Regional/ International

Citigroup will be planning to increase its number of branches in China to eight from its current three, in line with its aim to become a top player amongst China’s foreign wholesale banks.

Wells Fargo is set to undergo further expansion, with plans to increase the size of its wealth management unit and insurance units through acquisitions.

Middle East

Kuwait's Burgan Bank has reached a deal to buy a 70% stake in Turkey's Eurobank Tekfen, a partnership of Greece's EFG Eurobank and Turkey's Tekfen Holding, for about $347 million.

Turkey would welcome a Chinese bank operating in its tightly regulated domestic market, a surprise move as the country has been strict about allowing foreign banks to secure licenses to operate in the country.

Indochina

The State Bank of Vietnam, the country’s central bank, has separated the country’s banks into four groups. Groups one, two and three will be allowed credit growth rates of 17, 15 and 8 per cent, respectively. Bank in group four will not be allocated any credit growth this year.

Japan’s Bank of Tokyo has opened an office in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The office would serve as an information centre for potential customers.

South Asia

Citigroup has ended a seven-year investment in India’s HDFC Bank by selling its stake in the Indian bank for $1.9 billion sale.

National Australia Bank has opened its first Indian branch in Mumbai. The branch will focus on providing financial services to clients looking to invest in the energy, education and agribusiness sectors in Australia.

Syndicate Bank, a government-owned Indian bank, will be obtaining a capital boost worth $110 million by issuing shares on a preferential basis to the Indian government.  

Pakistan’s United Bank has acquired a 67.4% stake in Khushhali Bank.

Australia/New Zealand

The Australian Securities & Investments Commission has increased transparency on its internal enforcement processes by releasing three policy documents which outline decision making processes based on available evidence, regulatory benefit in relation to cost and the extent of loss and harm.

Citi has named Toby Osmond as head of global banking for Australia and New Zealand, which encompasses both investment banking and corporate banking.

China

The BOC Fullerton Bank, China’s first rural joint venture bank, has launched its operations in Ningbo, east China. The bank, which was jointly established by the Bank of China and Fullerton Financial Holdings, will focus on serving small- and medium-sized enterprises.

China Securities Regulatory Commission, the country’s securities regulator, has given approval to China Mingsheng Bank to issue about 1.65 billion new H shares to boost its capital adequacy ratio.

Hong Kong

Investment bank China International Capital is planning to acquire Royal Bank of Scotland Group's Southeast Asia equities-research team which is mostly based in Singapore.

HSBC will likely be able to complete its proposed layoff of 3,000 employees in Hong Kong by the second quarter of this year.  

Indonesia

Bank Islam Malaysia is in early discussions to buy a stake in Bank Muamalat Indonesia. Jakarta-based Bank Muamalat has at least 350 offices in Indonesia and a branch office in Malaysia.  

Bank Negara Indonesia has confirmed that it is in discussions to sell a 25% stake in BNI Life Insurance, its life insurance subsidiary.

Japan

Japan's finance minister has repeated his concerns that the proposed Volcker Rule would undermine financial market activity, and that he shares the views of U.K. finance minister George Osborne in opposing the rule.

HSBC will withdraw from consumer banking in Japan, closing down six branches four years after starting the business. The bank will stop selling new investment products, including mutual funds, from March 8, and it will end operations in its branches in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya by July 31.

State-backed Japan Bank for International Cooperation and other banks will be backing Toshiba’s $1 billion loan to help fund its purchase of Swiss-based meter maker Landis+Gyr.

Korea, South

Hana Financial Group plans to relocate its headquarters as early as 2014 to Incheon city, 40km west of Seoul. The move is part of Hana’s push to raise its profile in the global market, following its acquisition of Korea Exchange Bank.

The National Agricultural Cooperative Federation (Nonghyup), faced another problem with its cyber transaction systems recently. This glitch, the fifth in less than a year, caused a certain proportion of Nonghyup customers could not access its internet banking system for about five hours until 7 a.m. on the day.

Shinhan Financial Group has allowed Shinhan Bank president & CEO Suh Jin-won to take a second term for the next three years. Amid the past internal management woes, Suh was appointed to the post as the bank CEO at the end of 2010 to finish out a former CEO’s term.

Malaysia

Malaysia's oldest Islamic lender Bank Islam Malaysia may assume the listing status of its parent company BIMB Holdings, which owns 51% of Bank Islam.

Bank Negara Malaysia has given operators and vendors of autopay machines more than six months to upgrade their machines to accept the recently introduced new, smaller coins.

The Philippines

Senators have unanimously agreed to task proper committees to investigate the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the Anti-Money Laundering Council over the leaked bank documents of supreme court chief justice Renato Corona.

The Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) has begun paying insurance claims of depositors of a shuttered rural bank in Leyte last week. Claim settlement involving clients of Rural Bank of Calubian (Leyte) Inc. started on Feb. 15 at the bank's premises in Sta. Filomena St., Barangay Espinosa, Calubian, and will continue until Feb. 28.

Singapore

Fraudsters have again hit DBS Bank ATMs, this time stealing $23,000 from 17 customer accounts last Sunday. Security measures involving SMS alerts warned those customers early, when the withdrawals were made, which helped contain the scam.

Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation has successfully priced A$600 million ($638 million) senior unsecured notes in an offering targeted mainly at Australian and Asian institutional and sophisticated investors.

Taiwan

Taiwan's financial regulator is considering varying the limits on stakes Chinese banks can hold in local ones as it faces calls from Taiwan institutions to allow closer ties to boost their chances of access to the huge mainland market.

Carlyle Group has begun the process of selling its over $300 million stake in Ta Chong Bank, and invited investment banks to make pitches to win advisory roles for the process. Carlyle bought the stake in 2007 for $729 million.

Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank officially opened for business at its new Guanyin Branch in Taoyuan County and Danfeng Branch in New Taipei City on the 6th and 15th of February, respectively.

Thailand

Maybank, Malaysia's top retail bank, insists it remains keen to acquire a local bank in Thailand, part of an ambitious goal of expanding its coverage in high-net-worth areas throughout Asia.

A finance official has accused Small and Medium Enterprise Development Bank of Thailand of manipulating its accounts to understate the level of bad loans in its credit portfolio.

Krungsri Consumer, a business unit of Bank of Ayudhya, is seeking more growth opportunities following the acquisition of HSBC's credit card business. The bank hopes to expand its consumer credit operations by 16% this year.