With the uncertainty surrounding the two-month long impeachment process of President Roh Moo Hyun now finally resolved, and the president firmly back in the saddle, South Korea is keen to push ahead with more financial reform and, in particular, focus on asset management.
Bank of China (BoC), the largest of China’s big four state-owned banks, has announced that its non-performing loans ratio will be down to around 5% by the end of 2004 as it plans to bring in a strategic investor later this year in preparation for its IPO. This significant reform of the bank’s ownership structure reflects the Chinese authorities’ determination to reform the big four banks which account for 55% of China’s bank assets.
India’s Congress Party will lead an alliance of political parties that will form the next government after it emerged the surprise victor in the country’s national elections in early May. Voters shunned the previous regime led by the Bharatiya Janata Party whose economic reforms appear to have left a large majority of rural Indians unmoved.Manmohan Singh, the former finance minister, will be the new prime minister after Congress party president Sonia Gandhi turned the job down.
China is set to use medicine strong enough to cool down its investment fever, but not so potent as to bring the economy to a standstill. Banks are at the forefront of this austerity campaign, acting on the orders of the central government to choke off credit supply to overheated sectors.
Louise do Rosario says the pace of change has speeded up dramatically since China signed up for WTO status. For many years, foreign banks in China grew at a snail’s pace, while the local economy was growing an impressive 8%-9% a year. Foreign banks made a negligible impact on the local banking scene, as they were confined by law to a few cities and to serve mainly foreigners.This situation has changed, thanks to the financial liberalisation China has made in accordance with its commitments to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The big issue in China is not inward investment but outward investment. Even as the queue for QFII (Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors) status lengthens (allowing access to China’s renminbi denominated A shares market, the bulk of stock market capitalisation), the talk is of when China’s own insurance and social security funds may be allowed to venture overseas freely and openly.
In an increasingly interconnected world, large financial services institutions (FSIs) are already sourcing their IT and business process services from a variety of international locations. As outsourcing services have evolved from filling tactical gaps to providing strategic cost and quality advantages as well as innovative features, FSIs are tapping supplementary alternatives to India as a location for offshore outsourcing.
The Banker’s Central Banker of the year for 2003, Tan Sri Dato’ Zeti Akhtar Aziz, is now in her second term at Bank Negara Malaysia. She helped Malaysia through the 1997-1998 financial crisis and has since presided over a dramatic consolidation of Malaysia’s financial sector. The country is now reaping the benefits.