News

Financial institutions in Singapore may now obtain Singapore dollar liquidity from MAS by pledging Malaysian ringgit or ringgit-denominated sovereign and central bank securities.

The State Bank of Viet Nam eased restrictions on lending to the real-estate and some other non-production sectors. A recent central bank decision requires lenders to ensure credit at reasonable interest rates to secure social welfare and stabilise the economy. It lifts a virtual ban on lending to property and housing projects that the SBV had imposed last March by mandating that commercial banks' outstanding loans to non-production sectors should not exceed 16 per cent of total loans by year-end. But the figure remained stubbornly stuck at above 16 per cent since property developers were unable to repay their loans due to the market slump. The new decision removes the bulk of the property sector from the list of non-production sectors. Banks can again freely lend to developers building apartments for low-income people and workers in industrial, economic and processing zones. Another category they can lend to is housing projects that will be completed before 2012. Besides, individuals can obtain mortgages based on their wages to buy or upgrade houses. Analysts say this is mainly aimed at enabling banks to achieve the 16 per cent ratio.

Only two Chinese banks, Bank of China and China Construction Bank, were upgraded by Standard&Poor's, reports Xinhua News.

It was not a viable plan to carry out mergers among weak commercial banks, according to the deputy chairman of Vietnam's National Finance Supervision Committee. In order to strengthen a weak bank, it was essential to have sufficient funds to clear the bank’s bad debts, Le Xuan Nghia,said, adding that M&A between banks with financial weaknesses and liquidity shortage would make things worse as they obviously lacked funds to wipe out bad debts and already lost trust from depositors. As a result, Nghia suggested that financially-healthy commercial banks acquire weak ones and vice versa, weak banks should voluntarily seek to merge with large lenders. Through their M&A with small banks, big banks could take advantage of small banks’ operational network as well as customer base and enjoy future profitable opportunities as shareholders can sell their stock to foreign investors after the weak banks recover. Besides, experts worried that the actual bad debts in the whole banking sector were much higher than the publicized figures. Nghia commented on the issue, saying that Vietnam has been classifying bad debts differently from international standards.

ABBank aims to keep its bad debts ratio below 3% until the end 2011.

According to Bloomberg, Vietnam’s two-year government bonds snapped a three-day rally.

Citibank Korea's third-quarter earnings jumped 20.6 percent from a year earlier.

Noor Islamic Bank is mulling an expansion to Malaysia to tap opportunities in Southeast Asia.

Bank of China recorded a profit after tax of RMB101.28 billion in the first three quarters, an increase of 22.09% compared with the same period of 2010.

Dai A Bank announced to close the shareholders list for paying first round dividend on December 9, 2011. The payment date was supposed to be on December 26, 2011.

The Bank of Communications opened its Sydney branch, marking its 11th overseas branch.

The seven-year loan is the telecom's second borrowing this year.

Citibank Indonesia saw its profits from January to September go down by 27 percent.

Korean lenders will increase their loan-loss reserves by more than 20 percent to cope with a potential global financial crisis.

ABC realized a credit card income of RMB6.55 billion in the first three quarters this year.

Vietnam’s central bank plans to create a three-tiered financial industry dominated by 15 lenders.