomy and performance across locations. While much attention has been focused on enabling virtual teams through technology, it is important to balance the risks of remote working with productivity and agility.

    A paper recently released by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Association of Banks in Singapore identified two key categories of risks for financial institutions: operational risks and people and culture risks, which all companies across sectors should note as they digitalize their businesses.

    How might companies better manage these emerging risks as they grapple with the embrace of remote working in the digital age

    Organizations will need to confront the technological, operational, legal and compliance risks which arise from a hybrid work model. A change in an organization’s control environment – such as when the majority of its employees perform their roles remotely – can introduce additional information security threat factors.

    For example, virtual workplaces include can be at risk of increased cyberattacks on an external network, potential leakage or misuse of confidential information, identity theft and employees circumventing work processes and controls against compliance guidelines.

    In a virtual work setting, enabling employees’ remote access to internal systems is a requisite. Companies must find a balanced and measured approach to cybersecurity safeguards that works for their operations and which do not compromise their risk controls or business productivity and agility.

  • UBS Bows to Client Demand on Crypto

    UBS Bows to Client Demand on Crypto

    The world’s largest private bank is reportedly tiptoeing into crypto for wealthy clients. UBS is the latest traditional bank to be backed into the nascent asset class.

    Zurich-based UBS is exploring several alternatives for offering digital currency investments to the wealthy private clients of its $4.31 trillion private banking arm, citing sources familiar with the Swiss bank’s plans. In doing so, UBS is acquiescing to demand from its clients, the agency reported.

    Other banks have moved more quickly into space than UBS has. In February, BNY Mellon flagged a digital custody unit for cryptocurrencies planned for later this year and then in March bought a crypto-security start-up. Morgan Stanley began offering its wealthy clients exposure to crypto via funds, and Goldman Sachs recently opened a crypto trading desk.

    The move is hugely symbolic given UBS’ stature in wealth management, as traditional banks have been reticent to outright hostile to the crypto industry. «We are monitoring the developments in the field of digital assets closely,» the bank said. It emphasized its long-held stance that it is mainly interested in the technology which underpins cryptocurrencies.

    A crop of crypto players including banks like Seba and Sygnum have popped up in Switzerland alongside traditional wealth managers. Bitcoin Suisse, an eight-year-old crypto trading start-up, withdrew its application for a banking license after Swiss regulator Finma signaled it would be denied, amid concerns it isn’t well enough equipped to combat money laundering.

  • Former UBS Boss to Head Banker Lobby

    Former UBS Boss to Head Banker Lobby

    The weighty trade group is tapping Marcel Rohner, who ran UBS during the financial crisis, as its next chairman.

    Marcel Rohner will succeed long-standing Swiss Bankers Association Chairman Herbert Scheidt, effective mid-September, the Basel-based lobby said in a statement on Tuesday. The 57-year-old Rohner has sat on the SBA’s board for the past three years.

    He is better known as the man thrust into the CEO job at UBS 16 months before the Swiss wealth manager was forced to take a government bailout in October of 2008. After stepping down four months later, he has taken jobs including deputy chair of Geneva’s Union Bancaire Privée and overseer at property firm Warteck Invest and in firms controlled by Swiss investors Daniel Aegerter.

    Rohner will lead a lobby where interests are drifting apart. Cooperative Raiffeisen left six months ago, disillusioned over the influence of weightier actors like UBS and Credit Suisse at the traditionally conservative and influential business association.

    I am familiar with the highs and lows of the banking business and with large, medium-sized and small institutions, Rohner said in a statement by the SBA. The most important lesson I have learned is that for the banks, shared interests are the norm and diverging interests the exception.

  • OCBC Posts Record High Quarterly Net Profit

    OCBC Posts Record High Quarterly Net Profit

    The quarter’s earnings were driven by broad-based income growth and lower allowances. OCBC Bank recorded a net profit of S$1.5 billion ($1.13 billion) for the January-March period, a jump of 115 percent from the same period last year (S$698 million), and 33 percent higher than the preceding quarter (S$1.13 billion), according to financial results posted on Friday.

    The bank said the record quarterly profit was driven by broad-based income growth and lower allowances. OCBC hit a new high in fee income (S$585 million), while making a far smaller allowance compared with the year-ago period (S$161 million vs. $657 million). Performance was also boosted by its insurance arm Great Eastern, which reported a twelvefold increase in profits this quarter.

    Income from wealth management, comprising insurance, premier and private banking, asset management, and stockbroking, rose 40 percent to S$1.21 billion – 41 percent of the group’s total income.

    Assets under management at Bank of Singapore, its private banking arm, rose 1 percent from the previous quarter to reach $123 billion as of 31 March 2021.

    OCBC highlighted growing momentum from renewed market optimism across its businesses, as well as improved quarterly earnings from its overseas banking subsidiaries.

    While we remain watchful of the prevailing risks in the operating environment, our strong balance sheet and capital position will enable us to capitalize on opportunities arising from improved economic conditions, particularly in ASEAN and Greater China,» OCBC chief Helen Wong said.

    Earnings at Singapore’s «big three» local banks all beat analyst estimates (DBS: S$1.44 billion, OCBC: S$1.13 billion, UOB: S$891.4 million, according to Refinitiv).

    DBS, which announced its first-quarter results last week, also experienced a strong quarter, doubling its income from the quarter before to reach S$2.01 billion and posting record wealth management fees.

    UOB’s earnings grew to S$1 billion for the same period – up 46 percent on the back of strong fees, trading, and investment income.

  • UOB Mulls Citi Asset Hunt in Asia

    UOB Mulls Citi Asset Hunt in Asia

    UOB is the latest bank to express interest in potentially acquiring Citi’s retail assets in the Asia Pacific region.

    UOB chief executive Wee Ee Cheong said that the Singapore lender would provide more clarity on acquisition plans after Citi release more details later this month.

    As long as it’s a strategic fit, is at the right price and makes sense for the long term, we will look at it.

    Numerous banks – both global and local – have reportedly expressed interest in potentially acquiring assets from Citi’s 13-market consumer banking exit in Australia, Bahrain, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, India, and China.

    DBS, Standard Chartered, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Axis Bank are reportedly eyeing the opportunities in India.

    And Citi’s retail assets in Australia reportedly drew interest from ANZ, ING Bank, Macquarie, Bank of Queensland, and local insurer Suncorp.

    Other banks that are also reportedly in the APAC hunt include Singapore’s OCBC and Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.

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