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 "If you split the Irish banks into 50 or 100, it wouldn't make the situation any less difficult to deal with."
Douglas Flint, chairman of HSBC, arguing that breaking up large banks will solve no problems.

The following are notes from our Monday morning meeting.

The EU will in 2013 launch a “stabilisation mechanism” that will provide bailout loans in sovereign debt crises like Ireland’s, provided that bondholders take haircuts.

UBS's CFO John Cryan will step down, to be succeeded by Tom Naratil from the group's US wealth management business, where he is the CFO and CRO.

Ethiopia's Awash International Bank has suspended Leikun Berhanu, its president since it was founded in 1994, as the central bank investigates his role in the alleged mismanagement of L/Cs.

The Libyan government raised its stake in Bahrain’s Arab Banking Corporation to 60% after buying a 17.7% stake from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

In Korea’s privatisation of Woori Financial Group, Jeonbuk Bank wants to buy its subsidiary Kwangju Bank, Busan Bank wants to buy its Kyongnam Bank unit, and Daegu Bank wants to buy both.

Bank of China president Xiao Gang is calling for the renminbi to be made fully convertible to aid its internationalisation.

Taiwan’s central bank is setting up with local banks a dollar clearing system, authorizing Mega International Commercial Bank to conduct business from this month.

Sacombank will become the first bank in Vietnam to issue China UnionPay cards; it will also start accepting the cards at its ATMs and POS terminals, which other banks are already doing.

Kasikornbank has teamed up with 15 Japanese banks to provide financial solutions and consultancy to Japanese firms in Thailand.

Documentary producer Tom Heinemann has accused Muhammad Yunus, founder of Bangladesh's Grameen Bank, of diverting $100m in grants intended for microfinance to an insurer in 1996.

An Australian SME federation is preparing a class action suit against NAB over potential revenue lost when Christmas shoppers lost access to funds during the bank’s payment system outage.