Tag: Finance

  • Paperless Trade Financing an Inevitability

    Paperless Trade Financing an Inevitability

    The paper-filled world of trade financing is ripe for reform as the expertise of forgers in faking documents used by banks is forcing the industry to digitalize.

    Trade financing is being forced into the digital age because of the scale and expertise of forgery, said Ng Chuey Peng, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp’s (OCBC) managing director, and head of global commodities finance, in an interview with Bloomberg.

    The widespread use of paper in trade financing – to establish the existence, ownership, and provenance of goods – stands in contrast to the high-tech world of finance, but is critical for banks to issue loans for trades. Digitalization and high levels of security can improve efficiency and help reduce fraud in trade finance by removing paper documents that are often manipulated.

    Ng said that OCBC is currently working on projects «that leverage technology in order to reduce the use of paper in commodities trade finance,» without providing further details.

    OCBC started its trade finance unit in 2014. Since then, it has tripled its number of trade financing customers, Ng said, Bloomberg reported. She added that the bank will soon add a Hong Kong and U.S.-based team for this business.

  • ICBC Singapore Issues Bank’s First Green Bond

    ICBC Singapore Issues Bank’s First Green Bond

    State-owned bank offers green Silk Road bond in three currencies one week after a similar exercise by rival Bank of China. Acting through its Singapore branch, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the world’s biggest bank by assets, has issued its first green bond offering in three currencies totalling $2.2 billion equivalent, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

    The U.S. dollar-denominated tranche includes $900 million three-year floating rate notes priced at three-month Libor plus 72 basis points and $600 million five-year floating rate notes priced at three-month Libor plus 83 basis points. They received over $2.4 billion and $1.5 billion in orders respectively, with Asia buying 92 percent of the deal and the rest coming from EMEA in both cases, according to Reuters.

    The 1 billion yuan ($149 million) three-year tranche was priced at 3.3 percent. The 500 million euro tranche received over 1.8 billion euros in orders.

    DBS Bank was the only Singapore bank among the issue’s joint global coordinators, which also include ICBC, Credit Agricole, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank. DBS was also the joint book runner and joint lead manager of the issue. There were 22 underwriters for the bond issue, which intends to support green projects under China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

    According to Clifford Lee, DBS Bank head of fixed income, said that ICBC Singapore’s successful issuance of its first green bond is underpinned by its commitment to financing sustainable development along the Belt and Road, «The Business Times» reported.

    A week before, Bank of China raised $3.8 billion equivalent across five currencies and eight tranches from its fifth Silk Road bond offering.

  • UBS Quarterly Profit Down Drastically

    UBS Quarterly Profit Down Drastically

    The Zurich-based bank’s net profit for the first quarter dropped to $1.1 billion Swiss francs from $1.6 billion a year ago, it said in a statement on Thursday. A 6.5 percent cut in spending wasn’t enough to offset UBS’ 16 percent tumble in revenue. Last year’s quarter also included an 241 million franc pension credit.

    The result follows a warning last month from CEO Sergio Ermotti that the first quarter – traditionally the strongest in banking – was the toughest in years. Crosstown rival Credit Suisse on Wednesday posted an 8 percent hike in profits for the same period, following an eventful three-year restructuring.

    Profit before tax at UBS’ flagship private bank slid nearly 22 percent: fees dropped because the bank managed fewer assets and commissions fell because clients stopped trading, particularly in Asia. «The first quarter of 2019 was characterized by challenging market conditions, which improved towards the end of the quarter and into April», CEO Ermotti said.

    Nevertheless, clients brought $22.3 billion in fresh assets to the wealth arm, which translates to a healthy 4 percent rate of growth. The bulk came from Asia, where UBS has banked heavily on China as the region’s biggest and fastest-growing wealth market.

    Meanwhile, profits at UBS’ investment bank plummeted by nearly two-thirds, where foreign exchange trading was the only bright spot. A downturn in Europe and the Middle East as well as Asia hit stock and bond trading and advising on deals. The unit eked out a meager 7 percent return on equity in the quarter.

    UBS said it is on track with measures such as stretching out technology projects, slowing hiring, reducing contractors, and pruning travel and entertainment costs – a bid to cut another 300 million francs in spending. «Benefits from these measures should come in the second half of the year, supporting our attractive capital return plan for the year», UBS said.

    Ermotti was more measured than Thiam’s buoyancy in his outlook, saying UBS expected global growth has slowed, but that UBS stands to gain because it is so regionally and operationally diversified. UBS’ rising asset base will bolster recurring income at its private bank and asset management units, the bank said.

  • Singapore Banks’ FX Volumes Pushed Up

    Singapore Banks’ FX Volumes Pushed Up

    Singapore banks will enjoy increased FX volumes going forward as the country grows as a foreign exchange (FX hub), banking heads said.

    «Singapore is fast evolving into a natural hub for FX in Asia with the many initiatives to promote FX trading in the region, coupled with regulatory support to encourage key market participants to set up their pricing and matching engines in Singapore,» said Lim Wee Kian, DBS managing director, head of FX.

    «FX trading activities and volumes in Singapore have increased over the past few years due to several reasons including the strong economic growth of Asia and a larger share of global investment flows into the region,» said Jose Luis Yepez, Citi head of FX and local markets, Asia-Pacific, Singapore.

    Plus, there is significant growth in the wealth management industry in the region, added Yepez. Despite the slight decline in assets under management (AUM) from $1.69 trillion to $1.63 trillion last year, Asia’s private banks have enjoyed a 6.9 percent compounded annual growth rate over the last five years, according to data from the Asian Private Banker.

    Last year, DBS Bank reported that its consumer banking/ wealth management income rose 21 percent to S$ 5.65 billion from increases in all product categories, despite a dip in the segment’s income during the fourth quarter last year. In the FX spot space, Southeast Asia’s largest bank saw strong growth, with spot volumes for 2016, 2017 and 2018 growing by 20 percent, 28 percent and 45 percent, year-on-year,  respectively, said Lim.

    «Digitisation of DBS’ FX transactions was a key driver of the strong growth in FX volumes, which started from a lower base, coupled with the strong traction from all remittance corridors of our consumer banking group and wealth management business,»  said Lim.

  • Indonesian Fintech Launches First Debt Services in Malaysia

    Indonesian Fintech Launches First Debt Services in Malaysia

    A fintech specialized in solving debt problems of consumers and business owners has launched its services in Malaysia, a country whose total overdue consumer loans is second highest in Southeast Asia.

    Indonesian Fintech amalan International announced on Wednesday that it has started operations in Malaysia, expanding its footprints in Indonesia and Singapore. In Malaysia, the total balance of overdue or almost overdue consumer loans is estimated to be $15 billion, the second highest in Southeast Asia.

    «In many cases, amalan is able to reduce the outstanding balance and/or the monthly installments by 50 to 90 percent in Indonesia – this would be also our target for our Malaysian clients. We want to offer a fresh start to our clients so that they can build a better financial future,» says amalan’s founder and CEO, Arne Hartmann in a statement to the media.

    amalan says that its key differentiator lies in working for borrowers to find the best solution with their lenders. As a social enterprise, amalan does not ask for upfront fees and instead uses a success fee model where the borrower only needs to pay after a restructuring plan has been agreed. The amount of the success fee is based on the savings generated through the restructuring.

    So far, the fintech said it has restructured more than 1,000 loans with all major banks in Indonesia and saved its clients more than $800,000 in the process.

    For each borrower, a restructuring plan is generated that takes into account all of the borrower’s loans to then reduce the debt balance and the monthly installments to an affordable level. These debt management programs use proprietary data and technology to get the borrowers out of debt faster, paying less.

    amlan Indonesia was selected as one of the 30 best start-ups in MaGIC (Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Center), a business accelerator program of the Malaysian government.

  • UBS Signs for New Office Lease in Singapore

    UBS Signs for New Office Lease in Singapore

    UBS will move to 9 Penang Road, where the firm will take up all eight floors of office space at the redeveloped Park Mall building.

    UBS Singapore has signed a lease to take up all the office space of the redeveloped Park Mall building at 9 Penang Road, developer SingHaiyi Group and its joint venture (JV) partners Suntec Reit and Haiyi Holdings announced on Wednesday in a press release.

    The firm, which was mulling over a move to consolidate its One Raffles Quay and Suntec City offices in Singapore, will occupy 381,000 square feet of office space across two towers and eight floors at the development, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year. UBS will relocate there in the second half of 2020.

    The 10-storey grade A office building located at the gateway to the Orchard Road shopping belt and close to the Civic District and CBD will house the firm’s 4,000 Singapore employees, as well as its UBS University, which provides training and development programmes for employees across the region.

    «The move will allow us to bring employees currently working at One Raffles Quay and Suntec City under one roof to enhance collaboration, as well as offer new capacity for future growth in Asia Pacific,» August Hatecke, country head of UBS Singapore, said in the press release.

  • Credit Cards Fight Back Against E-Wallets Wave

    Credit Cards Fight Back Against E-Wallets Wave

    As e-wallets gain popularity in the region, credit cards are fighting back in a push to stay relevant through rewards, reduced fees, and improved customer experiences on digital and mobile.

    2019 is a key year. This may be the year when mobile payments are expected to overtake credit cards as the preferred ways to pay for e-commerce, according to a UN report. In the face of rising penetration of e-wallets, traditional banks are finding new ways to innovate in the credit card space.

    «Credit cards are getting more creative. Local banks DBS and UOB offer credit cards marketed specifically to women, while others highlight the benefits of using a credit card to help offset your carbon footprint,» said Rohith Murthy, founder of SingSaver, a financial comparison platform.

    While e-wallets may be offering the ease of mobile payments through store partnerships and rewards across Singapore, credit cards are also turning to tech and digital to improve their offerings. For example, some banks are going entirely digital with virtual cards that reduce application approval times from days to minutes and are specifically aimed at e-commerce purchases.

    Others, however, are tying up with tech companies to add perks and touch points. «Apple recently partnered with Goldman Sachs in a digital tie up that removed fees, added transparency, and offered a slew of perks; a trend that will only grow,» added Murthy.

    In Singapore, 7 in 10 Singaporeans own at least one credit card, according to a study by market research company YouGov. Singaporeans had a total outstanding credit card and personal loan debts of about S$70.4 billion, according to the Department of Statistics Singapore (2017).

    Singsaver’s most recent data shows that cashback is still the top credit card reward choice among consumers as consumers continue to favor the flexibility and ease of cashback as a reward when using financial products such as credit cards.

    Nevertheless, miles, as a reward form is getting increasing traction due to many air miles credit cards lowering their annual income eligibility in the last 1-2 years and the promise of air miles for traveling and exploring new destinations.

    With better travel connectivity and affordability, as well as with the surge in travel interest in part due to social media, we think Singaporeans are going to be more knowledgeable about the benefits and attractiveness of miles as a reward,» said Murthy.

  • Google Pay update brings Gmail integration

    Google Pay update brings Gmail integration

    Google is trying to build an entire ecosystem that will allow users to access any important information from just about every Google app. Gmail has been integrated with many other Google apps, but other developers noticed the benefits and added integration with the email app.

    The newest app that benefits from Gmail integration is Google Pay, which doesn’t come as a surprise since the changes were spotted a few months ago. Now, Google Pay has been updated with Gmail importing, which means that the mobile payment app will browse through your emails and add the relevant information to its system.

    For example, whenever you receive loyalty cards, movie tickets, and boarding passes in the Gmail inbox, they will be automatically added in Google Pay. Keep in mind though that if you delete the email containing the information, it will disappear from Google Pay as well.

    The improvement makes it easier to access loyalty cards, tickets, and more without having to go through your emails every time you want to know something about them. It’s also easier to find coupons and boarding passes that are being sent to your Gmail inbox and make use of them.

    It’s worth mentioning that the new Gmail import feature is disabled by default, so you’ll have to enable it in Google Pay by heading to Settings / General / Gmail Imports and using the toggle available after the latest update.

  • Techcombank targets US$504.3 million in pre-tax profit

    Techcombank targets US$504.3 million in pre-tax profit

    Techcombank has targeted a pre-tax profit of more than VNĐ11.7 trillion (US$504.3 million) in 2019, representing a 10 per cent year-on-year increase.

    The target was approved at its annual shareholders’ meeting held in Hà Nội last week.

    It also planned to increase its total assets by 17 per cent to VNĐ375.8 trillion this year while holding outstanding loans at VNĐ245.4 trillion, up 32 per cent from last year. Its bad debts would be limited to less than 2.5 per cent in 2019.

    In 2018, Techcombank achieved high business results. Its pre-tax profit was up 32.7 per cent from the previous year at more than VNĐ10.6 trillion.

    These helped the bank achieve return on average assets (ROAA) of 2.9 per cent and return on average equity (RAE) of 21.5 per cent.

    Nguyễn Lê Quốc Anh, Techcombank’s CEO, said the two criteria had not only been among the highest among banks in Việt Nam but also surpassed big scale banks in India and Thailand.

    In addition, Techcombank successfully mobilised capital to raise its capital adequacy ratio (CAR) to 14.3 per cent, much higher than the level stipulated by the State Bank of Vietnam as well as the minimum level according to Basel II.

    Techcombank was among the few commercial banks last year which were assigned higher credit growth limits of 18 per cent with priority given to those who met Basel II’s capital safety and risk management standards ahead of schedule.

    “The bank plans to grow revenue by 20-30 per cent a year and retain 20 per cent of profit. In order to increase revenue, instead of growing debt balance, the bank would focus on raising fees (expected to account for 50 per cent of the total revenue),” Anh said.

    He added that Techcombank always focused on controlling credit growth from the central bank to ensure sustainable growth of the economy.

    Anh said Techcombank was among the banks to have successfully resolved bad debt. All of its debts were sold to VAMC and totally resolved two years ago. It had also well controlled credit quality by its strict risk warning and management system.

    With its profits listed in the top three banks in the country’s banking system in 2018, Techcombank’s shareholders agreed to continue to retain earnings to invest in creating growth momentum in the future.
    Hồ Hùng Anh, the bank’s chairman, said the bank wanted to retain profit to strengthen its equity and ensure the requirements of the central bank and Basel II are met.

    At the meeting, shareholders also approved a plan to issue 10 million shares under the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) programme at a price of VNĐ10,000 to increase its charter capital to more than VNĐ35 trillion.
    The bank said it would focus on growth contributed by service fees thank to implementing a modern banking transaction system for corporate customers and improving their experiences through online payments and life insurance products.

    In addition, it would develop new solutions in house lending, car lending, credit and payments to meet increasing demands of customers.

    Anh added the bank would start construction of two new buildings on Lý Thường Kiệt Street (Hà Nội) and Lê Duẩn (HCM City) this year. The two buildings are expected to become operational in 2021.

    Hồ Hùng Anh was re-elected to the position of chairman of Techcombank’s board of directors for the third consecutive term.

    Other members include Nguyễn Đăng Quang, Nguyễn Thiều Quang Nguyễn Cảnh Sơn, Đỗ Tuấn Anh, Lee Boon Huat, Saurabh Narayan Agarwal and Nguyễn Nhân Nghĩa.

    The new management board would continue to implement its customer-centric strategy, invest in technology to develop a digital foundation and big data while improving risk management to reach high ratings with prestigious ratings organisations.

  • UOB Partners Local E-commerce Platform To Mine Opportunities

    UOB Partners Local E-commerce Platform To Mine Opportunities

    United Overseas Bank has partnered with a popular e-commerce platform to build ecosystem partnerships. This follows a string of partnerships announced with other high profile online platforms.  United Overseas Bank (UOB) announced a regional alliance with local e-commerce platform Qoo10 on Monday, complementing the bank’s efforts to help small businesses seize opportunities in the digital economy. Qoo10, with more than three million buyers, is the top e-commerce platform in Singapore.

    «Our alliance with Qoo10 enables us to extend our touchpoints to provide small businesses with the financing they need directly on the e-commerce site, helping them to take advantage of opportunities quickly as they arise,» said Lawrence Loh, Head of Group Business Banking at UOB.

    In January this year, Qoo10 launched QuuBe, a blockchain-based e-commerce platform which already has more than two million products on the marketplace. Through the alliance, Qoo10 will be able to tap UOB’s holistic suite of financial solutions to help consumers and merchants buy and sell products more easily on both the Qoo10 and QuuBe platforms.

    «Partnering established and trusted allies such as UOB enables us to empower our merchants and customers with readily accessible solutions that provide greater financial flexibility in running a business or making purchases,» says Ku Young Bae, CEO of Qoo10.

  • Investor Groups Attack UBS

    Investor Groups Attack UBS

    UBS faces pressure from shareholders ahead of an investor meeting next month. The opposition centers around a nearly $12 million windfall for CEO Sergio Ermotti and a prolonged French legal tussle.

    UBS’ investor meeting on May 2 promises to be a heated one: U.S. investor group ISS is recommending shareholders deny UBS’ management and board for 2018 a so-called dispensation, which is a peculiarity of Swiss securities law which exempts managers from liability for their actions.
    The move adds to opposition to UBS’ pay practices from Glass Lewis, which last week said it will oppose the Swiss bank’s compensation report. Geneva-based Ethos views the 73.3 million Swiss franc ($73.1 million) bonus pool for UBS’ top 13 executives as inappropriate given the poor performance of the Swiss bank’s stock last year.

    CEO Sergio Ermotti is taking home 11.9 million francs in so-called realized compensation after contingent capital instruments that UBS gave him in 2012 matured. At the helm since 2011, Ermotti is Europe’s best-paid banking CEO. His bonus for 2018 is 4.5 times his salary (the metric is capped at 5 times his yearly salary). In contrast to Glass Lewis and Ethos, ISS said UBS’ pay practices by and large reflect those of the wider financial industry.

    The wealth manager has justified the pay with the fact that UBS’ net profit rose 12 percent on the year, its capital is solid, and it bought back 750 million francs worth of its own shares last year. Ethos criticized that shareholders suffered a nearly one-third drop in the value of their shares during that time.

    From 2016 until last year, shareholders sucked up a more than 28 percent tumble, far more dramatic than the 1.8 percent fall in the wider banking sector, Ethos said. «Ethos believes that UBS must introduce a performance target taking into account the relative performance of the bank’s share price», said the group, which holds sway with many of Switzerland’s weighty pension fund voters.

    The «nay» from ISS on releasing board and management for 2018 is purely pre-emptive, the shareholder advocate said – it is the first time since the financial crisis that shareholders have mounted opposition against top executives.

    ISS issued the recommendation in view of UBS’ long-running French criminal troubles, where the bank was recently hit with a 4.5 billion euro ($5 billion) fine (the bank shredded the decision and faces at least another two years of appeals process). The shareholder group said the move would simplify any potential legal steps against members of the C-suite later. Ermotti and chief lawyer Markus Diethelm are the architects of a pugnacious legal strategy in France.

  • Australian dollar slightly up again

    Australian dollar slightly up again

    The Australian dollar has dipped slightly, buying 71.70 US cents from 71.69 US cents on Monday.

    On Monday morning, the dollar was buying 71.71 US cents from 71.61 US cents on Friday.

    Last Friday morning, the local currency has fallen, buying 71.25 US cents from 71.61 US cents on Thursday.

    It had flatlined near a six-week peak as losses on Asian share markets chilled risk sentiment somewhat.

  • South Korean bank launches hand palm recognition verification

    South Korean bank launches hand palm recognition verification

    A South Korean bank has launched a service allowing customers to use palm recognition to withdraw cash – a likely precursor to similar technology becoming available in retail stores.

    KB Kookmin Bank says by using palm prints, customers no longer have to use a bankbook, stamp or password.

    The bank explained that palm vein recognition is safer and more precise than other biometric identification methods such as fingerprint or iris recognition. It believes the service will appeal to older customers who often have difficulty recalling passwords.

    According to a report, using palm recognition is also quicker than current means. Palm vein patterns differ by individual, allowing the scanner to correctly identify the customer.

    Similar palm-vein scanners are already being used at automated teller machines (ATM) from major banks worldwide, including Barclays in the UK and Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank in Japan.

    To prevent biometric information from leaking, the bank will encrypt the vein pattern database and work with the Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute to store the information. The data will be disassembled into multiple blocks when stored, and reassembled when used for transactions.

    KB Kookmin Bank expects that the new palm-recognition service will particularly benefit senior customers who often have a hard time remembering passwords.

  • Vietnamese banks find out car loans not low-hanging fruit

    Vietnamese banks find out car loans not low-hanging fruit

    Vietnamese banks are struggling to recover overdue car loans since many customers mortgage vehicles bought using bank loans. Dao Minh Tuan, manager of the debt recovery department at private lender Vietnam International Bank (VIB), said 50 percent of non-performing car loans are because of this.

    Borrowers are supposed to get the bank’s permission before pawning a car, but most don’t, which makes it difficult for the bank to repossess the car, he said.

    “Pawn shop owners decline to meet our staff while our customers are unreachable. As the banks do not technically own the car, we have trouble recovering the debt.”

    Since banks normally lend 80-100 percent of the cost of a car, getting the cars back by paying off pawnbrokers would cost too much, he said.

    “The last resort would be to sue the customer, but this will take a long time and cause damage to both sides.”

    Banks also have to pay a commission to car dealers of 0.7-1 percent and offer competitive interest rates of 7-9 percent in the first year. All this means, in a competitive, crowded segment, banks are unable to earn much.

    A banking expert who asked not to be named said: “Banks which want to maintain high credit growth often focus on increasing the amount of car loans, not quality.”

    Those focused on this segment are usually banks which are not competitive in other areas with higher interest rates, such as real estate, the expert said.

    The auto loans segment has seen average growth of 38 percent in 2012-2016, according to data from Viet Capital Securities VCSC.

  • Vietnamese stocks slide as lack of information hits large-caps

    Vietnamese stocks slide as lack of information hits large-caps

    Vietnamese shares slid yesterday as large-cap companies faced strong selling amidst a lack of supportive information while investors awaited discussions on the amended securities law. The benchmark VN-Index on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange fell 0.91 per cent to end at 988.48 points.

    The southern market index climbed 0.84 per cent on Monday.

    More than 165 million shares were traded on the southern bourse, worth VNĐ4.24 trillion (US$182 million).

    Market breadth was negative with 207 declining stocks, while 111 stocks advanced and 45 ended flat.

    Fifteen of the 20 sector indices ended Tuesday on a negative note, dragged by real estate, energy and petroleum, rubber and plastics and consumer staples.

    Those sector indices lost between 1.1 per cent and 3.1 per cent, data on vietstock.vn showed.

    The energy and petroleum sector was the worst-performing one on the stock market.

    Petro stocks such as PetroVietnam Gas (GAS) and PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Services (PVD) reversed after oil prices encountered volatility on Tuesday.

    GAS shed 1.9 per cent while PVD slipped 3 per cent.

    Real estate firms also dragged the market down, with the industry index falling 2 per cent.

    Among the worst-performing property developers were Vincom Retail (VRE), Vingroup (VIC) and Hòa Bình Construction Group (HBC).

    According to MB Securities Co (MBS), the VN-Index slid as leading stocks moved in different directions and pressured market sentiment.

    Foreign selling also caused negative movement for the stock market, which ended at a net VNĐ277.4 billion, MBS said in its daily report.

    In addition, gloomy earnings forecasts for 2019 for listed companies weighed on investors’ confidence ahead of the National Assembly Standing Committee meeting on April 10-18, in which the draft on amended Law of Securities will be discussed, MBS noted.

    “The stock market is clearly in its instability stage as large-cap stocks are still heavyweights. It is likely the VN-Index will fall whenever large-cap stocks are hit by strong selling,” Thành Công Securities Co (TCSC) said in a note.

    In addition, listed firms are experiencing a lack of supportive information, making investors unwilling to buy their stocks and reducing market liquidity, TCSC said.

    Therefore, the VN-Index may struggle at the current level of 990 points in the next trading days with focus shifted to companies with positive first quarter earnings, the company said.

    On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index slid 1.12 per cent to end at 107.71 points.

    The northern market index climbed nearly 1 per cent in the first trading day of the week.

    Nearly 48 million shares were traded on the northern bourse, worth VNĐ669 billion.