Regional/ International

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today selected Christine Lagarde to serve as IMF managing director and madame chairman of the executive board for a five-year term starting on July 5, 2011. Lagarde, who succeeds Dominique Strauss-Kahn, is the first woman named to the top IMF post.

JP Morgan has launched a full prime brokerage offering for clients in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and now has the local infrastructure in place to serve international and regional clients across the entire spectrum of both cash and synthetic products for the first time.

Middle East

United Arab Bank has launched a business loan initiative to support the development of agriculture in the UAE and Abu Dhabi Emirate in particular, with competitive rates over a renewable period of three years.

National Bank of Umm al Qaiwain, the emirate's government-owned lender, has succeeded in delaying its payment to Kuwait's Global Investment House after it lost a multimillion dollar court case.

Union National Bank organized a workshop for its SME clients in partnership with Potential.com, a UAE-based business development company.

Indochina

Mekong Housing Bank, one of Vietnam's five remaining wholly state-owned lenders, has received approval from the State Bank of Vietnam to carry out an IPO with the minimum starting price of $0.54 per share.

Taiwan Cooperative Bank is planning to set up a branch in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh as part of its efforts to expand its presence in Asia, and will be using the branch as a springboard for the bank to penetrate the country's financial market.

South Asia

Ace Derivatives and Commodity Exchange, a Kotak Group anchored commodity exchange in India, has successfully completed integration of the Bloomberg Global Identifier (BBGID) now supporting Bloomberg’s Open Symbology (BSYM), and is the first exchange to adopt the BBGID in Asia.

Singapore-based DBS Group has decided to launch project financing business in India and is likely to start the new initiative with a few projects in the power sector.

Australia/New Zealand

From Friday 1 July, financial advisers will be regulated under new rules administered by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA). All advisers must be registered on the Financial Service Providers Register and if they advise retail clients they must belong to a dispute resolution scheme. Those who advise on investments must also be licensed by FMA and meet minimum qualifications and professional standards.

Chi-X Australia has finalised arrangements for trades executed on its market to be cleared and settled, and has lodged an application to receive the ASX’s trade acceptance service.

China

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has made two senior hires to strengthen its China investment banking franchise.  Qing Zhu joins RBS as managing director, head of China energy and resources, and Wei Wang is appointed as managing director, head of China financial institutions group.

Shenzhen Development Bank is planning more fundraising, possibly via private placements, to strengthen its balance sheet in the face of higher capital requirements.

Bank of Chengdu, a Sichuan-based city commercial bank, is planning an IPO on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's A-share market, as it moves to replenish its capital to boost future growth.

National Australia Bank has received approval from the China Banking Regulatory Commission to open its first branch in Shanghai this year.

Hong Kong

HSBC has appointed Michael Paulus as head of public sector within the group’s global banking unit in the Asia Pacific region, where he will lead the integration of the public sector group with the financial institutions group in Asia. Paulus joins from Citibank, where he was head of public sector for Asia.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has issued an alert to the public in Hong Kong regarding fraudulent e-mails purporting to be sent from Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong.

Indonesia

An ATM booth belonging to Bank Negara Indonesia has been firebombed in Bandung, West Java, in an apparent act of political violence. 

Publicly listed private lender Bank Sinarmas, a subsidiary of investment and financing company Sinar Mas Multiartha, is set to increase its capital by $44.4 million this year.

Japan

JCB International has announced the appointment of Takao Kawanishi as chairman and chief executive officer with immediate effect. Kawanishi, who served as vice chairman of JCBI since June 2010, succeeds Tamio Takakura.

Nomura Holdings has the election of fourteen directors to the company’s board of directors (including eight outside directors) and the newly appointed board appointed five executive managing directors.

Shinsei Bank plans to take over a portion of the unsecured personal loan business currently operated by its consolidated subsidiary Shinsei Financial and begin full-scale operations of “Shinsei Bank Card Loan – Lake,” a new unsecured personal card loan service, pending approval of FSA Japan.

Korea, South

Hyundai Swiss Savings Bank may be facing a potential lawsuit from Hyundai Motor Group, Korea’s leading carmaker, and Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world’s No. 1 shipbuilder, over refusal to remove “Hyundai” from its title.

Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC)  has received final bids from five financial firms, including Shinhan Financial Group and Hana Financial Group for the package of three savings banks - Jungang Busan Savings Bank, Busan II Savings Bank and Domin Mutual Savings & Finance.

Malaysia

CIMB Group has announced that negotiations for a potential merger with RHB have been ceased, as the group does not feel the possibility of arriving at a value creating merger.

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Malaysia (SMBC) has joined the Association of Banks in Malaysia (ABM) as its 24th member. SMBC is the 15th locally-incorporated international bank operating in Malaysia under ABM's list of member banks.

The Philippines

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has approved Producers Savings Bank’s acquisition of the Negros Occidental-based New Rural Bank of Victorias. The consolidated bank has also been granted the authority to engage in trust, fiduciary and quasi-banking business.

Rizal Commercial Banking, and its thrift bank arm RCBC Savings Bank, plan to expand their presence in the country by adding more branches and ATMs.

Singapore

Singapore Exchange's securities market will trade continuously all day from 1 August. Market hours will therefore overlap more with those of other Asian exchanges, enabling investors trading pan-Asian securities to respond to regional market movements and news flow.

DBS Bank has applied to the Monetary Authority of Singapore to tap the bilateral currency swap agreement established between the central banks of Singapore and China, to provide RMB financing to a Singapore-based company exporting to China. 

Maybank Singapore's has launched a new Islamic savings account, targeting 450,000 Muslims saving for their religious pilgrimage. The Ar Rihla RSA-i is essentially a Syariah-compliant passbook savings account that is based on the Wadiah concept, which guarantees that customers’ savings are free from interests.

Standard Chartered has announced the appointment of Peter Heidinger as global head, financial institutions, based in Singapore.

Taiwan

Taiwan Cooperative Bank has signed a memorandum with China Development Bank to further strengthen cross-border trade and investment.The banks will cooperate in program financing, joint lending, corporation credit, risk management and personnel training.

China UnionPay has reached an agreement with Taiwan-based Financial Information Service (FISC) to expand the acceptance of UnionPay cards in Taiwan. UnionPay cards will be accepted by 3,000 ATMs owned by Chunghwa Post.

Thailand

Krung Thai bank, the Islamic Bank of Thailand and the Government Savings Bank are spearheading a government-backed refinancing programme for personal loans with total credit of $325 million.