Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
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The commodities firm still needs large banking groups and a range of options when it comes to supporting its operations.
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Thailand wants to give almost every adult in the country money through a digital wallet. It’s an interesting step towards bringing digital finance to the mainstream.
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While the air at the Singapore Fintech Festival was full of grand ideas about GenAI, real innovation was taking place in the weeds of fintech development.
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Singapore’s DBS Bank has spent the past decade transforming itself into one of the world’s best digital banks. But a series of lengthy service outages over the past year has wrongfooted senior management, who have been left to issue apologies and pledge to do better.
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Singapore’s big-three lenders – UOB, DBS and OCBC – have won Euromoney awards for best SME bank in Asia each year since 2016, two of them taking the global award as well. Why?
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The Singapore regulator MAS has set guidelines for banks transitioning to net zero. Unusually, it cautions against moving too fast.
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Beneath the Great Game geopolitics of US-Vietnam relations, there are some intriguing possibilities in the detail.
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Southeast Asia’s capital markets are buzzing, making them hot favourites with global investors. But be warned: some big obstacles are expected in the months ahead, testing the ability of issuers and investment banks to get deals over the line.
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Indonesia was recently re-ranked by the World Bank as an upper middle-income country, even though as many as 100 million Indonesians remain unbanked. Andi Taufan Garuda Putra tells Asiamoney how his Amartha microlending platform is bringing them into the financial system.
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The abrupt departure of the US NGO fund from military-run Myanmar leaves a vacuum for microfinanciers.
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President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s latest policy splash is the $8.8 billion Maharlika Investment Fund, a sovereign wealth vehicle that aims to boost growth and inward investment. But it has drawn criticism, even within Marcos’s family. Many highlight the cautionary tale of Malaysia’s 1MDB, and fret about the capacity for corruption and poor governance.
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Singapore’s new digital bank Trust has put rivals on notice and pushed some to focus more intensely on innovation. But its long-term success will depend on many things – not least CEO Dwaipayan Sadhu’s ability to retain clients.
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Greg Krasnov, a banker from war-torn Ukraine, is shaking up finance in the Philippines with the assistance of his digital neobank.
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Issuance has barely stopped in Indonesia’s IPO market this year. Global investors have bought into the resource-led story with glee – and there are plenty of deals in the pipeline.
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Indonesia is one of the world’s brighter prospects right now: growth, demographics, infrastructure momentum, inflation under control, more equity raised in the first quarter in Jakarta than New York. Banks are positioning to benefit – while keeping an eye on next year’s elections.
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From the Asian financial meltdown of the late 1990s to the recent pandemic, Thailand central bank governor Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput’s career has been bookended by crises. Now almost three years into his term as governor, he may well be the right man to keep Thailand safe from another calamity – runaway inflation.
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The Philippines has the potential to become a regional wealth management hub. The race is on among global and local private banks to attract – and keep - the country’s newly wealthy.
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From 1990s economic superstar to jail and now finally to the top job, Malaysia’s prime minister has had an extraordinary political journey. Now that Anwar Ibrahim is finally the boss, can he fix Malaysia’s many problems?