Regional/ International

BNY Mellon has named Alex Johnstone as country executive and head of the company’s representative office in South Africa. He will be based in Johannesburg.

JP Morgan Chase will return about a combined $800 million in cash and securities to the trustee responsible for collecting money owed to customers of Lehman Brother’s broker-dealer business.

Italy’s UniCredit has decided not to sell Pioneer Investments, its  asset management unit, after a failed merger and unsatisfactory bids.

Middle East

Kris Babicci, CEO of Oman’s Bank Dhofar, has resigned. He will be relieved of his duties on April 24th 2011. Mohammad Redha Jawadm the bank’s current GM, will take over as acting CEO.

The Central Bank of Bahrain has awarded AMP Capital Investors, an Australian asset manager, and Pakistan's Allied Bank bank licenses. The central bank is currently reviewing nine more similar applications. 

The Central Bank of Bahrain has adopted the International Bank Account Number (IBAN) to facilitate more efficient electronic payments. Bahrain-based banks will begin to issue IBAN to customers in September 2011, and customers will be able to use IBAN from 31st January, 2012.

Indochina

Vietnam’s Habubank and Lac Hong Investment Joint Stock Company have signed a deal to extend their scope of cooperation to areas such as credit and investment.

Myanmar’s Cooperative Bank is allegedly facing bankruptcy due to an involvement in a business dispute. The chairman of the private bank is having trouble securing credit from other banks to stay afloat.

South Asia

Bangladesh’s Expatriate Bank has commenced operations with a paid up capital of about $13.7 million. The bank aims to provide banking services to Bangladeshi citizens living abroad and provide a secure environment for their remittances.

Government-owned State Bank of India is planning to raise at least $300 million through a syndicated loan. This is the bank’s third overseas fund-raising deal in six months.

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka has proposed the setup of a central authority that would be responsible for monitoring and regulating the microfinance sector. This comes as microfinance institutions have recently suffered large financial losses and poor repayment rates.

Australia

The People’s Bank of China and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand have established a currency swap facility worth $3.8 billion over three years. The currency swap is aimed at enhancing trade and investment between both countries.

Macquarie Group is unsure of renewing its transaction settlement contract with National Australia Bank (NAB) after its customers were affected by NAB’s recent technical glitch.

China

ICBC plans to setup new branches in Brazil, India and Pakistan in an effort to boost draws from its overseas operations.

China Banking Regulatory Commission, the country’s financial regulator, will be investigating all the loans given out by banks over the last few years, and will also tighten the issuance of banking licenses to curb risks.

China’s central bank will be granting approval for a Chinese bank to clean yuan trades for better handling of regional trade that is denominated in yuan. Likely candidates are either Bank of China or ICBC.

Hong Kong

DBS Bank has opened its new DBS Finance and Enterprise Banking Centre in Hong Kong which is aimed at expanding its loan and institutional banking services to individuals and SME customers.

Two Deutsche Bank traders have been arrested in a bribery probe for allegedly being involved in the fraudulent trading of derivative warrants issued.  

Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the country’s financial regulator, is reviewing IPOs issued by five major banks last year, as the Securities and Futures Commission has determined that many IPO sponsors are failing to conduct proper due diligence when issuing IPOs. 

Indonesia

Bank Indonesia, the country’s central bank, will be issuing new credit card regulations that will enforce stricter data requirements for credit card customers involving their income, age and the allowed credit ceiling. The bank hopes this will curb bad debt and encourage banks to tone down aggressive credit card recruitment drives.

The widow of Irzen Octa has filed a $347 million lawsuit against Citibank Indonesia, alleging that he was physically abused to death at the bank due to non-payment of loans.

Japan

Japan Post Bank, the banking unit of Japan Post, encountered failures in about 1,000 ATMs on April 10th 2011. The failures were allegedly due an IT glitch caused by a power outage which resulted from an aftershock.

Citibank has opened the first two of ten planned "smart banking" branches in the Tokyo area to capitalize on using technological innovations to provide customers with customized solutions.

Korea, South

The Financial Services Commission, the country’s financial regulator, is planning to setup a bad bank that will house bad real-estate financing loans in a bid to contain systemic risks as a result of the country’s weak property market.

Financial regulators Financial Supervisory Service and Bank of Korea are investigating National Agricultural Cooperative Federation's (Nonghyup) recent system crash which crippled the bank’s business for a week, leaving customers unable to conduct any form of banking transaction.

Malaysia

Bank Islam Malaysia, which has a 20% stake in Amana Bank, will be providing technical support to the Sri Lankan bank.

Bank Islam will not be acquiring a stake in Indonesia’s Bank Muamalat due to price issues.

RHB Bank is launching an online platform in Singapore to expand its operations in a bid to overcome the limitations of its restricted banking license. Under the restricted licence, RHB is not allowed to operate ATMs, open branches or issue debit cards.

The Philippines 

Development Bank of the Philippines is selling a 49% stake in Amanah Islamic Bank, the country’s lone Islamic bank in an effort to broaden its ownership and facilitate the entry of Islamic banking knowledge into the bank.

Banco de Oro Unibank has gained approval from the Philippines Deposit Insurance Corporation, the country’s deposit insurer, to acquire Export and Industry Bank’s assets and liabilities.

Singapore

Tay Tong Poh, head of investment banking at UOB Bank, has resigned. Tay, a member of the bank’s management committee, had served the bank for 18 years.

Taiwan

The Financial Supervisory Commission, the country’s financial regulator, has asked all local banks to submit their plans to reduce home loans in a bid to reduce the ratio of these loans to below 30%.

Taiwanese authorities have issued an arrest warrant for a Deutsche Bank executive involved in $48 million investment loss dispute. The warrant was issued due to the non-appearance of the bank executive at court hearings.

Thailand 

Thailand’s Deposit Protection Agency will limit protection to about $1.7 million per depositor per financial institution from August 11th 2011. Large banks are expected to benefit the most from this deposit guarantee limit.

Thailand Post will be distributing about $332,940 worth of soft loans via its subsidiary Thailand Post Bank to rural people. The project will commence in May 2011.