Hong Kong

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority placed the HSBC and the Bank of China at the top of new sets of league tables of market makers for bills and notes, respectively.

Eighty-two ATMs with protruding symbols will be available to the blind in Hong Kong on a pilot basis.

Hong Kong’s Wing Lung Bank said its corporate banking division expects to grow corporate loans 30 percent this year.

The Hong Kong branch of BNP Paribas Securities Services has been granted a banking licence by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Bruno Campenon, Head of BNP Paribas Securities Services, described their new business plan as "the development of a unique custodian bank in the Hong Kong market."

HK Bankers will be scrambling all over smaller towns in China now that they are approved to open an unlimited number of sub-branches in China from October 1.

Louisa Cheang, currently Head of Personal Financial Services Hong Kong, leads the list of HSBC’s senior executive appointments, which are still subject to board and regulatory approvals. She is slated to succeed Mr. Conrado Engel as Regional Director Personal Financial Services, Asia-Pacific effective 1 June 2009.

And they almost got away with it. In yet a stunning development, the Hong Kong Monetary authority has identified 102 cases of banks selling anything to anyone, including elderly and mentally impaired. Great for commissions and fee income, not so good for the customers.

Patrick K W Chan will resign as the Hang Seng Bank's Chief Financial Officer effective 8 July 2009. He will pursue other career prospects outside the financial industry and will not offer himself for re-election at the Bank’s annual general meeting to be held on 6 May 2009. Hence he will cease to be an Executive Director of the Bank.

Hang Seng Bank enhanced its securities services with its new trading centre at its main branch in Hong Kong. Called the Hang Seng Securities Select Customer Trading Centre, it allows selected customers to trade with ease by contacting managers through exclusive trading hotlines or visiting the Centre. The dedicated relationship managers can provide information about local securities, Shenzhen and Shanghai B shares, and selected Singapore securities with ease.

A new mortgage plan that enables property buyers to enjoy first-year monthly installments of as low as US$430 was launched by the Bank of East Asia.

The Bank of East Asia (BEA) has launched a new mortgage plan offering a first-year mortgage rate of P3.28 percent (prime rate) for Emerald Green property owners.

BEA’s new China UnionPay debit card will enable customers to access ATM services at all JETCO ATMs in Hong Kong, Macau, and Mainland China.

HSBC will maintain its Hong Kong benchmark lending rate at 5 percent per annum last changed on 10 November 2008.

Bank of East Asia head honcho and chairman of the Chinese Banking Association, David Li, has been forced into eating a cold serving of humble pie after his seemingly untouchable bank suffered its first loss in 40 years. “BEA hasn’t posted a loss since at least the 1960’s,” said the bank’s spokesperson, Vera Lung. So why did it take the bank four decades to post a loss? The bank made a loss after writing down the value of credit-market investments, according to Bloomberg. For the six months ending 31st December BEA was hit with a USD110 million deficit just months after the bank’s shares fell 61 percent, according to Bloomberg. The bank’s results may come as a shock to some but not to Core-Pacific Yamaichi analyst, Lee Yuk-kei who wasn’t at all surprised by BEA’s poor performances due to the bank’s questionable handling of its expenses. “BEA has never been good at controlling expenses,” said Lee. So what can Li do to remedy the ills of his ailing bank? Rumours are aflutter that Li, a current member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council, is planning to cut costs by forcing his workers to take one day of unpaid leave per month, according to Bloomberg. So will Li’s plans help to restore BEA to its former glory? Times are grim and Li knows it. “The effects will be felt by the bank well into 2009,” said Li. And there’s no love for next year’s results either it seems with Morgan Stanley analyst Anil Agarwal expecting BEA “to have almost zero profits in 2009.”

Desperate times call for desperate measures and times couldn’t be more desperate than they are now in the Chinese banking sector with economic growth grinding to a halt and domestic loan growth draining bank capital at an alarming rate, according to Bloomberg. China Construction Bank for example plans to sell USD5.9 billion in subordinated bonds. So why is CCB flogging such a big chunk of its bonds? The bank’s president, Zhang Jianguo is selling the bonds in order to stock up on capital and strengthen CCB’s risk-management capabilities. A CCB spokesperson said that the banking giant “would sell USD2.1 billion of 10-year bonds and USD2.1 billion of 15 year bonds on China’s interbank market.” But isn’t the bank jumping the gun? Not so according to the Chinese government which is urging the country’s lenders to bolster their capital adequacy ratios to 12 percent in 2009 thus guarding against credit risks as the global recession goes into overdrive, according to Bloomberg. Minzu Securities analyst, Zhang Jing said that “Chinese banks need to replenish capital after a spell of record-breaking loan growth in recent months.” However CCB isn’t the only bank selling bonds with the Bank of Communications set to sell USD11.7 billion in bonds over the next three years and ICBC looking to sell USD14.6 billion in bonds, according to Bloomberg. So how will CCB, the Bank of Communications and ICBC benefit from the capital injection? The country’s banks which require USD146 billion funding surplus according to UBS, are selling bonds to benefit from the lower interest rates in preparation for the “rainy days to come as the surge in lending is bound to drain their capacity quickly,” said BOC analyst Yuan Lin. So who will purchase the bonds you might ask? Members of the interbank market which includes institutional investors and banks such as HSBC and StanChart seem to be the only ones that can buy at the moment. Banks just so happen to use subordinated debt on the interbank market to bolster Tier 1 and upper and lower Tier 2 capital, according to Bloomberg. So can the central bank lift China’s banking sector out of the doldrums? The central bank seems to be pulling out all stops to save its precious banks and it shows in the amount of times it has slashed its lending rate. The benchmark lending rate was slashed by the central bank up to five times by a total of 2.16 percent since September 2008, according to Bloomberg. It seems only time will tell if the capital raising and lower lending rates is enough to save China’s banks.