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Tag: Finance

  • 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.

  • Digitalization of Asian Private Banking in Numbers

    Digitalization of Asian Private Banking in Numbers

    Even private banking in Asia – awash with not only the usual posh amenities but also various other characteristics that make it uniquely more high-touch – was not immune digital disruption during the pandemic.

    Within the banking sector, private banking has often been named as one of the segments most immune to digital disruption due to several common factors: larger account sizes and transaction sums that justify human resource costs; complex products and sensitive issues that are difficult to discuss while not in-person; and an older and traditionally less tech-savvy client demographic.

    This is even more amplified in Asia due to a hands-on investor culture coupled with a high share of active trading, leading to more need for manual interaction with clients. But increased market volatility and unprecedented geopolitical uncertainty, amidst an ongoing pandemic, has created an impetus for engagement regardless of method.

    We have met all our clients in their living room over the last six months, which was the first time ever, said Lombard Odier’s Asia chief executive, Vincent Magnenat, in a recent online conference. And guess what? We could have done this before Covid. We needed something like Covid to realize that we don’t need to take a flight to engage with our clients and partners.

    Many of the digital tools and capabilities being showcased during the pandemic, such as secure instant messaging or interactive virtual events, were already available to clients before the outbreak. But against the backdrop of restricted physical access, greater uncertainty and a digital option, a new factor has emerged: self-motivation.

    In the past if you wanted to share your view on macro or on markets, you basically had two ways: set up a large client event or distribute research documents and have bankers follow-up, said Omar Shokur, Asia chief executive of Indosuez Wealth Management in a previous interview. But during this crisis, we have seen bankers and clients becoming more receptive to interaction through new channels like virtual events, not to mention a much faster time to market.

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  • DBS to Form Securities Joint Venture in China

    DBS to Form Securities Joint Venture in China

    The firm joins a string of international banks that have registered with Chinese authorities to set up onshore brokerages after the financial market supervisor loosened the rules on foreign access to financial markets.

    DBS Bank has received approval to establish a securities brokerage joint venture in China, which will provide brokerage, securities investment consulting, securities underwriting and sponsorship, as well as proprietary trading, the bank announced on Wednesday in a statement.

    The bank had been in discussions to set up a securities firm in China together with a local partner as far back as 2018.

    DBS Securities (China) will be 51 percent owned by DBS Bank, 24.67 percent by Donghao Lansheng Investment Management, 13.33 percent by Shanghai Huangpu Investment Holdings, 6.5 percent by Shanghai Huiyang Asset Management, and 4.5 percent by Shanghai Huangpu Guidance Fund Equity Investment.

    DBS chief executive Piyush Gupta called it a key milestone for the bank, and said it would «make available the best of DBS’ capabilities and offerings, and provide customers in China with a full range of onshore and offshore financial services.»

    The establishment of DBS Securities will further support the long-term sustainable development of DBS Group in China and meet the changing needs of customers in multiple aspects, Neil Ge, China head of DBS Group said.

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  • DBS Issues First SORA-Based Loan for Agribusiness Industry

    DBS Issues First SORA-Based Loan for Agribusiness Industry

    This is the industry’s first SORA loan coupled with an interest rate swap, which provides certainty of interest rates.

    DBS has issued a $200 million ($146.4 million) loan to agribusiness group Wilmar International –  the agribusiness industry’s first corporate loan agreement pegged to the Singapore Overnight Rate Average (SORA), the bank announced on Thursday.

    The loan facility’s interest rate, which references SORA, comprises a compounded daily SORA rate calculated in arrears and an applicable margin.

    Charles Loo, Wilmar chief financial officer, said the loan will put the company in good stead to ride the wave of interest rate reforms and drive better understanding and greater adoption of risk-free rates in general, which is more stable and robust.

    SORA is a transaction-based interest rate benchmark underpinned by the SGD overnight interbank funding market. To determine the interest rate of a SORA-based loan facility, the daily SORA rates are compounded in arrears and the interest rate is determined by the end of the relevant interest period.

    Singapore plans to shift away from the SGD Singapore Interbank Offered Rates (SIBOR) in three to four years and adopt SORA as the new interest rate benchmark for the Singapore Dollar cash and derivatives market, saying this will bring more transparent loan market pricing for borrowers and more efficient risk management for lenders.

    The SORA IRS demonstrates DBS’ commitment to increase liquidity in SORA-derivatives, Andrew Ng, DBS group head, Treasury & Markets, said. This will allow clients like Wilmar to continue to hedge their loan exposures and facilitate a smoother transition into the new benchmark.

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  • Citi Names APAC Trade Head

    Citi Names APAC Trade Head

    Citi’s treasury and trade solutions unit promotes its former head of trade finance for Asia Pacific to lead the region’s trade unit. Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) appoints Kanika Thakur as its Asia Pacific trade head, effective immediately, according to a statement. Thakur succeeds Vishal Kapoor was named head of TTS for Citi Hong Kong in May this year.

    In her Hong Kong-based role, Thakur reports to Rajesh Mehta, APAC TTS head and Ebru Pakcan, global head of trade.

    A career Citi banker, Thakur joined in 2001 as a management associate in India. Since then, she has also worked in Hong Kong and Singapore within trade across roles such as sales and structuring, product management, and distribution. Prior to her latest appointment, Thakur was the APAC head of trade finance.

    According to the statement, Thakur takes on the role amidst a «new operating environment» of evolving needs such as «shifts in trade flows, reconfiguration of supply chains and [the] advent of new technologies».

    In addition to maintaining our market leadership [in the trade business, Thakur] will also be responsible for charting the course of our future business model in a rapidly changing environment, said Mehta.

    Citi’s trade business generated high single-digit growth in 2019 and has also seen an uptick in activity this year amidst an economically challenging environment, the statement added.

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  • Deutsche Bank Names Vietnam Country Chief

    Deutsche Bank Names Vietnam Country Chief

    He joins from Maritime Bank, a Vietnamese bank where he was CEO for four years before taking up its deputy chairman position earlier this year.

    Deutsche Bank has appointed seasoned banker Huynh Buu Quang to lead the bank’s expansion of its franchise in Vietnam, pending State Bank of Vietnam approval.

    As chief country officer Vietnam, Huang will be based in Ho Chi Minh City. He brings more than 25 years of experience in corporate banking, and has held local and regional leadership roles in Vietnam, Singapore, Hong Kong and Indonesia, across multiple banking functions spanning trade finance and credit risk management.

    Alexander von zur Muehlen, Deutsche Bank’s Asia Pacific CEO called Vietnam «a key growth market» for the bank in ASEAN, in a statement announcing the move.

    Deutsche Bank has operated in the country since 1992. Since 2017, the bank has raised more than $1 billion in debt, loan and equity capital annually for Vietnamese corporates.

    Earlier this year, Deutsche Bank announced that it would increase its investment in Vietnam, with the recently ratified EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement expected to boost trade flows.

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  • Wirecard Dupe With Hollywood Methods

    Wirecard Dupe With Hollywood Methods

    The collapsed German fintech’s sacked operating chief went to the extreme – and adventurous – lengths to bamboozle auditors, according to a German report.

    Jan Marsalek – recently added to Interpol’s most-sought fugitives list after going AWOL in June – led more than one life: by day, the 40-year-old Austria was the right-hand-man to Wirecard boss Markus Braun. Out of business hours, Marsalek’s manifold commercial and political pursuits included plans for recruiting 15,000 Libyan militiamen, for example.

    The 40-year-old Austrian’s lives seem to have overlapped, according to a report in Germany’s Manager Magazin: Marsalek probably duped auditors from EY by hiring actors in the Philippines and setting up sham bank offices when auditors visited to check on 1.9 billion euros ($2.25 billion) of Wirecard’s money, it said, citing a KPMG forensic report.

    The billions, of course, are missing, Wirecard is in wind-down, Braun and others are being criminally investigated, and Marsalek dropped out of sight after being sacked eight weeks ago. According to media reports, he may be hiding out in Moscow protected by the GRU, Russia’s army intelligence unit. Marsalek’s lawyer didn’t comment to the outlet.

    The Wirecard scandal has spread to German regulator Bafin, which is being sued by Wirecard investors for allegedly overlooking warning signs. Germany’s top finance and economic ministers are also under fire, while lenders like Commerzbank are taking hefty provisions due to their exposure to the Munich-based company.

  • DBS Finances Floating Solar Farm

    DBS Finances Floating Solar Farm

    The bank is the sole financier for one of the world’s largest inland floating solar photovoltaic systems to date. DBS Bank has provided a $40 million loan facility to Sembcorp Industries to build a 60 megawatt-peak (MWp) floating solar photovoltaic (PV) system on Tengeh Reservoir in Tuas, Singapore, the bank announced on Thursday.

    The reservoir, scheduled to begin full commercial operations in 2021, covers an area of around 32 hectares and will generate enough energy to power about 16,000 four-room HDB flats, offsetting about 32 kilotons of carbon emissions annually, which equivalent to taking approximately 7,000 cars off the roads.

    As part of its transition to a low-carbon economy, Singapore aims to achieve a solar target of at least 2 gigawatt-peak (GWp) by 2030. With this project, Sembcorp will be one of the largest renewable energy players in Singapore with approximately 240 MWp of solar capacity in the country.

    Enabling renewable energy financing is at the core of DBS’ agenda and is one of the key tenets of our sustainability strategy, Lim Wee Seng, DBS Bank’s head of Energy, Chemicals, and Infrastructure, said about the investment.

    DBS seeks to differentiate itself in renewables financing – capturing financial advisory opportunities so we shape and influence early, Lim said.

    The bank was previously an advisor for Taiwan’s largest floating solar project and also Taiwan’s largest ground-mounted solar project, and earlier this year garnered four new advisory mandates across solar, wind and geothermal assets in Indonesia, Taiwan and Vietnam.

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  • Citi-Backed Data Management Firm to Expand in APAC

    Citi-Backed Data Management Firm to Expand in APAC

    U.K.-based enterprise data management company Solidatus said it will accelerate its growth plans in the region, following a strategic investment by Citi.

    Citi, the first major investor in the startup, will also implement the Solidatus platform internally at a global enterprise level, according to an announcement on Tuesday.

    Solidatus’ software helps organizations to gain greater insight and control of complex data across operational and technological ecosystems, which allows them to both satisfy regulators and react quickly to change. Its clients include retail giant Walmart and Deutsche Bank.

    The Solidatus solution will support Citi’s ongoing commitment to change management, helping our global infrastructure to stay agile, efficient and robust, Chris Hayward, Citi chief data officer, said in the announcement.

    Solidatus said it sees great opportunities in the Asia-Pacific market, and opened its Singapore office in 2019, which functions as its regional headquarters as it sets its sights on growth in Southeast Asia and China.

    The Singapore office is led by information technology and banking industry veteran John Berven, who previously spent almost 18 years at State Street, most recently as its head of real money FX sales in Hong Kong and Singapore.

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  • DBS to Train Staff in AI and Machine Learning

    DBS to Train Staff in AI and Machine Learning

    The bank hopes to equip its employees with skills in these areas, under a partnership with cloud services provider Amazon Web Services (AWS).

    DBS Bank will accelerate the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) across its business by training its staff in these skills with the launch of the AWS DeepRacer League, the bank announced on Tuesday.

    As part of the program, DBS staff will learn the basics of AI and ML through hands-on online tutorials and will use their knowledge in programming an autonomous model race car to compete in a virtual racing environment. The bank hopes to train some 3,000 employees, including its senior leadership, by the end of the year. The league is the largest among Asian-headquartered enterprises and one of the first in the world to be organized at scale by a financial institution, the announcement said.

    Employees are also encouraged to develop their talent beyond the bank’s league and compete globally – the bank said six of its employees have already qualified for the AWS DeepRacer Championship Cup to be held in Las Vegas later this year.

    We have never believed in limiting digital expertise to a small team. Instead, we passionately believe in democratizing technology skillsets among all employees, so that they can run alongside the company as we advance on our digital transformation together, Paul Cobban, DBS chief data and transformation officer, said.

    DBS said it is preparing for the next stage of its digital transformation efforts and has been leveraging AI and ML in areas such as advanced credit risk management, and to provide accurate self-service digital options to its retail customers based on their digital footprint.

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  • Lu Partners Thai Bank to Grow Digital Wealth Management

    Lu Partners Thai Bank to Grow Digital Wealth Management

    The Singapore-based subsidiary of leading Chinese retail fintech Lufax has announced a strategic partnership to meet rising demands for digital financial services in Thailand.

    Lu will work with Kasikornbank to jointly build a digital wealth management platform, which will be jointly operated and managed by both parties, to serve retail investors in Thailand, the company announced in a statement on Monday.

    The world is about to enter another wave of digital disruption as big players like commercial banks morph into fintech organizations. It is imperative that we quickly adjust ourselves and strengthen our capabilities to seek new business opportunities, Kattiya Indaravijaya, Kasikornbank CEO, said about the partnership.

    Established in 1945, Kasikornbank is the fourth-largest commercial bank in Thailand, with 17.3 million customers, including 12.7 million online users. The bank has been actively promoting the digitization process in recent years, and is committed to providing a full range of financial services through digital platforms to its customers.

    Lu International, Lufax’s first international arm, was set up in Singapore in 2017. Since then, it has grown its operations and market reach, which now spans several markets in Asia, with over 380,000 registered customers.

    The company said it plans to capitalize on growth opportunities for financial services in up-and-coming economies throughout and beyond Southeast Asia.

    «We will continue to grow our capabilities in Southeast Asia, extending our footprint in the region to meet the needs of our customers and support the business growth of our partners,» Kit Wong, Lu International CEO, said.

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  • UBS Asia Head Promises Higher Return

    UBS Asia Head Promises Higher Return

    Asia will contribute a much higher percentage to UBS’ earnings going forward, according to Edmund Koh, the head of the company’s business in the region. One reason is the region’s faster recovery from the corona-crisis.

    Asia contributed 30 percent to the profit of UBS in the first half of 2020, the first time that the region has had such a major impact on Switzerland’s largest bank. While Asia previously contributed with a share of between 14 and 20 percent of group earnings, the division now aims to go beyond 30 percent, said Edmund Koh, the head of UBS Asia-Pacific in an interview.

    The Asian economies seem to be emerging from the pandemic-induced slump much earlier than European and American economies, which is one of the main reasons for the surge in the contribution of the region to UBS earnings. UBS Asia-Pacific pretax profit jumped 71 percent to $233 million in the second quarter compared with a year earlier.

    With plenty of liquidity in the market and very low-interest rates, clients went shopping for higher yields in the first half, which meant that trading was brisk and invested assets rose, according to Koh.

    The banker expects the good earnings momentum to persist throughout the second half of 2020, with July being described as «pretty good». Koh told the newspaper that based on the team’s performance in the first half and since he would expect the unit to maintain the result and end the year on an all-time record.

    The U.S. elections and the economic slump in parts of the world most affected by the pandemic will create more «nervousness» in the market in the second half, which will present more opportunities for investors, Koh added. Overall, trade and consumption will fuel economic growth in Asia in the second half, which gives the bank reason to remain «risk-on» in the region. Singapore and India are the equity markets most preferred by UBS in Asia.

    Koh also suggested that the banking industry may suffer in coming quarters as government support measures end. Still, with UBS being in the market for the wealthy clientele, it is likely to be less affected by the risk of bad debt.

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