Regional/ International

Germany’s Dekabank has fired its head of fund management, Franz Waas following disagreements with the CEO over retroactive bonuses. He was relieved of all responsibilities at DekaBank with immediate effect.

UK’s Bank of England, the country’s central bank, has faced calls to publish a full account of the way it handled the financial crisis. The demand was made after the Treasury admitted to failing to foresee the crisis, and of being too slow to recruit sufficient staff for the task.

JPMorgan Chase will be paying $20 million in settlement to resolve accusations that it has mismanaged customer funds of Lehman Brothers Holdings. The bank claimed client funds as belonging to itself, refusing to release the money for two weeks until insisted.  

Middle East

The Commercial Bank of Kuwait has announced the appointment of Nuhad Saliba as its new CEO. Saliba has had over 28 years of experience in the banking industry, including Citigroup and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank.

Kuwait’s Warba Bank is set to launch its fourth and biggest branch to date in Khalifa Tower. The branch has separate reception areas for ladies and men to speed up the banking process.

Kuwait’s Burgan Bank is set to purchase a 70% stake worth $350 million in Eurobank Tekfen. The stake has been up for sale in July 2011, and is the result of a partnership between EFG Eurobank and Turkey’s Tekfen Holding.

Indochina

Vietnam and Cambodia have signed a memorandum of understanding to exchange information in a joint effort to battle money laundering and terrorism financing. The collaboration is expected to create conducive conditions in tracking, preventing, and eliminating money laundering within the two countries.

The National Bank of Cambodia is set to issue a local incorporation licence to Maybank. The move is part of Maybank’s ongoing expansion plans into the country.

Vietnam’s ACB have recently raised their chartered capital by about $143 million. Vietnam’s banks are increasingly raising chartered capital in order to prevent hostile takeovers. Sacombank, Techcombank, Eximbank and Maritime Bank have also revealed plans to follow suit within the coming months.

South Asia

HSBC has appointed Stuart Milne as chief executive officer for its India business. Milne was the country manager of Japan for five years, prior to this appointment.

Reserve Bank of India, the country’s central bank, has tightened reporting requirements by which banks have to inform the central bank on the quantity of gold imported along with their adopted mode of payment.

State Bank of Pakistan, the country’s central bank has requested banks and development financial institutions in the nation to surrender all unclaimed deposits not operated upon within the last ten years to the central bank.

Pakistan’s Bank Alfalah has launched the opening of a new branch in F11 Islamabad, adding to its existing 406 branches. The opening is in line with the bank’s expansion plan for 2012.

Australia/New Zealand

Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, the country’s financial regulator, will be allowing the nation’s banks flexibility in meeting global capital regulations, via greater loss absorbency on additional capital.

National Australia Bank is in the midst of discussions to establish a local Islamic bond market in the country. The bank’s first sukuk issuance is expected to be issued in the near future.

New Zealand’s ASB Bank has recently completed an information technology upgrade of a new settlement system, built in order to comply with the country’s central bank regulations to reduce knock-on effects from banks that get into financial difficulties.

China

China’s Minsheng Bank, the nation’s first non-state lender, is offering 1.65 billion shares up for a Hong Kong share sale to ease its capital shortage. This move aims to shore up capital amid tighter capital requirements.

Bank of Dalian is expected to list its shares on the domestic market this year or the next, depending on economic and stock market conditions.  This move aims to boost the bank’s capital base.

Zhou Xiaochuan, head of the People’s Bank of China, said that the country may loosen overseas investment rules for private investors. The comment was made soon after the government gave the thumbs-up for pilot financial reforms in eastern China.

Hong Kong

The Hong Kong government has forged a Closer Economic Partnership Agreement with New Zealand. The agreement aims to promote business relations between traders, while enduring the spread of trade liberalisation to neighbouring markets.

Hong Kong’s private banking industry has engaged the government in discussions to remove specific red tape and compliance requirements drawn up as a result of the financial crisis. The discussion involved both local and international private banks.

Indonesia

Bank OCBC NISP will be offering 1.51 billion rights shares to raise $163.5 million in order to strengthen its capitalization and extension of loans. The offering will be launched during the coming months.

Bangkok Bank has opened its 26th branch in Surabaya, Indonesia, and is the bank’s second branch in Indonesia. The move is expected to facilitate growth of the bank’s foreign business, and is set to provide a large range of financial services to Thai and foreign clients.

Japan

Kazuya Jono, a former executive at Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group has been hired by Citigroup to head its banking operations in Japan. Citigroup is seeking to bolster the Japanese unit’s local governance and management after the FSA punished it for at least the third time in seven years in December following regulatory breaches.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group is considering spending “several billion” dollars to buy a U.S. regional bank, searching for targets mainly on the west coast to expand its commercial banking operations.

The Tokyo District Court has ordered Japan IBM to pay 7.4 billion yen ($89.3 million) in compensation to Suruga Bank over a cancelled computer system order after the bank sued them for damages in 2008, saying the IT consulting giant had failed to build a computer system using the specified software.

Korea, South

State-owned Korea Development Bank is close to acquiring HSBC Holdings retail banking business in South Korea. KDB Financial Group Chairman Kang Man-soo has said that an agreement with HSBC is likely to be signed soon.

Woori Asset Management, a unit of South Korea’s biggest financial services group, favours debt issued by Korean state-run companies over sovereign and riskier corporate notes on signs the global economy is recovering.

Malaysia

Royal Bank of Scotland has agreed to sell most of its Asia Pacific region cash equities and investment banking businesses to CIMB Group to cut costs CIMB will pay 88.4 million pounds ($142 million) to RBS for the operations and inject further funds into the business.

Bank Muamalat will be spending RM10 million ($3.3 million) on branch relocation and upgrading for 6six to eight of its branches this year in an effort to target more strategic locations for better customer experience and ease of transaction.

Malaysia has been estimated to account for 60% of the total global Sukuk issuance for both government and corporate, the total estimate being $44 billion. Last year, the global Sukuk issuance totalled $26.5 billion.

The Philippines

The Rizal Commercial and Banking Corporation has entered into a business cooperation agreement with Resona Bank of Japan. The agreement gives customers of Resona Bank access to banking services (including loans to their subsidiaries) in the Philippines.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said it has accredited four rural banks – Rural Bank of Kiamba Sarangani), Rural Bank of Barili (Cebu), Producers Savers Bank Corporation in Pasig City and Rural Bank of Sta. Catalina - as rural financial institutions (RFIs) under the amended Agri-Agra Law or Republic Act 10000.

Singapore

ANZ Bank has signed a memorandum of understanding with Singapore's Economic Development Board (EDB) to help attract overseas companies to invest in Singapore. ANZ is the first Australian bank to work with EDB under its partner "multipliers" scheme.

Banking giant HSBC has axed 100 staff from its Singapore workforce, representing 3% of it’s total in the country. The cuts were made across various departments, including private banking, marketing and risk, involving mainly executive positions.

ABN AMRO has appointed Daniel Teo as its country chief operating officer for Singapore and chief operating officer of private banking in Asia. Teo was previously regional chief operating officer and managing director at Bank of Singapore.

POSB is injecting new life into its banking services to raise productivity, profitability, and service quality for its 3.9 million customers, expecting to see productivity improve by more than 10% over the next 12 months.

Taiwan

Private equity firm Longreach has hired Morgan Stanley to explore the sale of its majority stake in EnTie Commercial Bank. Longreach bought nearly 51% of EnTie in 2007 for NT$18.8 billion ($637 million) amid a rush of private equity deals in Taiwan's banking industry.
 
Fubon Financial will pursue mutual investment links with Chinese banks as a major part of its growth strategy, adding its weight to a push by the island's financial firms to boost ties with China and break out of a slow, crowded home market.

Hua Nan Commercial Bank, a banking unit of Hua Nan Financial Holdings will start to offer renminbi-denominated services at its Shenzhen branch in late April or early May following approval from the CRBC.

Thailand

Krungthai Bank has signed a memorandum of understanding MOU with the Tourism Authority of Thailand to issue the Miracle Thailand Card, a special debit card for foreign visitors to Thailand. The card reduces the need for travelers to carry cash during their holiday in the Kingdom.

Malaysian lender Maybank’s chief has said that the bank is "not specifically" looking at acquiring ING’s $775 million stake in Thailand’s TMB Bankbut is still open to various opportunities in Thailand.

Siam Commercial Bank does not need to bolster its current capital reserves in order to fulfil the Basel III requirements, according to president Kannikar Chalitaporn. The bank official stated that SCB's tier one capital is more than enough to satisfy the requirements established by the Basel Committee.