|
Malaysia's local players encouraged
to grow
banking business |
AS MALAYSIA'S FINANCIAL sector continues to recover
from the 1997-98 economic crisis, investment banking is
playing a more prominent role and, unusually for an emerging
market, it is largely local investment banks that are at the
forefront.
True, the biggest deals from Malaysia are still led
by the the global players, since jumbo international deals
require the international distribution that only they can
provide. Nevertheless, the domestic market has been
transformed. Foreign investment banks dominated the local
debt market until the mid-1990s but most have either
disappeared or been left behind. Deutsche Bank, Citigroup,
ABN Amro and HSBC are the only active foreign banks in the
domestic capital markets. Local players such as Commerce
International Merchant Bankers (CIMB), RHB Sakura, Am
Merchant Bank, and Aseambankers now
dominate.
And this market is growing at a healthy clip, partly as bank
loans are transformed into...
