Australia

Australia's Westpac Bank announced that 126 more jobs would be cut in its efforts to reduce costs.

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd has become the first Australian bank fully licensed to offer a broad array of renminbi-related products and services to customers in China.

Despite a Q1 performance it described as “solid with good results,” ANZ will axe over 1,000 more jobs in anticipation of a worsening of the malaise affecting world banking.

ANZ chief executive Mike Smith  promised to protect future profits by again raising lending rates independently of the Reserve Bank.

One of Australia’s most stable banks is cut by the banking crisis.

A senior offical of Australia's Reserve Bank attributed claims by the big four banks that funding costs are rising to the European crisis.

ANZ Bank warned of more unilateral interest rate increases as funding markets remain fragile and could blow out again.

After ANZ and Westpac's increased interest rates independently of the Reserve Bank, analysts are expecting Commonwealth Bank and NAB to follow suit.

ANZ and Westpac increased interest rates for mortgages and small business by six and ten basis points.

Rajina Rita Subramaniam, a Sydney-based accountant, got a seven year jail sentence for stealing A$45 million from her employer, ING Holdings.

South Korean banks' corporate lending rose sharply in January from the previous month, with a particular growth in lending to big corporations.

Moody’s identified banks in Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Vietnam as among the “most exposed” in the Asia-Pacific region to Europe debt crisis.

Westpac employees are bracing for a second wave of job losses as the bank seeks to curb costs.

Soaring loan costs are about to cost Australia’s “Big Four Banks” dearly.

The ANZ Group is seeking a licence in Thailand as National Australia Bank opens its first branch in India. Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra met ANZ chief Mike Smith on Friday to discuss reducing the two-year waiting period for a licence so that ANZ could set up its wholly-owned subsidiary. ANZ only has a representative office in Thailand. An ANZ spokesman said the bank had been looking to turn its representative office into a full branch so it could better service trade and investment flows between Thailand, Australia and New Zealand and other Asian countries. “It’s not a strategic priority but it’s an important part of having a fully fledged Asian network,” the spokesman said. Meanwhile, NAB is following ANZ and Commonwealth Bank of Australia into India by opening a branch in Mumbai. In an interview with the Rupee Times, Rob Wright, chief of NAB’s Asian unit, said the branch opening followed demand from clients for the bank to do more in India.

Hundreds of employees in danger of facing the axe as the lender trims down cost amid economic slowdown.