Regional

Germany has reactivated its financial sector rescue fund worth $474 billion. The fund, which was first established at the height of the 2008 financial crisis, has been reopened in light of German banks requiring new capital to comply with regulations. 

Mark Machin, Goldman Sachs Group’s vice chairman for the Asia Pacific region excluding Japan, Mark Machin, is retiring after 20 years. He will be joining an asset-management firm.

Indochina

Shareholders of Vietnam’s Ficombank, Tin Nghia Bank and Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank have agreed to name their joint merger bank as Saigon Commercial Bank’ with a capital of $507.8 million. During the merger process, all shares of the three banks will be converted into the new bank’s stocks with their values remaining unchanged.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has officially opened its branch in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This is the second Chinese bank operating in Cambodia after Bank of China launched its operations earlier in the year.

Middle East

State Bank of India has opened a branch in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The bank is the first Indian bank to launch operations in the kingdom.

Standard Chartered has appointed V.Shankar as CEO for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Americas. He will be based in Dubai.

Qatar’s Barwa Bank has partnered with Allianz Takaful to offer a Shariah-compliant unit linked takaful products to customers. The new product range includes children education, retirement, life takaful and lump sum investment plans.

South Asia

State Bank of Pakistan, the country’s central bank, has granted a license to Silkbank to start Islamic banking operations in the country.

The Reserve Bank of India, the country’s central bank, has capped commercial banks' investments in non financial companies at 10% to ensure they do not engage in activities barred by the country’s Banking Regulation Act.

The Appellate Division of Bangladesh’s Supreme Court has upheld a High Court judgment that affirmed Bangladesh Bank's action terminating four directors of Social Islami Bank Limited on charges of concealing information about their connection with defaulter Homeland Footwear.

Australia/New Zealand

Standard and Poor’s has revised its ratings for Australia’s big four and its New Zealand subsidiaries, with ANZ, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Bank of Australia and Westpac being downgraded to AA-minus from AA.

Westpac will likely reduce its number of branches, as the bank has an inflated number of branches due to its acquisition of St George Bank in 2008. This comes as the bank’s agreement with the government not to close any branches expired on December 1st 2011.

China

China Securities Regulatory Commission may introduce a rule that only allows banks with at least $15.7 billion in assets to be listed on the stock market. This is to prevent all regional banks from offering IPOs, as too many bank IPOs may further dampen investor confidence in an already slow market.

The People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, plans to create a new vehicle to manage investment funds worth $300 billion to improve returns on the country’s stockpile of foreign exchange reserves, currently the largest in the world.

The country’s central bank may appoint a yuan-clearing bank in Singapore, which will make it the second place after Hong Kong outside of the mainland to have one. Bank of China Hong Kong has been Hong Kong’s sole yuan-clearing bank since December 2003.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the country’s financial regulator, has granted a restricted banking licence to Bank Morgan Stanley. This will allow the bank to engage in  merchant banking and capital market activities in the city.

Hong Kong’s Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data has accused CITIC Bank and Hang Seng Bank of violating the country’s privacy regulations. The violations involve the bank’s storage and transfer of customer data to third parties. 

ABN Amro Group, the nationalized Dutch lender, has reopened a commercial banking unit in Hong Kong. The unit, which is staffed by two bankers, provides payment services, loans and trade and treasury services to Dutch clients with operations in Hong Kong.

Indonesia

Bank Indonesia, the country’s central bank, has conducted stress tests on its domestic banks against possible Eurozone downgrades and has found the banks’ exposure to such situations to be minimal.

International Finance Corporation, The a subsidiary of the World Bank, and Bank Sinar Harapan Bali, a subsidiary of Bank Mandiri, have asked the country’s central bank to approve a branchless banking pilot project that will conducted by both institutions.

Japan

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings will buy a 40% stake in an investment fund run by U.K.-based NewSmith Capital Partners hoping that the tie-up will help it gain a foothold in the global asset management business, while it will also help the U.K. asset manager to expand its network outside of Europe.

Japan's Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission urged the country's Financial Services Agency to penalize the Japanese units of Citigroup and UBS for attempting to influence the euro/yen Tokyo Interbank Offered Rate.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group will pay A$425 million ($421 million) for the stake in AMP parent company AMP Capital Holdings, filling the Australian investment manager’s need for a cornerstone investor ahead of a push into the world's second-largest savings market.

Korea, South

Spain-based financial firm Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria has opened a new bank branch in the Korean capital, the first European bank to open a branch in Korea since the outbreak of the financial crisis.

SC First Bank, the Korean unit of the London-based financial group Standard Chartered, will drop the “First” from its name starting next year. The bank’s name was a result of the British firm’s 2005 acquisition of Korea First Bank, established in 1929.

Citi’s agency and trust services will be providing corporate trust services to Korean Airline’s $300 million future flow ticket receivables securitization.

Malaysia

The merger between Malaysian lender RHB Capital's banking group and OSK Investment Bank is expected to be finalised by March 2012.

Singapore’s third largest banking group United Overseas Bank has proposed acquisition of east Malaysia-based Innosabah Securities with an aim to establish a foothold in Malaysia’s stockbroking market.

Bank Negara Malaysia has launched “MobileLINK,” a customer service coach specially-built to support its efforts in promoting financial inclusion by extending outreach to a wider community by extending the services of BNM LINK.

The Philippines

State-owned Development Bank of the Philippines recently extended a P20-million ($452,386) clean revolving credit line to Sta. Cruz Savings and Development Cooperative under its Agricultural Credit Policy.

Senior officials of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas are apprehensive about a proposal to exclude funds set aside to replenish the cash in automated teller machines from the mandatory deposit-reserve requirement.

Two government-owned banks, three privately owned commercial banks and two thrift banks have been given a license to operate a total of 162 branches in so-called restricted areas in the country previously considered overbanked by regulators.

Singapore

OCBC’s chief financial officer Soon Tit Koon has retired after nine years of service. He was brought back as CFO for the Singapore-based bank last year after a two-year hiatus. Darren Tan Siew Peng has been promoted to CFO and executive vice-president.

Citi has opened its new Citi Innovation Lab in Singapore which is comprised of a client experience and client collaboration centre. The Innovation Lab is part of Citi’s Asia-Pacific global transaction services business and caters for its institutional clients in the region.

Taiwan

State-run First Financial Holding will be opening its second capital leasing company in China next month to boost earnings from its operations there to at least 1% of the group’s total pre-tax income next year.

Fubon Financial, Taiwan's second-largest financial holding company, was fined NT$4 million ($132,450) for a lottery scandal in which a former employee rigged lottery games in April and May. The FSC handed down the fine because Fubon Financial failed to supervise the operation of its subsidiary.

Thailand

Small lender Kiatnakin Bank and financial company Phatra Capital are planning to merge to strengthen their banking and broking businesses before liberalisation of the sector in Thailand.