Commentary

Despite the global economic and regional political uncertainty leading to a cautious approach towards M&As, the financial services sector in Southeast Asia’s (SEA) developing markets has seen buoyant activity. In H1 2013, several big-ticket transactions took place.

On 10 July, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) announced a series of measures aimed at simplifying renminbi (RMB) cross-border transactions.

As the financial market has seen some signs of improvement, there is a new profile of job seeking candidates who are looking to re-enter the financial services workforce.

It is not the world recession or Eurozone meltdown that bankers fear the most but cybercrimes above anything else. In Britain alone, it was reported that four out of five of Britain's biggest banks had identified cyber attack as their biggest threat today.

Over recent years Asian banking markets have grown accustomed to good news, even as the global financial sector struggled to regain peak performance and recover investor sentiment that, even now, often remains dampened by the 2008 crash.

It is no secret that Asia is getting wealthier. According to research from PricewaterhouseCoopers, domestic credit in China could overtake the US by 2023, and India will become the third largest domestic banking sector after China and the US by 2050.

‘Have you seen the big five?’ said the gentleman who drove the van from Gaborone airport to the hotel where I was staying to attend the African Regional Conference organized by SWIFT in Botswana.

In Part Three of a special series of reports regarding conduct risk/consumer protection regulations, we start with an overview of existing Asia Pacific regulations designed to address misleading and deceptive practices.

Over the past one week, markets have been on a roller coaster due to various global & domestic factors. One of the key concerns was ‘Chinese Credit Crunch’. China being the 2nd biggest economy in the world contributing a substantial portion of the global GDP, felt like sharing some insights regarding the same to dispel fear among the investing public.

When talking about infrastructure investment, one thinks of various types of risks starting from political risks, operational risks, over-running cost & time risks, and so-on. These types of risks make the investment unattractive to investors.

Transaction Banking in Asia is dominated by the ‘Big Three’ of Standard Chartered, HSBC and Citigroup - however the emergence of ambitious competition from abroad poses distinct challenges to both large and small banks.

Bank fraud costs financial institutions in Asia a combined total of $1 billion annually – a figure that was quoted as recently as last year. But the costs of fraud go beyond just that of monetary losses. Banks have to also consider the shadow costs – such as the possible damage to their reputations, and loss or decrease of trust between them and their existing customers.

Alan Greenspan, chairman of the US Federal Reserve during 1987-2006, was often heralded as the most celebrated central banker of modern times. The years after 2008 have not necessarily been kind to his professional reputation however. A number of commentators including Paul Krugman and George Cooper (the latter’s work “The origin of financial crises: Central banks, credit bubbles and the efficient market fallacy” is a very worthwhile read for all students of finance) have highlighted the long-term impact of the “Greenspan put” and how the era of cheap money during 2000-2006 was a prime causal factor of the financial crash.

Ethics is more important in any profession. Without ethics an institution cannot run professionally, it can run only in its own way.

Investors recognize that Southeast Asia is one of key markets in the decade. Stable GDP growth, political stability, and rising stock markets drive growth of the middle class and massive spending. Major players of the western countries aim to get their foothold in the region. Some of regional and local private equity (PE) players aim to make exit of their investments. AEC in 2015 onward should create opportunity for companies with good business model to expand regionally for capturing 600 population and over 100 million middle class by 2016. I am an optimistic view that it should be the right timing on getting into the region of key players. There are several alternatives of making the best exit for PE players – going initial public offering (IPO), trade sale, or management buyout. Each one has pros and cons on pursuing it.

Did you know that there are over 2.5 billion people without any bank accounts in the world, and most of them are in Asia? And less than one quarter of the world’s 2.4 billion poor have a bank account. Managing their money using formal financial services – savings accounts, loans, insurance, and remittances -- is a wonderful, terrible, impossible dream for many, many families.