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Tag: Banking

  • SGX Expands Partnership With Citic Securities

    SGX Expands Partnership With Citic Securities

    The collaboration covers fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC), real estate investment trusts (REITs), and capital raising.

    Singapore Exchange (SGX) and Citic Securities, China’s largest securities firm, will jointly explore the feasibility of developing and listing new bond and risk management products for international participants who are looking to invest in China’s bond market, under a new agreement signed between the two parties on Wednesday at a virtual ceremony.

    The ongoing pandemic has not dampened both parties’ determination in working together to develop new financial products and support China’s continuous internationalization and opening of its financial markets, SGX CEO Loh Boon Chye said about the agreement.

    The partners will also jointly promote SGX’s real estate investment trusts (REITs) and large-cap stocks in the Mainland China and Hong Kong markets, as well as engage and educate Greater China companies on the benefits of raising funds in Singapore’s capital markets, the announcement said.

    Singapore is one of Asia’s largest REIT and property trust markets, with a combined market capitalization of over S$85 billion ($60 billion).

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  • OCBC Fixes Date for Virtual AGM

    OCBC Fixes Date for Virtual AGM

    The bank will pay its final dividend of S$0.28 per share on June 5, after approval at the AGM. OCBC Bank will hold its annual general meeting on May 18 at 2 p.m. as a webcast or audio-only live stream, the bank said in a letter to shareholders.

    Shareholders attending the virtual AGM will not be able to vote online and can do so only by proxy, with the bank encouraging the submission of proxy forms by email, given delays with the postal service.

    The meeting was originally scheduled for 30 April, but had to be postponed following government measures that imposed stricter measures about gathering in public, given the Covid-19 virus outbreak.

    Singapore is currently under a partial lockdown until June 1, with members of the public only allowed to leave their homes to conduct essential activities.

    Singapore Exchange Regulation previously announced an automatic 60-day extension of the deadline for all issuers with financial year-end on or before 31 March 2020 to hold their AGMs, in light of government advisories amid the Covid-19 situation.

    OCBC is the second local bank to announce a virtual AGM after DBS, which rescheduled its meeting from March 31 to April 30.

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  • Ex-UBS Chairman Marcel Ospel Dies

    Ex-UBS Chairman Marcel Ospel Dies

    Marcel Ospel, the chairman of UBS until shortly before a 2008 Swiss government rescue, has died. He was 70. Ospel was eventually ousted after UBS was forced to repeatedly go cap in hand to shareholders as well as seek an injection from Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund

    Ex-UBS overseer Marcel Ospel stepped down in April of 2008, eight months before the Swiss-based bank was forced to take a bailout after more than $50 billion in crisis losses. He died after a prolonged battle with cancer.

    The mercurial Swiss banker had largely retreated from public life following UBS’ fall from grace, after which he was considered a persona non grata in Switzerland. He is survived by his wife, Adriana Bodmer and their two children as well as four children from two previous marriages.

    Ospel’s legacy is his 31-year career at UBS, where he began as an apprentice in 1977. He was the chief architect of the landmark merger between Union Bank of Switzerland (former UBS) and Swiss Bank Corporation (SBC), which is now UBS, in 1998.

    Ospel was also instrumental in a long deal spree including Brinson Partners, GAM, Warburg, and O’Connor, the Chicago derivatives firm which brought wunderkind David Solo into the UBS fold. Ospel remained close to Solo, who ran GAM until 2015 and is now chairman of a Credit Suisse joint venture.

    Ospel climbed into the chairman’s job from the CEO in 2001, handing over the top job to Peter Wuffli. Swissair went bust in the first year of Ospel’s tenure as chairman – bringing the Swiss banker public anger for his perceived failure to extend the flagship carrier a line of credit.

    As chairman, maintained tight control from behind the scenes via a so-called chairman’s office. In practice, this meant that everyday operational decisions like big investment banking loans were vetted by Ospel and two close associates, Stephan Haeringer and Marco Suter – to whom he also remained close until his death.

    Ospel was eventually ousted after UBS was forced to repeatedly go cap in hand to shareholders as well as seek an injection from Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. The bank took years to stanch its crisis-era withdrawals and recover from damaging tax probes.

    It also spent the post-crisis years setting aside scandals including rigging foreign exchange and metal markets as well as Libor, the then-benchmark interest rate. Ospel, reportedly worth north of $150 million, emerged as a private investor, including in fintech firm Evolute.

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  • UOB Offers Liquidity Boost to SMEs

    UOB Offers Liquidity Boost to SMEs

    Businesses that require urgent access to funding to stay afloat during the Covid-19 outbreak can take up pre-approved loans of up to S$200,000 ($140,000) and only service the interest until December 31.

    UOB has announced collateral-free loans to help small and medium enterprises, especially those from hard-hit sectors such as retail and food and beverage, gain access to much-needed funds quickly.

    According to a statement on Tuesday, this will be offered to customers with a good repayment track record and at least a 12-month borrowing relationship with the bank, and the funds will be available in two business days.

    UOB said that as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak, it has seen more customers who are seeking loans to provide their businesses with liquidity, citing a threefold increase in loan approvals from January to March this year.

    The reality is that small businesses already operate on tight cash flow and do not have the liquidity to withstand the prolonged economic shock that is expected from the Covid-19 pandemic. As such, they require urgent access to funding in order to stay afloat, said Lawrence Loh, head of group business banking, UOB.

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  • Citi to Hand Job Offers to All Summer Interns

    Citi to Hand Job Offers to All Summer Interns

    Fears among graduates that virtual or shortened internship programs at banks amid the Covid-19 pandemic will make it more difficult for them to secure a job after completing the program have been alleviated, at least for Citi’s summer interns.

    The bank previously announced that its summer internship program would be delayed from June 1 to July 6, and shortened to five weeks, as a result of the escalation of the virus outbreak. In a statement on Tuesday, it promised the 76 students of its incoming batch a full-time analyst role if they meet the minimum requirements of the program.

    Citi’s offer also promises to pay the interns for the 10-12 weeks despite the truncated program, essentially giving them at least five weeks’ paid leave. Four out of five of this year’s batch of summer interns in Singapore are from local universities. They will be attached to one of the bank’s eight business or technology divisions.

    While these are trying times, we recognized that it is temporary and remain unwaveringly committed in our strategy to build a strong, diverse talent pipeline through key initiatives such as our summer internship program, Jorge Osorio, Head of Human Resources, Citi Singapore, said in a statement on Wednesday.

    Interns at banks usually have to compete for the openings available, and it is not unusual for only half the batch of interns at banks to receive job offers, according to jobs portal eFinancial Careers.

    Other banks have also made changes to their internship programs this year as a result of the ongoing pandemic: Credit Suisse has converted its EMEA spring internship into a virtual program, while Goldman Sachs previously announced that it would be halving the duration of its summer analyst program but will pay participants for the full 10 weeks.

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  • HSBC Private Bank Managing Director to Depart

    HSBC Private Bank Managing Director to Depart

    He announced his departure on LinkedIn on Friday, saying he was «excited» to head to his next destination.

    Shang-Wei Chao, HSBC Private Banking’s Singapore and Malaysia market head, will be leaving the firm, he announced in a LinkedIn post, which was confirmed by a spokesperson at the bank.

    Chao joined HSBC in 2016, after 12 years at UBS, where he was a client advisor and desk head covering numerous Southeast Asian markets. The bank did not disclose plans for a replacement.

    Since joining HSBC Private Banking in 2016, I’ve felt that I was on an express train that didn’t need to stop to refuel, Chao said in the post.

    The bank has successfully transitioned to its strategy to get back to growth, and other transformation goals have made amazing headway, he said about his time at the firm.

  • Ex-UBS Private Banking Veteran Reemerges at StanChart

    Ex-UBS Private Banking Veteran Reemerges at StanChart

    A private banking veteran, most recently with UBS leading a team covering high net worth clients in Hong Kong, has reemerged at Standard Chartered.

    Chiu Wai Man has joined Standard Chartered as a deputy market head for Hong Kong, effective as of yesterday.

    A spokesperson for the bank confirmed the new hire.

    Chiu was most recently the Hong Kong country team head at UBS where she joined in 2018 with the task of hiring more relationship managers for the bank’s high net worth business in the city under regional market manager Adeline Chien. Chiu has around 20 years of banking experience and was previously with Hang Seng leading a 30-strong private banking team after stints with ANZ and HSBC.

    2020 remains on track to reach its target of $100 billion assets under management (AUM) in the next two to four years. The bank had over $67 billion of AUMs as of 2019-end.

    In January this year, Standard Chartered hired another ex-UBS banker, Gerald See, as an executive director and senior client partner based in Singapore to focus on ultra-high net worth (UHNW) clients. At UBS, See was previously a director in its family office and UHNW division.

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  • Citi Appoints Investment Banking Head of Australia and New Zealand

    Citi Appoints Investment Banking Head of Australia and New Zealand

    The American lender nabbed an ex-Deutsche Bank investment banker to lead the unit, claiming to anticipate increased fundraising and M&A activity in the second half. Alex Cartel joins, effective July 2020, as the head of investment banking for Citi Australia and New Zealand after most recently being with Deutsche Bank’s Australia unit as its head of investment banking coverage, according to a statement. Cartel, who is also the president of the «Australian Takovers Panel», will report to Tony Osmond, Citi’s head of banking, capital markets and advisory.

    Cartel has over 20 years of experience with involvement in numerous major deals in Australia including, most recently, the A$600 million ($381 million) sales of Kirin’s Lion Drinks and Dairy business to China Mengniu and Saputo.

    In addition, the bank also named Rob Jahrling and Hamish Whitehead as co-heads of Citi Australia and New Zealand’s equity capital markets (ECM), reporting to John McLean capital markets origination head at Citi Australia and New Zealand.

    Whitehead joined Citi in 2015 and now leads ECM origination and execution out of Melbourne, covering the transport and utilities sector. Jahrling joined Citi in 2010 and ECM origination and execution from Sydney, covering the resources sectors.

    In just the past two weeks, Citi has raised $2 billion in equity from regional carpets including NextDC, Auckland International Airport, Shopping Centres Australasia Property Group and Electro Optic Systems. It also raised $8.5 billion from debt capital markets from companies and government agencies such as NSW Treasury Corporation, Queensland Treasury Corporation, South Australia Finance Authority and Treasury Corporation of Victoria.

    We are experiencing a strong increase in fundraising activity and expect this to grow further to include increased M&A activity in the second half and beyond, added Citi’s Osmond in the statement.

  • HSBC’s Pro-Dividend Shareholders Call for Regulator Intervention

    HSBC’s Pro-Dividend Shareholders Call for Regulator Intervention

    Enraged retail investors of HSBC in Hong Kong have invoked the Securities and Futures Commission in the latest development of the HSBC dividend cancellation fiasco. A 500-strong group that claimed to be HSBC shareholders assembled at the offices of the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), urging the local regulator to intervene and help reverse a decision by the British lender to scrap dividends on Bank of England orders. Leading the group was local politician Christine Fong Kwok-shan.

    The [Prudential Regulation Authority] orders have hit many retirees hard in Hong Kong, including my father who invested in HSBC shares for decades,» Fong said, according to a report that claimed SFC staff accepted the letter without commenting.

    We understand that HSBC canceled dividend payments at the order of the British regulator. As usual, it needs a regulator to talk to another regulator.

    The new group joins the growing coalition of pro-dividend shareholders that include the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, which boasts 420,000 members, and a self-dubbed HSBC Shareholder Alliance of allegedly 600 owners of HSBC stock.

    Despite the fact that dissatisfied investors have no legitimate case to push for a reversal, they continue nonetheless to mobilize in order to meet the 5 percent shareholder threshold to trigger an extraordinary general meeting and have their demands directly heard. As of Thursday, 3 percent of shareholders have pledged their support.

    We profoundly regret the impact this will have on you, your families and your businesses, said HSBC chief executive Noel Quinn in a rare letter earlier this week directly addressing Hong Kong shareholders earlier this week. We are acutely aware of how important the dividend is to our shareholders in Hong Kong. We deeply value your support as a shareholder and we never take that for granted.

  • OCBC Shutters Investors Hub During Circuit Breaker

    OCBC Shutters Investors Hub During Circuit Breaker

    The bank hopes to encourage more people to stay home and comes in support of stricter social distancing measures implemented by the government to contain the spread of Covid-19.

    OCBC Bank’s wholly-owned brokerage subsidiary, OCBC Securities, will temporarily close its Investors Hub at OCBC Centre South from 20 April to 4 May 2020, it announced in a statement on Friday.

    The bank said customers will be able to continue to trade or make transactions through their trading representatives or on OCBC Securities’ digital platform, iOCBC, as the brokerage will continue to be operational during this time.

    The Monetary Authority of Singapore also urged the public to minimize visits to their premises during the current circuit breaker period.

    While financial services remain available as one of the essential services exempted from the suspension of activities at workplace premises announced by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) on 3 April 2020, customers are urged to use digital, email, and telephone channels as far as possible and minimize face-to-face interactions at FI premises,» the regulator said in a statement on Friday.

    About half of the bank branches in Singapore have closed, along with most of the physical service locations of insurers, brokers and fund managers, in view of reduced customer traffic.

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  • Q1 Profits Plummet for Citigroup

    Q1 Profits Plummet for Citigroup

    First-quarter profits plummeted 46 percent at Citigroup due in part to its high exposure to unsecured lending via credit cards.

    Citi posted $2.52 billion in first-quarter profits and set aside $4.9 billion in anticipation of increasing defaults fuelled by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The U.S. business reported a first-quarter loss of $837 million with the card business representing half of the reserves set aside for expected loan losses.

    Citi’s chief financial officer Mark Mason did not provide specific details on expected profitability pressures but nonetheless said it was «reasonable to expect» further loss provisioning spending on the effectiveness of U.S. government relief programs.

    Credit card defaults are historically correlated with unemployment and the ongoing health crisis has placed added pressure on lenders more dependent on such unsecured loans. In 2019, the U.S. credit card business accounted for 15 percent of total net income.

    Globally, the consumer banking business was flat as gains from the U.S. arm were offset by a 4 percent decline in Asia to $1.8 billion due to lower revenues in its cards business – this could see a boost from its recent partnership with major e-platform HKTVmall.

    Citi’s overall earnings were offset in part by trading fees as equities and fixed income trading business posted a 39 percent spike as activity rose with increased turbulence.

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  • Singapore Banks Refuse Entry to Customers Without Masks

    Singapore Banks Refuse Entry to Customers Without Masks

    As the number of unlinked Covid-19 cases in Singapore continues to climb, ABS is advising customers of the additional measures taken by the banks to reduce the risk of transmission.

    The Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) on Tuesday announced that all customers who do not wear face masks when visiting bank branches will be refused entry, and has advised customers to wear a face mask when lining up to use ATMs.

    These measures were adopted in light of the elevated safe distancing measures announced by the Ministry of Health. Banks have also put in place crowd management systems at their branches to ensure safe distancing between customers and staff, and have increased the frequency of cleaning and disinfection of their branches, ABS noted in a circular.

    The use of face masks was previously discouraged by the Singapore government, but its position on the matter changed with evidence that an asymptomatic person can still pass on the virus to others. Addressing the public on 3 April, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to «keep your droplets to yourself.»

    Banks across Singapore have closed up to half of their branches due to the reduced traffic as a result of enhanced social distancing measures. Non-essential businesses have been ordered to close, and all companies have been instructed to transition to working from home.

    At the same time, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) affirmed that financial services would remain open and available to all customers and counterparties in Singapore and globally.

  • OCBC Chief Executive Receives Pay Rise

    OCBC Chief Executive Receives Pay Rise

    His remuneration comprised a base salary of S$1.24 million, a bonus of $5.84 million, deferred shares worth S$3.89 million, and other benefits worth $102,000, but he donated more than half his base salary to charity.

    OCBC CEO Samuel Tsien’s pay for 2109 grew to S$11.1 million, up 3.5 percent from $10.7 million last year, according to the bank’s annual report, filed with Singapore Exchange on Tuesday.

    But not all of that is going to his pocket, with the chief of Singapore’s oldest bank donating S$650,600 from his 2019 base salary to support community and environmental causes under its #OCBCCares Program, without asking for tax deduction benefits, the bank said.

    For the full year of 2019, OCBC posted record net profits of S$4.87 billion ($3.48 billion), an 8-percent rise from the year before, driven by strong performances across its banking, wealth management and insurance businesses.

    With Covid-19 wrecking havoc on the global economy, the bank’s outlook for 2020 is more muted.

    Although we are hopeful that a gradual recovery of consumer confidence and sentiments will start to set in towards the end of 2020, a stronger and steady economic recovery will likely be a 2021 event,» Tsien and chairman Ooi Sang Kuang said in the opening message.

    In the opening message, Tsien noted the bank’s progress in contributing towards a more sustainable future, highlighting that the bank brought in almost half of its S$8 billion in sustainable finance assets in 2019 alone, including clean and renewable energy projects using solar and wind.

    The bank previously declared its intention to build a sustainable finance portfolio of S$10 billion by 2022

    While not receiving double-digit pay hikes as they did last year, the CEOs of Singapore’s «Big Three» still managed to grow their coffers on the back of record years at the banks.

    Despite his pay rise, Tsien still trails Piyush Gupta, Asia’s highest-paid banker, who received S$12.1 million in 2019 – about 2-percent more than 2018 – in his 10th year at the helm of DBS.

    United Overseas Bank (UOB) deputy chairman and CEO Wee Ee Cheong received S$10.75 million ($7.53 million) in 2019, a 1.8-percent increase from the year before.

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  • HSBC Self-Reports Potential Money-Laundering Breaches

    HSBC Self-Reports Potential Money-Laundering Breaches

     The London-headquartered bank’s Australian unit disclosed the potential breaches in a regulatory filing last week.

    The bank flagged potential money laundering breaches to local watchdog AUSTRAC, adding that «regulators and other bodies may make findings that the bank has engaged in misconduct, including breaches of law or conduct that falls below community standards and expectations».

    The breaches include small amounts of cross-border transactions involving non-banking financial institutions which HSBC was unable to properly report due to technical reasons.

    HSBC is amongst the latest lenders in Australia to proactively disclose internal money-laundering lapses amidst the unraveling of the Westpac scandal that allegedly involved 23 million breaches of anti-money laundering laws that included payment facilitation between known child abusers. In addition to resignations, senior executives such as Brian Hartzer and Peter King, former and interim chief executive of Westpac, respectively, will face trial as defendants in a case filed by U.S. investors.

    In December last year, NAB also self-reported anti-money laundering failures with regards to mischarged fees to alleged hundreds of customers and its chairman Philip Chronican assured shareholders of reasonable enforcement.

    The message we have had from AUSTRAC is that we are not going to be measured to a perfect standard, Chronican said. We are going to be measured to a standard that we fix things when we find them and that we put the energy and resources into fixing it and we show the right attitude towards resolution of the issues.

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  • UBS Bonus in Times of Crisis

    UBS Bonus in Times of Crisis

    UBS has had a great start to the year 2020 – and yet, under the impression of the coronavirus pandemic, the company plans to curtail bonus payments, if shareholders are forced to take a cut of their dividend.

    Should UBS not suddenly unearth a negative surprise when managers put together first-quarter results in coming days, the bank will present a very nice set of numbers: net income for the first three months of 2020 amounted to about $1.5 billion, a third above the year-earlier figure, the bank said in a statement on Thursday.

    With a strong operating performance in all business divisions, even after accounting for credit loss expenses and own credit valuation adjustments, the bank will exceed the expectations of analysts (which date back to the time before the pandemic). It seems unlikely though that the boom will continue under the current circumstances.

    It seems that Switzerland’s largest bank succumbed to the pressure applied by the finance regulator Finma and the demand for the solidarity of the management with shareholders. Should the bank not be able to pay the second installment of the dividend in the autumn of 2020 because of a weaker performance this year, the board and executive will also see their variable payment components affected.

    In that case, the bank will not pay its top managers a cash bonus. The bank would instead convert the bonus into deferred equity and similar financial products.

    UBS also said it might resort to additional measures with respect to the pay of Chairman Axel Weber and CEO Sergio Ermotti. The latter is one of Switzerland’s best-paid managers. He earned a total of 12.5 million Swiss francs in 2019.

    Credit Suisse, which also altered the way it will pay out the dividend to shareholders, didn’t make a statement in regard to pay. It has said in mid-March that it had a successful start to the year.

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