The UK bank’s pivot to the region faces challenges amid fierce competition and Western tensions with China.
In the face of saturated local markets, banks in Japan, South Korea and Singapore are increasingly looking elsewhere in the region.
Tackling money laundering, terrorist financing and other financial crime is a difficult chore for banks. However, new approaches are beginning to make a difference.
Critics argue that a cap on bankers’ bonuses is ineffective and outdated, but the issue remains controversial.
The Bank of Jamaica has distributed $1.5m in central bank digital currencies to authorised institutions.
New rules introduced on August 10 seek to attract more special purpose acquisition companies to the UK market.
International standard setters are closing in on cryptoassets and their interventions are likely to intensify in the regulated sphere of the financial services industry, but that is not necessarily bad news for banks.
The regulator’s ‘in-principle’ approval of a cryptocurrency exchange is part of a global push to tackle fraud and scams in cryptoassets.
As commercial lenders look beyond the pandemic, three fast-growing sectors represent new risks.
Japan’s digital payments vision has been slow to get off the ground.
Looting and arson forced the closure of hundreds of branches and caused widespread damage to ATM infrastructure.
Influential new authority could have direct supervisory powers and will seek to improve co-ordination between national supervisors.
Recent legislation signals the US government’s determination to root out financial crime, regardless of where it may originate.
As digitalisation forces branch closures and online services become more personalised, banks could still retain in-person services.
Tax hikes may be a speedy route to economic recovery in the Asean region.
The UK looks set to tread an increasingly independent path on financial services, veering more towards the US and emerging markets. Hopes of gaining equivalence from the EU on financial services are fading.
The US investment bank is looking to bar non-vaccinated staff from its New York offices, allowing it to remove remaining restrictions.
A government-backed securitisation scheme has helped turn Italian banks’ balance sheets around. But as Covid-19 support measures ease, bad loans are expected to rise.
A UK high court decision means that if a bank wants to bind customers into a compensation scheme, it needs to consider what is a ‘fair level’ of compensation.
China needs to change more than its two-child policy if it is to revive its former stellar performance.