Asia Pacific

The blockchain-based cross-border payments platform is expanding from two currencies to eight and will operate across 15 countries.

By hiring two private bankers from outside the industry to power its Asia family-office business, Citi offers further proof that its peers should take its ambitious regional wealth management plans seriously.

Hong Kong’s capital markets are moribund, its government erratic and directionless, and its economy in disarray. For a city that increasingly looks like anything but Asia’s ‘world city’ is there a route back to normality?

Markets are trading interest-rate expectations over actual rate decisions – proving the power of market sentiment.

The Duterte presidency had many problems, but it gave the Philippine central bank and finance ministry room to enact significant change in tax, digital reach, infrastructure and fiscal policy. OF Bank will be among its legacies.

Lombard Odier joins Barclays and Nomura in hoping to grow partnerships and shareholdings in a market that is heavily banked but underpinned by a vast institutional bid and a belated surge towards sustainability.

With the US Federal Reserve apparently keen to step up the pace of interest-rate rises over the coming months, it is not just emerging market currencies that are expected to suffer.

Almost half of the Australian group’s record profit came from the Americas this year. Will Macquarie still call Australia home?

This one is welcome in Australian banking.

DBS’s purchase of Citi’s local consumer business in January was a timely reminder of Taiwan’s allure. Yes, the island lies on a geopolitical fault line and the banking sector is crowded. But it’s also profitable and now welcomes digital disruption.

The attack follows the introduction of new foreign currency rules.

With civil unrest, the resignation of half the cabinet and a standstill on sovereign debt repayment, Sri Lanka’s new finance minister, secretary to the treasury and governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka have a lot to do.

As the economy lands with a thud, there’s a dearth of talent in Colombo’s official ranks. Pragmatic diplomacy might now be a better option for the embattled Rajapaksa clan.

The IPO of Indonesia’s GoTo is a big moment not just for the issuer but for the exchange that changed the rules to accommodate it and for the entirely domestic joint lead manager group.

The UK bank’s new fund aims to deliver metaverse-themed investment opportunities to wealthy clients in Hong Kong and Singapore.

A Singapore-based investment vehicle fronted by former Commonwealth Bank of Australia CFO Rob Jesudason aims to invest in financial disruptors that will complement the industry without reinventing it.

Shinhan’s landmark anniversary comes as its chairman tries to navigate an unpredictable global environment, the threat of big technology in Korea and the opportunities of expansion in Vietnam.

South Korea’s KakaoBank is unusual among Asian pure-play digital banks, in that it is not only growing fast but is also profitable. Having harvested the low-hanging fruit of wallet balances, it is now building higher-fee products. And last year’s listing showed just how much belief there is in the story.

Is a bank called a trust a bank to trust?

With consumer business sales mostly finalized in Asia, attention turns now to Jane Fraser’s commitment to devote the proceeds to growth in the region. We are seeing early signs.

Park Jung-ho is a key executive in three arms of the SK chaebol, Korea’s third-largest. In more than 30 years he has developed a reputation as a dealmaker, whose key transactions – buying Hynix, Toshiba’s memory business and a major division of Intel – are seen as corporate landmarks. He explains his approach to Euromoney in Seoul.

China’s approach to ESG is a jumble of grandiose and contradictory state planning alongside often marvellously successful bottom-up plans by banks and fintechs to instil in consumers a more sustainable lifestyle.

Yoon Suk-yeol, South Korea’s new president, is seen as pro-business and pro-market reform. Bankers are delighted, but there’s also a nagging doubt that populist policies that favour retail investors over institutional have crept in to win votes.

As Covid fatalities rise fast, senior bankers are fleeing a city that, despite today's relaxation of some rules, is increasingly cut off from the world. Will Hong Kong ever be the same again?

China’s approach to central bank digital currency offers clues to how it may build a unique version of decentralized finance.

Despite China’s ambitious plans for its digital currency, the e-yuan will struggle to become a lead player in international trade finance without notable changes, most importantly to capital controls.

Few could understand the reasoning when Berkshire Hathaway bought into Japan’s five creaking, antiquated trading houses in 2020. But a spate of record results has vindicated Warren Buffett’s decision.

The prospect of China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System vying with or supplanting Swift grabbed attention in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But CIPS isn’t ready for the big time. It is too small and underdeveloped, and is a policy vehicle dominated by Beijing for the purpose of globalizing the yuan.

In just a few years, the New Eurasian Land Bridge, which conveys rail freight between China and Europe, became a key part of Beijing’s fading Belt and Road Initiative. Thanks to sanctions levied against state operator Russian Railways, that vital trade link threatens to be disrupted – and possibly severed.

Not all heroes wear capes. But some do.