Banking News

The banking scene in Singapore is dominated by a number of major players that offer a wide range of services to individuals, businesses, and corporations. These banks have established a strong presence in the market and are known for their stability, security, and quality service. DBS Bank is the largest bank in Singapore and provides a full range of services including retail, wealth management, and corporate banking. It is known for its innovative products and services, making it one of the most technologically advanced banks in the region. OCBC Bank is the ol...

Singapore is a hub for finance and banking in Asia and is home to some of the leading financial institutions in the region. The city-state offers a stable political and economic environment that has attracted a large number of banks, investment firms, and other financial institutions from around the world. These financial institutions provide a wide range of services including retail banking, wealth management, investment banking, and corporate finance. The leading financial institutions in Singapore include both local and international players, each offering u...

LONDON (REUTERS) - HSBC will target net zero carbon emissions across its entire customer base by 2050 at the latest, and provide between US$750 billion (S$1 trillion) and US$1 trillion in financing to help clients make the transition, its chief executive officer (CEO) Noel Quinn told Reuters. In the strongest statement by Europe's biggest bank on climate change to date, its CEO outlined HSBC's ambitions to align its activities with the Paris Agreement. "Covid has been a wake-up call to us all, including me personally, we have seen how fragile the global econ...

SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES) - The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and DBS are partnering to stimulate domestic tourism demand in the immediate term as well as drive cross-border demand and tourism industry development in the middle to long term. They have inked a three-year memorandum of understanding (MOU) in the first such collaboration between STB and a local bank. The tie-up will leverage DBS's services - such as its travel marketplace portal, digital payments collection solutions, predictive analytics and the bank's everyday app DBS PayLah! - to "help ...

COPENHAGEN (BLOOMBERG) - Danske Bank will cut 1,600 jobs as part of its ongoing effort to save money amid spiraling compliance costs and long-term negative interest rates. "It is never easy to reduce the number of colleagues, and we will do our best to ensure that we do this in the most decent and respectful way," chief executive officer Chris Vogelzang said in a statement on Thursday (Oct 8). "However, we need to adapt to the structural changes that the financial sector is experiencing." Danske is still being investigated for a vast money laundering scandal...

Singapore SINGAPORE banks have stuck to staffing plans made earlier in the year, including their commitments to retain jobs through to the end of 2020. But they are actively managing staff costs as Singapore remains in the throes of its worst recession. It comes as UOB has...

AMONG the Singapore banks, UOB is generally seen to be more conservative in its wealth management (WM) pursuits, with a considerably smaller - and organically built - franchise when compared against its peers.

Credit Suisse Group AG’s APAC business recorded the highest level of credit provisions for potential loan losses across each of the bank’s major divisions, reports Reuters, based on the lender’s Q2 results. The Swiss-based lender made $88.66m in provisions for credit losses in APAC for Q2, down 16% from around $105.96m in Q1. The lender named four individual potential bad-loan cases in the region, up from three in the Q1. APAC accounted for most of Credit Suisse’s loan loss provisions in Q2, ahead of the $84.12m for global markets and around $73.21m in in...

Chinese banks are urged to increase its use of the country’s own financial messaging network for cross-border transactions in the mainland, Hong Kong and Macau, reports Reuters. Greater use of the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) instead of the SWIFT system would cut exposure of China’s global payments data to the United States, the Bank of China International (BOCI) said in a report co-authored by a former foreign exchange regulator. Launched in 2015 to help internationalise the yuan, CIPS said it processed $19.4b (CNY135.7b) a day in 2019, with...

Higher than expected credit losses and other impairment charges (ECL) dragged down HSBC’s H1 2020 profits by 69% to $3.1b, including a $1.2b impairment of software intangibles mainly in Europe, according to an announcement. Revenue slipped 9% to $26.7b on the back of interest rate cuts and market impacts in life insurance manufacturing and adverse valuation adjustments in global banking and markets, the bank said. Net interest margin went down 18bp to 1.43% for H1 whilst also declining to 1.33% for Q2 2020. Reported ECL hiked to $6.9bn as a result of the pan...

SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES) - UK-based payments fintech firm Revolut has appointed Mr James Shanahan - previously the chief operating officer (COO) of insurtech company Singapore Life - as its Singapore chief executive officer to lead the growth of its Asia business. The firm has also hired former Credit Suisse managing director Rayson Tan as its new chief compliance officer, chief risk officer and head of legal in Singapore. Ms Pam Chuang, previously the vice-president of sales and partnerships at fintech firm GoBear, has also joined Revolut as its new hea...

The brave new world after the coronavirus crisis will see a highly digitalised economy that is also greener and more sustainable, said UBS regional chief Edmund Koh. Mr Koh, who is president of UBS Asia Pacific, added that some industries such as aviation, travel and entertainment will find it challenging while others such as e-commerce and logistics might thrive. He told The Straits Times in an exclusive interview: "We have always maintained that some industries would do well, such as e-commerce, high technology like 5G and automation, logistics like delive...

SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES) - DBS Bank has joined Contour's network, which is built on blockchain technology company R3's Corda and digitalises global trade processes such as the creation, exchange, approval and issuance of letters of credit (LCs). It is the first Singapore bank to do so, ahead of the blockchain-based platform's full launch later this year, DBS announced on Monday (May 11). Other banks in the network include BNP Paribas, Bangkok Bank, ING, HSBC, Standard Chartered and Citi Ventures, according to the website for Singapore-based Contour. ...

Measures aimed at easing cash flow concerns to include education, vehicle and renovation loans Individuals can choose to temporarily halt payments for education, renovation and motor vehicle loans, in a move by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the finance sector to ease cash flow concerns amid the coronavirus pandemic. Those with commercial or industrial property loans, as well as mortgage equity withdrawal loans, can also apply to their banks to defer payments until the end of this year, subject to certain requirements. Service fees that are...

SINGAPORE - Individuals can choose to temporarily halt payments for education, renovation and motor vehicle loans, in a move by the financial sector to ease cash flow concerns arising from the coronavirus pandemic. Those with commercial or industrial property loans, as well as mortgage equity withdrawal loans, can also apply to their banks to defer payments until the end of this year, subject to certain requirements. Service fees that are typically charged for failing to maintain the minimum average daily or monthly balances in one's retail bank account can ...