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Tag: Finance

  • Standard Chartered Grows Digital Payments Proposition

    Standard Chartered Grows Digital Payments Proposition

    The bank is doubling down on its commitment to the payments industry with its investment in a global cross-border payments platform. SC Ventures, the innovation, ventures and fintech investments unit of Standard Chartered bank, has made a strategic investment in Ireland-based CurrencyFair, it announced in a statement.

    As a result of the investment, CurrencyFair will merge with Assembly Payments, an Australia-based platform that automates complex payment workflows, which is invested into in 2020. The combined entity will offer the full range of payment services, providing retail and corporate clients access to fast, high-volume domestic and cross-border payments, the announcement said.

    The announcement highlighted a $2 trillion revenue market for payments, citing figures by McKinsey & Company, as well as an increasingly complex global cross-border business payments market.

    Paul Byrne, CEO of CurrencyFair, will lead the merged business, which will focus on payments, global payment accounts, partner ecosystem, lending and settlement, and services.

  • DBS Trims Office Space in Singapore

    DBS Trims Office Space in Singapore

    DBS is the latest global bank to offload more office space, this time in a Singapore building where it is the anchor tenant. DBS will give up about two and a half floors out of the more than a dozen floors it occupies at Tower 3 of the Marina Bay Financial Centre, according to a report citing unnamed sources. Singapore’s largest lender is set to surrender the space, which totals 75,000 square feet, in December.

    DBS joins other global banks that are shifting their operational models by reducing office space and increasing flexible working measures.

    In Singapore, Citi is offloading three floors and Mizuho is cutting less than one floor of office space.

    In Hong Kong, DBS has also dropped eight floors of office space joining the likes of BNP Paribas, Standard Chartered and UBS.

    DBS’ reduction of office space falls in line with its announced strategy to provide flexible working conditions for its staff.

    In November, the bank said that remote working would be allowed for employees as much as 40 percent of the time.

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  • Eximbank seeks to pay dividends after 7 years

    Eximbank seeks to pay dividends after 7 years

    Lender Eximbank has sought approval from the State Bank of Vietnam to pay a dividend of VND1,800 ($0.07) per share for 2020.

    The bank sold its bad debts to the state-owned Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC) in 2015 against bonds on the condition it is not allowed to pay dividends until the bonds are fully redeemed.

    According to documents it has circulated among shareholders, it redeemed the last of the bonds on March 30.

    The last time it paid dividends was for 2013.

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  • HDBank profit up 87 pct

    HDBank profit up 87 pct

    HDBank reported a 67 percent increase year-on-year in consolidated profit in the first quarter to over VND2 trillion ($86.9 million).

    Its outstanding loans at the end of the quarter were VND198 trillion, up 5 percent from the end of last year. The parent bank’s profit was VND1.8 trillion, up 87.7 percent. The lender also owns consumer finance company HD SAISON.

    It targets full-year profits of VND7.28 trillion, an increase of 25 percent from 2020, and credit growth of 26 percent. It plans to pay a 25 percent dividend for 2020 in the form of stocks.

    HDBank is among the few banks that have not signed an exclusive bancassurance contract.

    The bank recorded VND5.8 trillion in consolidated profit last year, a year-on-year increase of 15.9 percent.

  • DBS Adds Personalized Digital Advisory to Financial Planner

    DBS Adds Personalized Digital Advisory to Financial Planner

    The new tool in its NAV Planner is part of DBS’ plans to get 1 million customers insured and invested by 2023. DBS is rolling out an enhanced version of its «Make-Your-Money-Work-Harder» digital investment advisor to help retail customers make better investment decisions.

    The feature, available via NAV Planner on DBS digibank online and its mobile banking app, aims to remove guesswork and bias from investing by providing specific investment recommendations based on customer risk profile and provide a real-time hyper-personalized experience for customers.

    According to the bank, the majority of its customers are underinvested and for some, remain uninvested, with only two in 10 retail customers investing over the past 12 months.

    For new investors, many need guidance to overcome inertia, DBS said. Even with personalized recommendations and nudges provided on NAV Planner, the bank found that only one in 10 customers could complete their investing journey.

    DBS said that as customers are increasingly taking a self-directed approach to investing digitally, this approach helps investors determine their investment profiles to ensure they meet regulatory requirements before investing amid market volatility.

    This approach mirrors the offline consultation a customer would have with its wealth planning managers, which safeguards the interests of investors. «As more look to self-directed investing, it is important we equip them with the right information and intelligence digitally to construct their portfolios,» Evy Wee, DBS’ head of financial planning and personal investing, said.

    DBS said it would be more involved in helping younger customers grow by investing and with their home planning journey, which is the most common and largest-sized liability on a customer’s balance sheet.

    The bank will also focus on helping older customers monetize their assets and convert to cash for more liquidity to invest and prepare for retirement.

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  • Techcombank expects profit growth

    Techcombank expects profit growth

    Vietnam’s largest private lender Techcombank targets an increase of 25 percent in this year’s pre-tax profits to a record VND19.8 trillion ($858 million).

    It expects credit to grow by 12 percent. Profits rose by 23 percent last year to VND15.8 trillion.

    It has undistributed profits of VND26.7 trillion, which it plans to use to fund operations. It has not paid dividends for the last 10 years.

    In a year when businesses struggled to repay loans due to the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak, the lender saw provisions for bad debts triple to VND2.66 trillion.

    Meanwhile, the bank’s board is seeking shareholders’ permission to make Ho Anh Ngoc, a brother of chairman Ho Hung Anh, a director.

    Ngoc, 39, has a doctorate in economics from Macquarie University in Australia. He has held several positions in the bank since 2017 and is currently chairman of the bank’s southern representative board.

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  • UOB CEO Takes Pay Cut

    UOB CEO Takes Pay Cut

    His compensation in 2020 included an unchanged base salary of S$1.2 million, S$8.568 million bonuses, and S$37,000 in-kind benefits.

    Wee Ee Cheong, UOB’s deputy chairman, and CEO, received a total of S$9.805 million in 2020, down 8.8 percent from S$10.75 million in 2019, according to the bank’s annual report, published Wednesday.

    Some 60 percent of the variable pay will be deferred and vest over three years. Of the deferred portion, 40 percent will be in cash and the remaining 60 percent will be on the form of share-linked units, the report said.

    The bank posted earnings of S$2.92 billion ($2.21 billion) for the full year 2020 – 33 percent lower than 2019’s record earnings.

    Earlier this month DBS also said it would be cutting the payout of chief executive Piyush Gupta by 24 percent to S$9.18 million ($6.82 million) in 2020.

  • Vietnam stock market reaches new historic peak

    Vietnam stock market reaches new historic peak

    Vietnam’s benchmark VN-Index surged 2.07 percent to a new historic peak of 1,216.10 points Thursday, driven by Vingroup and Vietcombank tickers.

    The index rose throughout the day after breaking the 2018 peak of 1,204 points in the morning. It continued to surge in the afternoon and ended with a near 25-point gain.

    This is its biggest daily gain in six weeks. The index has ended in the green four sessions in a row.

    Trading value on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), on which the index is based, surged 16 percent to VND16.94 trillion ($735 million). The bourse saw 334 stocks gain and 106 lose.

    VIC of the biggest conglomerate Vingroup contributed most to the VN-Index gain with 4.6 points. The ticker rose 4.3 percent, its seventh gaining session in a row, up by a total 15 percent since March 23.

    VCB of state-owned lender Vietcombank pulled the index up by 2.1 points with volume tripling from Wednesday to rise 2.2 percent.

    Other major contributors included HPG of steelmaker Hoa Phat Group, VHM of real estate giant Vinhomes and VNM of dairy giant Vinamilk, together pushing the index up by 4.4 points.

    The strongest blue-chip gainer was SSI of leading brokerage SSI Securities Corporation with a ceiling increase of 6.9 percent, followed by TCH of real estate company Hoang Huy Investment Financial Services JSC with a 5.9 percent gain.

    Foreign investors broke off four consecutive net selling sessions with a net buying value of VND45 billion. They focused on VIC, HPG and STB of Ho Chi Minh City-based lender Sacombank, which surged 17 percent in the last six sessions.

    The HNX-Index for stocks on the Hanoi Stock Exchange, home to mid and small caps, surged 2 percent, while the UPCoM-Index for the Unlisted Public Companies Market added 0.37 percent.

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  • PGBank pulls plug on merger plans after 2nd debacle

    PGBank pulls plug on merger plans after 2nd debacle

    After calling off its merger with HDBank, lender PGBank does not plan to look for other partners and will remain independent, its chairman, Nguyen Quang Dinh, has said.

    “In the last six years, PGBank planned to merge with VietinBank and HDBank, but both deals were unsuccessful, which has been affecting the bank’s business.”

    “So the board of directors now aims to develop the bank as an independent entity,” he said at the lender’s annual general meeting on March 30.

    Shareholders approved rescindment of the merger plan, which never received approval from the State Bank of Vietnam.

    PGBank’s proposal to merge with state-owned VietinBank collapsed in 2014 after two years of negotiations.

    The bank targets a 46 percent rise in pre-tax profits this year to VND310 billion ($13.4 million).

    First-quarter profit was up 5 percent year-on-year to VND80 billion, according to its CEO, Nguyen Phi Hung.

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  • AXA IM Nabs Ex-Picet Asset Management Exec

    AXA IM Nabs Ex-Picet Asset Management Exec

    AXA Investment Managers hires a former executive from Pictet Asset Management as its Asia head of institutional sales. AXA IM has hired Carmen Lai as its head of institutional sales for Asia, according to a statement, reporting to APAC head of client group core Terence Lam in the Hong Kong-based role.

    Lai will oversee the development of AXA IM’s institutional business and client relationships in Asia, tasked initially to build a dedicated sales team for the North and Southeast Asia markets.

    Lai is a veteran in the asset management industry in the region, joining from Pictet Asset Management where she spent a decade, last as its Asia ex-Japan head of institutional sales. Previously, she also worked for Blackrock.

    In addition, AXA IM also appointed Kyle Wang as Asia head of sovereign and supranational Entities (SSE). Wang will report to Lam and work closely with Lai.

    Institutional clients remain a key focus for AXA IM’s Asian growth strategy, where we continue to see robust momentum, said Matt Lovatt, global head of client croup core and member of AXA IM’s management board.

    The enhanced team will reinforce the business coverage of AXA IM Core across the region, as we uphold our pledge to uncover global investment opportunities and offer active, long-term, and responsible investment solutions for our valued clients.

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  • UBS Singed by Archegos

    UBS Singed by Archegos

    Switzerland’s largest bank didn’t escape the Archegos wreckage unscathed. UBS’ singing is however far from the burn that rival Credit Suisse is nursing. Zurich-based UBS, the sixth-largest prime broker according to data provider Preqin, also catered to troubled hedge fund Archegos. Yet the Swiss bank was mum as its crosstown rival Credit Suisse warned of a major hit against its first-quarter results.

    The damage unleashed at Credit Suisse by the hedge fund now reportedly tallies at as much as $5 billion. How did UBS, which ranks directly behind Credit Suisse in catering to hedge funds, escape a similar fate?

    The answer is that the Swiss wealth management giant didn’t entirely, according to a person familiar with the matter. UBS, silent this week as Credit Suisse issued its profit warning, is reportedly still unwinding a series of complicated instruments when it called margin on the hedge fund.

    Though estimates vary, the bank believes it will be left nursing losses of not more than low-three-digit millions from business with Archegos, the person said. The damage isn’t such that it will neither torpedo UBS’ quarterly profits nor trigger a warning, the person noted. A spokeswoman for UBS declined to comment.

    Analysts expect a quarterly profit of $1.44 billion from UBS when it reports on April 27, according to a consensus compiled by the bank itself. Executives at both banks scrambled late last week to evaluate the Archegos debris, with Swiss regulator Finma intervening early on.

    UBS’ top investment banker Rob Karoskfy, risk chief Christian Bluhm, and finance overseer Kirt Gardner were among the top executives involves. The Swiss bank apparently feels confident enough it can extricate itself from the wreckage without wiping out the quarterly progress.

    This puts UBS squarely in the camp of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, which were both able to offload their Archegos holdings quickly. By contrast, Credit Suisse and Japan’s Nomura, which on Monday flagged a $2 billion hit, weren’t as fast.

    The episode illustrates that UBS’ risk limits held in this case, while raising manifold questions about Credit Suisse’s limits. The latter’s shares slumped more than 16 percent since the bank disclosed the Archegos hit on Monday; investors sent UBS’ shares just three percent lower over the same period.

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  • DBS Adds Public Sector Veteran as Board Member

    DBS Adds Public Sector Veteran as Board Member

    DBS has named a senior civil servant and former top aide to the Singapore Prime Minister to be a non-executive director on its boards.

    Chng Kai Fong will join the boards of DBS Holdings and DBS Bank, according to a statement, effective March 31 this year. He will also serve as a member of DBS’ audit committees and nominating committees.

    As part of the Singapore bank’s renewal process, longstanding board members Euleen Goh, Ow Foong Pheng and Andre Sekulic will step down on March 30.

    According to DBS chairman Peter Seah, Chng’s appointment is expected to help further DBS’ status in global banking and digital leadership.

    Chng, 42, is currently the managing director of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) after first taking on the role in October 2017. Prior to joining the EDB, he was the principal private secretary to the Prime Minister of Singapore.

    Chng also serves on the boards of EDB Investments Pte Ltd, EDBI Pte Ltd, Manakin Investments Pte Ltd, Singapore Israel Industrial Research and Development Foundation (SIIRD), Singapore Symphonia Company Limited, and Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).

    He is also an advisory board member of Singapore Management University’s Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Shell Gas & Power Development B.V.’s New Energies Advisory Board as well as a member of the Board of Trustees of Singapore University of Technology and Design.

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  • Citi Launches Hiring Spree in Hong Kong

    Citi Launches Hiring Spree in Hong Kong

    Citi will hire up to 1,700 for its Hong Kong unit, partly in anticipation of the upcoming Greater Bay Area opportunities.

    Citi will add 1,500 to 1,700 in Hong Kong, according to a report citing Hong Kong and Macau chief executive Angel Ng Yin-yee.

    The expansion follows a 44 percent surge from net new money in Hong Kong and revenue increases across business units, in contrast with the bank’s global financial performance.

    According to Ng, the majority of the new hires will be focused on frontline staff. In addition, Citi will also hire for middle and back-office roles in areas like product development, digital channel development and compliance.

    The bank plans to fill most of the positions this year and also boost tech spending by 28 percent.

    One of the major Greater Bay Area opportunities in the making is the ‘Wealth Management Connect’ scheme – a cross-border channel that will allow mainland residents of the 11-city cluster to invest in Hong Kong and Macau-based wealth management products.

    The scheme is currently being delayed due to the pandemic and Hong Kong officials have said the launch will wait until travel bans are lifted.

    According to Ng, she doesn’t expect the scheme to start with a «big bang» but instead grow gradually to reach multiples of the Hong Kong market.

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  • CIMB Restructuring Sees Lay-Offs in Singapore

    CIMB Restructuring Sees Lay-Offs in Singapore

    The Malaysian lender is revising its strategy to emphasise sustainable growth, in line with the group’s vision to be a «leading focused Asean bank.»

    CIMB Singapore is laying off staff and will close its Orchard Road branch as part of a restructuring exercise, which will see it optimise its functional set-up and leverage its group strengths through regionalization.

    These will make us more resilient, more productive and better positioned for growth going forward,» CIMB Singapore chief executive Victor Lee said in an internal memo.

    CIMB Singapore will be positioned as an Asean banking hub for the group, with a focus on wealth management, SME (small and medium-sized enterprises) banking, regional corporates and treasury and markets. According to the report, the bank had 1,200 staff in Singapore. Only its Raffles Place branch will remain following the exercise.

    Singapore is a core and important market to the CIMB Group, and we will continue to invest in our key growth areas, CIMB Singapore said in a statement.

    The bank let go of three of its business heads in Singapore in November 2020, following a review of its operations that cited the poor performance brought about by the pandemic.

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  • HSBC Reopens Hong Kong Headquarters

    HSBC Reopens Hong Kong Headquarters

    HSBC has reopened its main Hong Kong office but is only advising critical staff to come in for work, according to an internal memo.

    Precautionary measures – such as wearing masks, pre-entry temperature screening, hand sanitizers, spaced queuing and portable acrylic screens at open banking counters – will continue to be in place, according to a statement from the bank, adding that it conducted deep cleaning and disinfection last week.

    The bank closed the office last week following a recent outbreak in a local gym popularly frequented by expatriates. Visitors who stayed within the building for over two hours between March 3 and 16 were required to undergo coronavirus tests.

    The gym-linked cluster has resulted in nearly 150 cases and has prompted other financial firms, including Goldman Sachs and UBS, to encourage more work-from-home measures.

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