Regional/ International

Matthew Koder has been named as head of Bank of America’s Asian unit. Koder will take over from Brian Brille, who will become the bank’s chairman for the region.

Deutsche Bank is planning to name two co-heads to its investment bank. Colin Fan will be responsible for the sales and trading, while Rob Rankin will head its advisory and origination business.

Lehman Brothers is out of bankruptcy and will operate as a liquidating company. Lehman will continue to operate and will make periodic distributions in the future as it disposes its remaining estimated $30 billion worth of assets.

Middle East

The National Bank of Abu Dhabi has signed an agreement with UAE Exchange which allows the bank's cardholders to make their card payments at any of the exchange's branches.

Sheikh Salem Abdulaziz Al Sabah, Kuwait’s central bank governor, has resigned after a 25-year term in protest against government overspending.

Doha Bank’s $500 million bond issue was oversubscribed by nearly eight times. The bond, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, will be used to support the bank expansion plans.

South Asia

The Central Bank of India will be setting up representative office in Nairobi.

CIMB Group and John Keels Stock Brokers have entered into a partnership to promote and facilitate trading on Sri Lanka’s Colombo Stock Exchange and provide co-branded research for CIMB’s customers.

Bangladesh Bank has proposed an overhaul of the country’s current banking rules, including changes to the definition of default loan and lenders' involvement in the capital market, to enhance transparency in the sector.
 

Australia/New Zealand

National Australia Bank will likely sell its UK bank assets after separating off its troubled commercial real-estate business at the end of an ongoing review of its UK operations. The result of the review is due in May.

Reserve Bank of New Zealand deputy governor Grant Spencer will likely be named as the next governor of the central bank, replacing outgoing governor Alan Bollard.

China

China Everbright Bank is planning a Hong Kong IPO.  The bank has already received initial approval from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Bank of Beijing may partner with Spain's Banco Santander, to develop its consumer financing business. Santander's consumer financing unit plans to buy a 20% stake worth $48.51 million in Bank of Beijing's consumer financing subsidiary.

Standard Chartered, UBS and Citic Capital are in discussions to invest in China’s Cinda Asset Management, a company created to clean up debt in China’s banking system. This would help Cinda file for a stock market listing.   

Hong Kong

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing will be boosting its stress testing system, improve margining and introduce a guarantee fund as a backup against massive defaults.

Hang Seng has opened a new branch in Xiamen, a coastal city in east China. The Xiamen branch is Hang Seng China's second branch in the Western Taiwan Strait Economic Zone, following its branch in Fuzhou.
 

Indonesia

Former Citigroup banker Inong Malinda Dee has been convicted of fraud, having been found guilty of stealing $4.4 million from customers. She has been sentences to eight years in prison, and has to pay a fine of $1.1 million.

Bank Jatim, a provincial bank, is planning to raise up to $219.54 million in an initial public offering in June.
 

Japan

Japan's government is keeping up the pressure on the central bank to continue supporting an economic recovery just days ahead of a regular policy review that follows last month's surprise monetary easing.

State-run Development Bank of Japan is likely to provide the bulk of a new 1 trillion yen ($12.4 billion) in loans to TEPCO, with Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Mizuho Corporate Bank and major trust banks and life insurance companies also participating.

Korea, South

Hana Financial Group, which has already taken control of Korea Exchange Bank, said it planned to purchase up to 200 billion won ($178.13 million) worth of additional KEB shares from the market.

KB Kookmin Card, which competes with Shinhan Card for supremacy in the domestic credit card sector, has set its sights on global markets, confirming its talks with a potential Chinese partner over launching a new credit card brand in the world’s most populous nation.

Investors claiming to have lost money as a result of the Deutsche Bank’s stock manipulations have filed a lawsuit against the bank and Korea Investment and Securities, claiming that Deutsche Bank sold KB Financial Group shares in order to avoid paying those who invested in products that were linked to KB Financial Group’s stock price.

Malaysia

CIMB Group is close to acquiring some of Royal Bank of Scotland’s equity and corporate finance businesses in the Asia Pacific region, already having signed a memorandum of understanding with RBS.

ANZ has announced that its presence in Malaysia has been expanded with the opening of its first branch office in the Labuan International Business and Financial Centre. The financial institution can now offer a broad spectrum of non-ringgit denominated products and services to its Malaysian corporate and institutional customers.

Maybank has launched its first regional Maybank Diamanté private client programme, which aims to provide high net-worth individuals across Asean with a seamless banking experience and a suite of personalised services.

The Philippines

Philippine president Benigno Aquino has warned the parliament to outlaw terrorist financing and toughen an anti-money laundering law by May or risk getting the country blacklisted.

The Land Bank of the Philippines (Land Bank) and Clark International Airport Corporation (CIAC) recently sealed an agreement for a 1 billion peso ($23.5 million) loan to finance the Phase 2 expansion of the terminal at the Clark International Airport in Pampanga.

Singapore

Credit Suisse has appointed Timothy Ross as a managing director and head of Asia Pacific transport research, to be based in Signapore. Ross's appointment substantially enhances Credit Suisse's research offering for this important sector in the Asia Pacific region.

Citibank Singapore is revamping its Citibank Clear Platinum Card to ride on the popularity of social networking and to cater to consumers' increasingly online lifestyle.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore has issued a consultation paper on its proposals to expand the scope of the Securities and Futures Act to regulate OTC derivatives, to meet the objectives set by the G20 committee and recommendations made by the FSB.

Taiwan

ANZ has confirmed that it would close four branches in Taiwan by the end of June and relocate the staff to other branches. The streamlining plan came after ANZ announced last month it would shed 1,000 jobs in Australia to adapt to an increasingly difficult environment for banks.

Private equity funds SAC Capital and GE Capital are in no hurry to sell their stakes in Taiwan's Cosmos Bank and would be looking for a price of at least $1.15 billion before considering any deal, according to Cosmos' chairman.

Mega ICBC, the sixth largest lender in Taiwan in terms of deposits, has said it is ready to merge should the government call for greater consolidation in the industry due to overcrowding in the banking sector.

Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission will host a cross-strait meeting with Beijing-based China Banking Regulatory Commission in the first half of the year. The industry has been calling on the FSC to permit greater investment by mainland Chinese-funded banks in Taiwan financial institutions by raising the limit on shareholding from 5% to 20%.

Thailand

Oranuch Apisaksirikul, chief executive of the Tisco Financial Group, said the capital adequacy ratio of local banks in Thailand is 14-15%, far higher than the Bank of Thailand's minimum requirement of 8.5%.

The Bank of Thailand is worried that the Government Savings Bank is lending too aggressively and its workforce and information-technology system may not be able to keep up, but the Finance Ministry wants all state-run banks to speed up lending to support the government's populist policies.

Vietnam

Land Bank of Taiwan has recently applied to Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission, the country’s financial regulator, to close its representative office in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Vietnam’s BIDV Bank is planning to be listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange in June this year.