Regional/ international

HSBC and StanChart are pushing to have the tough capital rules from Basel III toned down citing unfairness of the rules' treatment of trade finance. StanChart's head of transaction banking, Karen Fawcett, earlier said that the regulations may cause a 2% fall in global trade and a 0.5% drop in global GDP.

China's ICBC will consider acquiring more banks in Southeast Asia, especially in the countries where ICBC doesn’t have a branch such as the Philippines.

Richard Wacker, the former president and chairman of Korea Exchange Bank, will become the CEO of American Savings Bank, the third-largest bank in Hawaii, with assets of $6.7 billion.

Middle East

The Qatar Credit Information Centre (QCIC) which is tasked to track data on consumer and corporate lending will begin operations in the country next month.

Swiss private bank Clariden Leu has announced its expansion in the Middle East with the opening a new office in Abu Dhabi. The bank, which has been represented in Dubai by its asset management company since 2007, aims to provide local private banking clients with access to exclusive asset management services via Zurich and Singapore.

Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) has reportedly announced plans to upgrade its banking system across its 27 branches by the first quarter of 2011. The new systems include a Cash Deposit Machine (CDM) and Cheque Processing Machine (CPM) that are integrated into a single unit, enabling customers to deposit cash and cheques into their account. QIB also plans to expand its local network of branches to 35 and increase the number of ATM outlets to over than 100.

Indochina

Vietnam's central bank has stopped banks selling gold deposited by customers to use the funds for loans or for converting into foreign currencies, on concerns over possible bank losses if the value of gold continues to soar. It also bans banks from lending gold for producing and trading small gold bars, but banks can lend gold only for producing and trading jewelery.

Canada’s Bank of Nova Scotia is reportedly ready to buy a 15% stake in Vietnam Joint-Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade, Vietnam's second biggest lender, in a deal that would be worth about $221 million.

The Cambodian unit of Malaysia’s Public Bank has established a wholly-owned subsidiary, CampuBank Securities after obtaining a securities company licence from the Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia. This enables the unit to carry out securities underwriting business, securities dealing business, securities brokerage business and investment advisory business.

South Asia

State-owned Indian Bank has received permission to open a branch in Jaffna in the north of Sri Lanka.

The Reserve Bank of India has capped housing loans at 80% of the property’s value, against the prevailing practice of up to 90%, and is asking lenders to set aside more money against loans on teaser rates. It also increased the risk weight on such loans.

Axis Bank raised $500 million in bonds, which were mainly subscribed by US and European banks, and pension funds.

Australia/New Zealand

Australia’s prime minister Julia Gillard wants to introduce new rules that will force banks to cut exit fees for customers who want to switch mortgage providers.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia enraged mortgage clients by raising variable rates 45 basis points the same day that the central bank raised rates only 25 basis points. The bank earned record profits in the latest quarter.

The State Bank of India hopes to convert its operations in Australia into a subsidiary so that it can expand its branch network and seek new opportunities there.

China

Commerzbank has been granted a renminbi license that allows its China branch to offer RMB products to both its local and German clients. The bank had earlier integrated its operations with Dresdner Bank and now operates from Shanghai, Tianjin and Beijing.

Bank of Communications has secured approval to pen a branch in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City by next year. The branch has a registered startup capital of $30 million and has a license to operate in the country for a period of 99 years.

The CBRC has said that the country will adopt the new rules of Basel III in a bid to restrict credit overexpansion and push for the restructuring of the country's banking industry.

Hong Kong

Bank of East Asia has received approval from the China Banking Regulatory Commission to establish a branch in the northeast city of Harbin. The branch is expected to open in the first half of 2011.

Royal Bank of Canada has bought Fortis Bank SA's wealth management unit in Hong Kong as it seeks to expand into emerging markets. Due to last year's 26% jump in millionaires in Asia, Canadian banks have been trying to enter the Hong Kong and Chinese markets.

Indonesia

Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) began the auction of collateral by small scale businesses as part of its efforts to solve small businesses' bad loans. BNI was giving a chance to the public to know the auction of its collateral, which were generally properties.

Bank Indonesia is looking at new steps to control a surge of capital that is threatening to destabilise emerging economies around the world, examining proposals such as lengthening the one-month minimum holding period for its treasury bills, and extending the minimum duration of bank term deposits to 12 months from two.

The State Bank of India is reportedly close to buying a second bank in Indonesia, for which it has set $100 million aside.

Japan

Resona Bank will sell as much as $7.4 billion of common stock over the next year, planning to use money from the sale, plus 300 billion yen of reserves, to buy back $11 billion in preferred stock from the government and retire the shares to avoid potential dilution. It had received the government funds in a 2001 bailout.

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group finally joined its megabank rivals Mizuho and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubish UFJ in New York when it listed its ADRs there. It also wants approval in the US to set up a financial holding company so it can strengthen its investment banking operations and acquire banks there.

An employee of Mizuho’s London operation has been arrested on suspicion of insider trading.

Korea, South

South Korean regulators will sanction banks found to have engaged in improper FX derivatives trading, and could alter foreign-exchange regulations following. HSBC and Citibank Korea will be subject to a second round of inspections by the financial authorities related to their FX transactions.

The Financial Supervisory Service is recommending that Shinhan’s former chairman Ra Eung-chan be banned from taking an executive position in a financial institutions for three years after he was found to have violated laws by opening bank accounts in other people’s names.

Over 3,200 Kookmin employees have applied for early retirement as the bank trims its bloated workforce in an extensive rationalisation programme.

Korean Deposit Insurance Corporation, which owns 57% of Woori Financial, is making November 14^th the deadline for bids on at least 4% of the company.

Malaysia

Bank Negara Malaysia announced with immediate effect the implementation of a maximum loan-to-value (LTV) ratio of 70%, which will be applicable to the third house financing facility taken out by a borrower.

Public Bank has established a wholly-owned subsidiary CampuBank Securities in Cambodia. The subsidiary will be able to provide share broking and corporate finance related services for both Malaysian and Cambodian clients.

Bank Negara Malaysia has given two conditional licenses to two as-of-yet unnamed institutions to establish mega Islamic banks in the country. These institutions are required to have $1 billion in paid up capital.

Philippines

Bank of the Philippine Islands, the country's largest bank by market capitalisation, has posted $81.46 million in Q3 profits, a 75% rise yoy and 25% qoq. The bank also posted double-digit rise in both interest and non-interest income and is on track to meet the $223.26 million target by end of year.

Standard & Poor's (S&P) has upgraded the rating of Philippine National Bank (PNB) while Fitch Ratings has affirmed its ratings for the Union Bank of the Philippines (UBP). S&P raised the rating of PNB to B from B- to reflect the continued improvement in the bank's financial profile in recent years as well as its increase in profits and reduced nonperforming assets. Fitch Ratings explained that its ratings for UBP may be upgraded if the bank's asset quality remain manageable and balance-sheet improvements will be made.

Singapore

DBS reported record quarterly earnings of $562 million, ahead of OCBC’s $442 million and UOB’s $531 million. Earnings came on the back of high loan growth—29% for OCBC, 15% for DBS and 8,7% for UOB—although margins have thinned.

A Singapore court has ruled in favour of OCBC Bank in a case brought against it by 94-year-old woman and her adopted daughter after the bank froze her account. The bank was responding to procedural red flags about the account holder’s mental competency when the two women tried to open a joint account.

Sundaresh Menon, the Attorney-General of Singapore, is joining the board of directors of the Monetary Authority of Singapore from November 1^st of this year to December 31^st 2012.

Taiwan

China Merchants Bank has now also received permission to open a branch in Taiwan, while Bank of China became the first to actually open one.  Bank of Communications has also received permission to open one.

State-owned Taiwan Cooperative Bank is offering low-interest loans to households and businesses that suffered damage from the recent typhoon. The Ministry of Finance may also be offering tax credits to victims.

Chinatrust Financial Holdings president Daniel Wu reportedly said that his bank is in talks with Bank of China about launching a credit card joint venture, and hopes to have it ready soon.

Thailand

China’s ICBC has completed its merger of ACL Bank, which it has renamed ICBC (Thai). The bank is hoping to expand its branches to 30 from the current 19 shops.

Kasikornbank temporarily closed its 16 branches three provinces in the south due to heavy flooding, while Krung Thai Bank closed seven.