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“I find it strange that they are advocating in some forums for an open, transparent, merit-based candidate and they have made up their minds before the candidates are on the table.”  
Agustin Carstens, Mexico central bank governor and candidate to head the IMF, on European support of Christine Lagarde for the role.

Indications that two more of JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s top allies will depart—commercial head Todd Maclin and international boss Heidi Miller—raise questions about who will succeed him.

Barclays may be looking at buying banks in Spain, following a series of high profile hires there and CEO Bob Diamond’s meeting with Spanish PM Jose Zapatero.

The Ethiopia Automated Transfer System for intra-bank and corporate-bank financial transactions or money transactions involving the federal government was launched.

The UAE's central bank is requiring banks to comply with new qualitative, quantitative and reporting requirements on liquidity management by September.

Korea’s FSS chastised HSBC and Crédit Agricole for outsourcing local derivatives trading activities to their Hong Kong branches, and has vowed increased scrutiny of foreign banks.

China Everbright Bank wants to raise $6b-$7b in a July IPO in Hong Kong.

Vietnam’s VietinBank will sell a 15% stake worth $174m to Canada’s Scotiabank in H2 2011; the IFC bought a 10% stake last October for $186m.

Malaysia’s CIMB and Maybank are both preparing bids on RHB Capital in what could be a $10b deal.

State Bank of India is will launch operations in Saudi Arabia within six weeks, says MD of international operations Hemant Contractor, starting with a branch in Jeddah.
 
John MacFarlane, the former CEO of Australia’s ANZ Group, is expected to be named chairman of Aviva this week.