Asia shares, crude down on Greek tragedy
The surprising results from Greece’s referendum on July 5 sent markets into a tailspin after Asian stock exchanges opened today, with US crude suffering the biggest decline. The euro too lost value...
View ArticleIndonesia rushes to create Islamic megabanks
In a push to boost its Islamic finance industry, Indonesia keeps forging out plans to create larger Islamic banking entities in order to take over the role – as President Joko Widodo put it – of the...
View ArticleThailand’s troubled Islamic Bank seeks investors to turn around business
Thailand’s sole fully-fledged Shariah-compliant financial institution, state-owned Islamic Bank of Thailand, branded as IBank, has become the target of domestic and foreign investors, including from...
View ArticleThailand tourist arrivals up nearly 40%, new six-months visa to come
Tourist arrivals to Thailand in July 2015 rose nearly 40 per cent year-on-year, the tourism minister said on August 5, as the industry continued to bounce back from a sharp fall in 2014 during months...
View ArticleSingapore at 50: Well done, but challenges ahead
Singapore just became 50 – a time span that saw the small city state transform from third world to first in record speed. The question is: Can the nation keep its momentum another 50 years onwards? In...
View ArticleSoutheast Asian shares bounce back – China, Japan extend drop
Volatile stock markets in Asia on August 25 showed signs of a respite from the recent blood-letting, as bargain hunters helped most stocks off three-year lows hit on fears that China’s economy was...
View ArticleMalaysia central bank urges 1MDB investigation, asks for $1.8bn payback
Malaysia’s central bank Bank Negara said on October 9 it had urged the country’s attorney general to begin criminal prosecution of troubled fund 1Malaysia Development Berhard, or 1MDB, after completing...
View ArticleVietnam plans $1 billion bond sale
Vietnam plans to raise $1 billion by selling dollar-denominated bonds in international markets later this year, a government official familiar with the matter said on September 3. “We are planning to...
View ArticleIndonesia’s $1.5-billion sukuk receives huge order book
Indonesia launched an Islamic bond on September 2 after ramping up interest for the dollar sukuk for more than a month, making it one of the first debt issuers since the summer. The $1.5 billion...
View ArticlePhilippines awards $1.5b Manila railway deal to Metro Pacific consortium
The Philippines said on September 13 it had awarded a 65 billion pesos ($1.5 billion) contract to upgrade and extend Manila’s oldest elevated railway line to a consortium comprised of Metro Pacific...
View ArticleJapanese financial firm to buy Indonesia’s Bank Mutiara
Japanese finance company J Trust Co Ltd is set to buy Indonesia’s PT Bank Mutiara Tbk to tap rising demand for retail finance in Southeast Asia’s largest economy. Bank Mutiara, previously known as Bank...
View ArticleVietnam’s $58-million Vinatex IPO ‘exceeds expectations’
Vietnam’s largest apparel manufacturer and exporter Vinatex raised VND1.22 trillion ($58 million) in an initial public offering on September 22, but the company’s shares may not start trading for...
View ArticleMyanmar to issue foreign bank licenses by end-September: Central bank
Myanmar will announce an offer by the end this month for between five and 10 foreign banks to open branches in its rapidly expanding economy, the deputy central bank governor said on September 24. U...
View ArticleHo Chi Minh City receives $3.12 billion remittances in 9 months
Overseas remittances to Vietnam’s southern economic hub Ho Chi Minh City hit $3.12 billion in the first nine months of this year, up 11. 6 per cent year on year, according to the State Bank of Vietnam....
View ArticleMyanmar’s central bank urges investors to be patient
Myanmar’s central bank confirmed it will continue to take a measured approach to economic liberalisation, despite facing criticism that the country is taking too long to unshackle its financial sector....
View ArticleMyanmar awards licenses for foreign banks
Australia & New Zealand Banking (ANZ) and three Japanese banks on October 1 won coveted licenses to operate in Myanmar, after decades in which foreign lenders were frozen out of the country. ANZ,...
View ArticlePhilippine central bank orders capital boost for lenders
The Philippines will order lenders to boost capital and cap the value of real estate that can be used as loan collateral to ensure banks gird themselves for increased risk taking. Bangko Sentral ng...
View ArticleMyanmar prepares to sell first sovereign bonds
Myanmar’s licensing of foreign banks brings it a step closer to an initial sovereign bond sale to help fund $80 billion of power, transport and technology projects through 2030, according to the Asian...
View ArticleChina pushes Asian infrastructure bank
China pushed ahead with the creation of its proposed $50-billion Asia regional bank by signing a memorandum on October 24 with 21 countries, which did not include South Korea, Australia and Indonesia....
View ArticleMyanmar stock market to kick off in October
The Myanmar government has now confirmed that it will open its first-ever professional stock exchange, the Yangon Stock Exchange (YSE), in October this year and that there will be no more delays,...
View ArticleSukuk Summit Awards of Excellence to be held in June
ICG-Events are pleased to announce the 2015 London Sukuk Summit; the 9th Summit in the series will be taking place on the 3rd -4th of June at the Jumeirah Carlton Tower, Knightsbridge, London. The 2015...
View ArticleBusinessman from the Philippines tops the 10 richest in ASEAN list 2015
While tycoons from China and India dominate the richest in Asia list, these 10 billionaires will find solace in topping the regional list in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Chinese...
View ArticleSlowing remittance growth from Filipino workers cause for concern
Slowing growth of remittances sent by Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) to their home country have alerted economists that there might be a sustained weakness in these important cash transfers as long...
View ArticleWorld economy growing “modestly”: UN report (infographic)
According to a recently released report by the United Nations on the world economic situation and its prospects in 2015, the world economy continues to grow at a modest pace. Growth of world gross...
View ArticleASEAN Economic Community: Which professions can move freely?
Expectations are high among workers living in one of the ten countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN. With the advent of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), planned to come...
View ArticleBank secrecy is dead – also for the Philippines?
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an international economic grouping of 34 countries, has urged the Philippines to lift its bank secrecy law “to strengthen the country’s...
View ArticleUS startup brings innovative Islamic microfinance to Indonesia
Founded in San Francisco and recently moved to Jakarta, a financial startup called Blossom aims at nothing less than shaking up the microfinance sector in Indonesia. The company, launched in October...
View ArticleMalaysia’s tax haven Labuan to position itself as Islamic finance hub
Malaysia’s offshore financial center of Labuan, an island designated as Special Economic Zone off the northern Borneo coast which has seen a surge in interest in Islamic finance transactions in the...
View ArticleBrunei to boost finance sector by launching its own stock exchange
Brunei Darussalam could soon drop off the global list of countries without a stock exchange, where it currently appears together with Cuba, Afghanistan, North Korea, Ethiopia, Chad and several other...
View ArticleForeign investors keep dumping Philippine stocks
Philippine stocks, once favoured by emerging-market investors, were under heavy selling pressure siege from April to June, Reuters data shows. Net foreign selling in the period rose to the highest...
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