In Focus

Concerns of rising exposure are indeed valid as HK banking assets' exposure was only 24% at end-June 2011 and 10% at end-2008.

Blame it on JP Morgan’s recent disclosure of its $1.3b new expenses related to faulty mortgages and foreclosures.

More than 80 businessmen mysteriously disappeared or committed suicide to avoid repaying debts to informal lenders.

Eight local lenders asked the court to stop the government from imposing a 20% tax on interest income from Php35b worth of bonds.

After being only number 7 last year, Goldman Sachs now has the top spot as it was hired for $54.1b worth of acquisitions this year.

The Lion City expects its economy to probably expand at a slower pace in the next few years, according to a Bloomberg report.

The Basel group plans to put uniform implementation of the Basel III reforms at the top of its agenda, according to a Reuters report.

The bank will report a gain on the sale of treasury-related investments of approximately CHF 0.7 billion in Wealth Management & Swiss Bank.

The banks were somewhat reliant on strong loan growth but though loans for domestic use have grown, almost 25% of the total loan book is now for use outside of Hong Kong.

Total assets also increased by 19.9% to a whopping RMB 95.3 trillion as of end-2010.

The cheapest Chinese bank stocks may plunge further as the credit boom is showing signs of turning into a bust.

Sources suspected that a large chunk of the $65.75bn deposits have flowed to the high-yielding private lending markets.

Oswald Greubel may be forced to shrink the investment bank after the $2.3b loss from fraudulent trading last week, according to Bloomberg’s report.

DBS expects RBI to raise policy rates to 8.5% by December 2011.

This means that a slowdown and liquidity squeeze there could impact the banks’ asset quality in China.

But banks in the top 100 brands have lost $25.9b from their total brand value since January 2011.