Regional/ International

HSBC Holdings is under investigation by a U.S. Senate panel in a money-laundering inquiry, reportedly concerning a number of alleged breakdowns in HSBC's anti-money laundering systems.

Middle East

Saudi Arabia’s Capital Market Authority has signed an agreement with the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency to jointly coordinate supervision of the country’s financial sector in order to improve its stability. Both regulators will coordinate in the supervision of corporate governance, risk management measures, initial public offerings, sukuk issuance and merger and acquisition regulations as well as the exchange of information.

The central bank of the United Arab Emirates has fended off an attack from hackers trying to bring down its website. Israeli hackers were apparently behind the attack, in revenge for a wave of credit card code thefts in Saudi Arabia by a hacker who claimed to be operating out of Saudi Arabia.

Oman’s Ahlibank is planning to launch Islamic banking services in the sultanate. The bank’s Islamic banking operations will be segregated from its conventional banking counterpart. The bank’s plans will be subject to approval from Central Bank of Oman.

Kuwait’s Capital Markets Authority has signed an agreement with HSBC Bank Middle East under which the bank will start all operations leading to the privatization of the Kuwait Stock Exchange and establishment of a new company that will own and operate the stock market.

Indochina

Privately-owned Myanmar banks, Cooperative Bank, Kanbawza Bank, Asian Green Development Bank and Ayeyawaddy Bank will launch money exchange services in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand from February 2012.

State Bank of Vietnam expects five to eight banks to be involved in mergers and acquisitions aimed at stabilizing and consolidating the country’s banking industry.
 

South Asia

Citigroup India will be laying off at least 100 people. The move is part of the bank’s planned layoff of 4,500 employees or 2 percent of its workforce globally.

Reserve Bank of India, the country’s central bank, has allowed banks to make changes in the end-use of money raised through external commercial borrowings, without first forwarding the request through the regulator.

Oman International Bank has confirmed the appointment of Altaf Lakhani as country manager for the bank’s Pakistan operations.

Bangladesh Bank, the country’ central bank, has appointed three new deputy governors, ilcuding the first female in the bank’s history. Nazneen Sultana, Shitangshu Kumar Sur Chowdhury and Abu Hena Mohammad Razee Hassan have been appointed for three-year terms.
 

Australia/New Zealand

National Australia Bank has opened its first Indian branch in Mumbai. The bank will focus on financing companies for trade and investment flows between Australia, New Zealand and India.

Australia's banks will undergo a new stress test conducted by the International Monetary Fund to probe the resilience of the local financial system in the event of a major global slowdown. That test follows a 2010 review by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority which all four banks passed.

Allan Bollard, governor of New Zealand’s Reserve Bank, the country’s central bank, will be resigning from his post in September 2012.

China

China Construction Bank (CCB) and Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) have appointed new heads. CCB has named Wang Hongzhang as chairman, while ABC has selected Jiang Chaoliang as its head.

China Development Bank will sell about $3.2 billion worth of three-year bonds on the interbank market.

China Banking Regulatory Commission has issued a warning to banks to resist approving loans from local governments for new programmes disguised as funding requests for unfinished projects.

Hong Kong

Bank of China has appointed its Hong Kong subsidiary to handle the yuan clearing business of Malaysia.

Indonesia

Bank Indonesia, the country’s central bank, will be buying long-term government bonds in the country’s secondary market in an effort to defend the ailing rupiah and stabilize the country’s debt market.

Miranda Goeltom, Bank Indonesia’s senior deputy governor, has been named as a suspect in a corruption scandal involving the central bank. Goeltom was finally named as a suspect after a four-year investigation and 28 convictions.

Nazir Razak, CEO of CIMB Group Holdings, has been appointed president commsissioner of Indonesia’s CIMB Niaga, and Glenn Muhammad Surya Yusuf as vice-president commissioner. The appointments are effective upon approval from Bank Indonesia.

Japan

Deutsche Bank is eliminating about 30 jobs from its global markets division in Tokyo, the second round of redundancies in less than two months. Germany’s biggest lender told some sales and research staff in equity and fixed-income businesses on January 17th that their positions were being cut.

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group has stated that it will invest in U.S. investment bank Moelis & Co. a day after the Japanese lender disclosed its $7.3 billion purchase of Royal Bank of Scotland Group’s aviation division.

HSBC, is seeking buyers for its Japanese consumer banking unit, starting an auction for HSBC Premier, its division targeting wealthy individuals in Japan, but may end the sale if offers aren't attractive enough.

Korea, South

Citigroup Korea plans to resurrect an earlier project to set up a retail-based securities firm, four years after financial regulators rejected an application from Citibank Korea for a brokerage business for individual customers in 2008.

Financial Services Commission (FSC) Chairman Kim Seok-dong is on the spotlight, as he anticipates important decisions over U.S. buyout fund Lone Star and its intention to sell the Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) to Hana Financial Group.

Malaysia

RHB Capital which has submitted an application for Bank Negara’s approval for a proposed merger with OSK Holdings Bhd, hopes to get the nod by the early second quarter of this year.
Both parties had submitted the application on Jan 11th to the Minister of Finance via Bank Negara.

Bursa Malaysia Securities has publicly reprimanded, issued a fine, and struck off Ng Siew Wai of Affin Investment Bank from the register as a dealer’s representative for engaging in unlawful and/or unethical activities through her acts of misconduct and abuse of clients’ accounts.

The Philippines

East West Banking, a medium-sized Philippine lender, is planning an initial public offering this year that may raise as much as 6.6 billion pesos ($153 million) in what could be the first public float by a local bank in eight years.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas gave Security Bank the green light to buy Premiere Development Bank, a savings and thrift bank.

Conglomerate San Miguel and Malaysian lender CIMB have confirmed that they were negotiating the sale of a stake in the former’s Bank of Commerce. San Miguel is looking to sell a 60% stake in the bank, a deal that will require approval from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

Singapore

OCBC Securities, the stockbroking arm of Singapore's Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation experienced a technical problem with its trading system as a result of a power outage at its hosting facility. Customers were not able to carry out any trading activities through our website and conduct buy transactions through their brokers.

Singapore Exchange has appointed Glenn Seah as senior vice president and head of compliance with effect from 7th February 2012 to drive SGX's compliance with local and international regulations and best practices.

OCBC has appointed Samuel Tsien as CEO to succeed David Conner, who is retiring on April 14th, 2012. In addition, OCBC has promoted Ching Wei Hong, currently the head of global consumer financial services, to the newly created position of COO.

Taiwan

Scores of lenders, led by state-owned Bank of Taiwan have agreed to cut debt repayments due this year by 85% after a closed-door discussion yesterday morning with Chimei Innolux executives, including its vice chairman Tuan Hsing-chien.

Thailand

HSBC has completed the sale of its Thai retail banking business to Bank of Ayudhya. Bank of Ayudhya, Thailand’s fifth-biggest lender by assets, agreed to pay Bt3.6 billion ($112 million) for the business, which includes credit cards, personal loans, mortgages and deposits for both retail and wealth management clients.

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group is attempting to secure a licence in Thailand, with ANZ chief executive Mike Smith meet with Thailand’s Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra recently to discuss whether the government would consider reducing the two-year waiting period.