Commentary

Why RMB globalization is still a long way off

Efforts to globalize the renminbi (RMB) reached a milestone when the currency joined the league of the most-traded currencies for the first time.

Commentary

Why RMB globalization is still a long way off

Efforts to globalize the renminbi (RMB) reached a milestone when the currency joined the league of the most-traded currencies for the first time.

Commentary

Overcoming Asian fragmentation to improve standardisation and automation

As discussed in a previous post, the fragmented nature of Asia Pacific’s financial services market leads to numerous challenges for banks when trying to create a standardised approach to the processing of corporate actions.

Commentary

Will Qianhai jeopardize Hong Kong’s position?

In mid-2012, the China’s State Council approved the development of the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone.

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Reforming business compliance for the APAC banking industry

Cyber security continues to be one of the fastest-growing threats to banking institutions.

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Why we should rethink the ethics of finance

The changing landscape of finance is a huge subject so let’s start with a short history of banking (thanks here to Wikipedia).

Commentary

Why customer 'sensation' is important in Asian retail and premium banking (Part 2)

Last week, we took a look at how international banking brands are engaging as many of their customers’ senses as possible, in as pleasurable a way as they can, as a key to creating loyalty through an engaging customer experience. This week, we will take an overview of how bank brands in Asia are actually implementing these principles in practice.

Commentary

Unlocking the synergies between Affluent/HNW and SME banking

Asian-based banks are aggressively expanding their Affluent/High Net Worth (HNW) banking value propositions in light of growing economic prosperity and affluence within the region.

Commentary

Indian Central Bank issues liquidity infusion

Last week the Indian Central Bank took us by a surprise with some of the retrograde steps which calmed down the unrest in the fixed income and equity market.

Commentary

Here are the key challenges for the new authority of finance in Taiwan

Head of Financial Supervisory Commission in Taiwan has been replaced in July. In his inauguration speech, Mr. Tseng M.J. pointed out that cross boarder business development will be his priority for upgrading Taiwanese financial institutions.

Commentary

Why linking central bank base interest rate to unemployment level is unwise

Consultants and others who have perfected the art of talking a lot without saying anything (and getting paid for their efforts) are frequently in the habit of referring to "paradigm shifts", even if not everyone is sure what "paradigm" actually means.

Commentary

Why customer 'sensation' is important in Asian retail and premium banking (part 1)

The retail and hospitality industries have long cottoned on to the fact that enhancing the customer’s 360 degree experience of a brand are ninth tenths of the battle for market share.

Commentary

Analytics help fuel growth & detect fraud in the financial sector

Financial services institutions (FSIs) are among the most data driven of all businesses. Operating under strict regulatory environment, commercial banks and insurance companies are required to store and process many years of transaction data. The pervasiveness of electronic trading has also meant that the capital market firms both generate and act upon hundreds of millions of messages and data every day.

Commentary

4 things banks need to know about DDoS attacks

To cope with an increased number of large distributed denial of service attacks, banks must not only have plans in place - they should consider a broad set of defensive tools that combine on-premise technologies and cloud-based scrubbing services.

Commentary

RMB offshoring gathers pace

Over the past couple of years, the issuance of offshore RMB bonds has soared, with levels expected to reach the equivalent of 360 billion yuan this year. To address the growing interest from international investors, a number of markets - in particular Taiwan and Singapore - have established offshore RMB centres in an attempt to capture a share of this lucrative business.

Commentary

What Asian banks need to know about customers' trust and fair treatment (Part 4)

In the fourth and final part of a special series of reports regarding conduct risk consumer protection regulations, we focus on some of the tactical implementation activities that will be required to demonstrate commitment to the fair treatment of customers.

Commentary

2 reasons why the Sino-US Dialogue did not focus on the value of RMB

The fifth China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue concluded on 11 July. Unlike previous meetings, the emphasis was not on the value of the renminbi (RMB). There seem to be two reasons. First, China’s current surplus has come down to 2.3% of GDP in 2012, comfortably below the 4% proposed by the US as a way of defusing tension over currencies. Second, the RMB has appreciated 3.4% against the USD since Aug12; the most among Asia ex-Japan currencies. Over the same period, the RMB has strengthened 6.6% in nominal trade-weighted terms.

Commentary

An over-engineered finance industry has gone too far

The other day I conducted a simple statistical experiment. I calculated the “value-at-risk” exposure for an hypothetical investment portfolio consisting of just one bond holding.

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