Regional/ International

The Financial Stability Board has named Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney as its new head. He will be assisted by Swiss National Bank Chairman Philipp Hildebrand, the new deputy head.

António Horta-Osório, the CEO of Lloyds Banking Group, is reportedly stepping down from his role due to health reasons. Finance director Tim Tookey will likely be appointed acting CEO.

JP Morgan has won a dismissal of $19 billion lawsuit which was filed by the trustee liquidating Bernard Madoff's former firm, alleging that the bank had aided the fraud.

Middle East

Qatar National Bank has opened its first branch in Juba, South Sudan. The branch will offer a full range of banking services and products, including corporate and retail banking services.

Kuwait Finance House’s Turkish subsidiary has issued a sukuk worth $350 million with a tenor of 5 years.

Bahrain’s Elaf Bank has entered into a joint venture with Ohad Trust to form Ohad Labuan, a new company in Malaysia. Ohad Labuan has been given a trust license by the Labuan Financial Services Authorities, which will enable the company to work on trust, foundations, fund administration, registrar and custody assignments in Malaysia.

Indochina

The State Bank of Vietnam, the country’s central bank, will begin investigating currency trading at certain foreign banks for violations of dong trading band regulations. Currently, banks are allowed to trade the dong up to 1% on either side of a daily reference rate set by the central bank.

Vietnamese commercial banks have been ordered by the State Bank of Vietnam to submit a report on property loans. This comes as a result of concern over the growth of bad loans at many banks.

The National Bank of Cambodia, the country’s central bank, has given Taiwan’s Cathay United Bank permission to set up a branch in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

South Asia

The Indian government will invest about $814 million in the State Bank of India, in a bid to boost the bank’s capital as Moody’s had revised the bank’s financial strength rating due to deteriorating asset quality.

ATM machines in Pakistan have run out of cash over the recent Eidul Adha festival, creating a cash shortage during the holiday period

Sri Lanka’s Hatton National Bank will be selling about $45.4 billion worth of debt within the next six months to boost Tier II capital and increase total capital adequacy.

Australia/New Zealand

The Cooperative Bank, New Zealand’s first cooperative bank, has been established. The bank, which is registered as a cooperative company, will pay dividends styled as rebates to customers. The bank plans to focus on personal lending to individuals and small businesses.

Bank of Melbourne has named Jonathan Ayres as head of BT Financial Group Private Wealth, its wealth management division. He was previously a senior investment specialist with National Australia Bank.

China

China Construction Bank is planning to sell about $4.7 billion worth of subordinated bonds to raise capital.

People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, will likely sign a new contract with Bank of China’s Hong Kong unit that will enable the bank to remain the country’s only yuan-clearing bank.

China Everbright Bank has renewed its application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for a share sale. The bank had earlier cancelled a plan to raise $6 billion in Hong Kong in August.

Hong Kong

Hang Seng Bank’s securities division has partnered with Guangzhou Securities to establish a joint venture in China. The new company will provide Chinese mainland customers with securities investment advisory services.

Bank of China’s Hong Kong is planning to issue about $750 million worth of five-year dollar-denominated bonds. BOC International, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank are dealers for the issuance.

Indonesia

Bank CIMB Niaga has partnered with AIA Financial to launch Fortuna X-tra Plus Syariah, a shariah-based life insurance product.

Japan

Nomura, Japan's largest brokerage, will be considering eliminating jobs at home, although the most expensive cuts will be in Europe, as part of a plan to triple cost cuts to $1.2 billion following its first quarterly loss in more than two years.

Korea, South

South Korean prosecutors indicted more than 100 people including Kim Jong-chang, a former top financial regulator, former top financial regulator, over alleged illegal lending and corruption involving suspended savings banks.

Shinhan Financial has hired five banks for a sale of bonds denominated in U.S. dollars - Bank of America, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank will help Shinhan Investment to manage the sale.

Commercial banks, including Woori Bank, Shinhan Bank, and Kookmin Bank, plan to lower their earning targets for 2012, forecasting that the nation will continue to suffer from the economic slowdown and their revenues will decrease due to their recent decision to slash transaction service charges.

Malaysia

CIMB’s co-sale of Tenaga Nasional Bhd’s $1.6 billion syariah-compliant debt has pushed its total to $4.5 billion, allowing it to overtake Maybank as the lead arranger for Islamic bonds this year.

Hong Leong Islamic Bank has completed Malaysia's first vesting of an Islamic Bank with EONCAP Islamic Bank, following the recent integration between its parent-bank, Hong Leong Bank and EON Bank.

The Philippines

Metrobank, has partnered with Wells Fargo through Uniteller Financial Services, to provide Filipinos a new way in claiming remittances from their families in the US.

The Asian Development Bank will extend $3.8 billion in loans and technical assistance to the Philippines from 2011 to 2016 under its new Country Partnership Strategy.

Singapore

Singapore's central bank has reassured clients of crisis-hit brokerage MF Global Singapore (MFGS) that steps are being taken to safeguard their interests, with provisional liquidator KPMG is verifying customers' funds and assets, with the aim of returning them wherever possible.

The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal from investors of DBS High Notes 5 against an earlier judgement in favour of the bank. Twenty-one investors had filed a suit against DBS bank on behalf of 199 others to recoup the $14 million they lost when U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008.

Taiwan

Taiwan-based Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank has signed a memorandum of understanding with China's Bank of Shanghai and Hong Kong's Shanghai Commercial Bank to strengthen business cooperation.

The Bank of East Asia’s Taiwan offshore banking unit has launched renminbi services for its customers following recent approval from the Financial Supervisory Commission of Taiwan.

Taiwan's financial regulator has reached an agreement with its Chinese counterpart to speed up the review of applications from Bank of China and Bank of Communications to open branches in the country.

Thailand

Commercial banks have withdrawn $648 million of cash from their accounts at Bank of Thailand, in their attempt to address a possible increase in cash demand in light of floods.

As of November 2^nd, 482 bank branches in 8 provinces across Thailand have been closed due to severe flooding in the country. Thailand’s central bank holds the total number of bank branches at 5,823 nationwide and 2,719 in Greater Bangkok.