Kimberley Long

1 month ago | thebanker.com | Kimberley Long

South Korean and Japanese lenders with stakes in Vietnamese banks could be the biggest winners from the liberalisation of the country’s foreign ownership rules, given western lenders have retrenched from Vietnam, experts say. The cap on foreign ownership for some domestic banks was increased from 30 per cent to 49 per cent, and took effect earlier this week. The increase will initially apply to MB Bank, HDBank and VPBank.

1 month ago | thebanker.com | Kimberley Long

Armenia’s finance minister has ruled out any further debt raising until at least 2027, citing a significantly higher yield on its most recent raise caused by the current higher interest rate environment. While the country’s $750mn eurobond issued in March was three times oversubscribed, the 10-year bond (issued to replace a maturing instrument) priced with a yield of 7.1 per cent, significantly higher than the 3.9 per cent seen in the last eurobond issued four years ago.

1 month ago | thebanker.com | Kimberley Long

The success of new cross-border, real-time payment systems require co-operation and some creative thinking to overcome initial challenges, according to the Singaporean central bank and other experts. Jacqueline Loh of the Monetary Authority of Singapore said that a five-second difference in turnaround times between the systems in Singapore and Thailand was causing timeouts and failed transaction messages for customers.

1 month ago | thebanker.com | Kimberley Long

The declining value of the US dollar is a significant contributing factor to falling inflation in the Philippines, the country’s treasurer has said, as levels fell to 1.4 per cent in April, their lowest in nearly six years. Considering the impact of the US tariffs on currency volatility, treasurer Sharon Almanza said the weakening dollar against the strength of the peso is “positive in our inflation story”.

1 month ago | thebanker.com | Kimberley Long

US trade tariffs will likely open up opportunities for banks supporting companies relocating manufacturing to India, while tariffs will have little impact on the local economy, according to the chair of State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender by total assets. “Both consumption and investment are domestically driven. While we want exports to play an important role, our assessment is that the impact of US tariffs on India is going to be limited,” Challa Sreenivasulu Setty told The Banker.