Keywords: James Bullard, Federal Reserve Bank Of St. Louis, Bank Of Japan, Bank Indonesia, RBI

"A more prudent approach would be to wait for tangible signs that the economy was strengthening."
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis president James Bullard, disagreeing with the timing on the US Fed’s plan to start tapering quantitative easing.

The following are notes from our Monday morning meeting.

US banks reported $1.53t in commercial and industrial loans in Q1 2013, a 12% YoY increase, with cheaper credit offered to make up for a decline in home loans.

According to a British Retail Consortium survey, total cash transactions in the UK fell 3.1% YoY to $80.4b in 2012, as debit card usage increased.

Ghana’s rural and community banks reported a pre-tax profit of $31m in 2012, up 71.5% YoY due to an increase in commission and fee-based income.

Egypt’s card industry recorded 15.4m CIF in 2012, with prepaid card volume increasing 38% to 1.3m from 2008-2012 due to the country’s large unbanked population.

Asian Banker Research found bank deposit growth in Taiwan weakened to 3.2% in 2012 at $864b, a gradual 8.7% decline from 2008. Click here for more.

According to Bank of Japan, outstanding bank loans grew 2.1% to $4t as of April 2013, the highest gain since 2009, as corporate credit as well as mergers and real-estate transactions rose.

Remittances to Cambodia totalled $256m in 2012, up 70% from 2010 as more Cambodians left the country for overseas job opportunities and higher wages.

Bank Indonesia found state-owned banks’ MSME lending amounted to $24.5b in 2012, a 9% YoY increase, as they remained dominant in the industry, accounting for 44% of total market share.

Reserve Bank of India saw 8,322 cases of card and Internet banking-related fraud reported in 2012, an 80% reduction from 2010, but the amount involved rose 30% to $9.3m.

Asian Banker Research found Australian banks’ total CAR rose 1.2% from FY2008-2012, whilst Tier 1 CAR increased 3.2% during the same period. Click here for more.