IFR Asia – February 10, 2018

16 International Financing Review Asia February 10 2018

People

&Markets

Mitsubishi Bank, its predecessor, in 1981. He has

held several senior positions, including recently as

head of the corporate banking unit.

Before this stint, he was a general manager in the

human resources division, a common career path

for senior executives at Japan’s megabanks.

Araki replaces Takashi Nagaoka, who has been

appointed chairman of Mitsubishi UFJ Securities

Holdings and deputy chairman of the Morgan

Stanley JV.

Nagaoka, 63, joined Mitsubishi Bank in 1976. His

background is in equity capital markets, although

he has had stints in retail and corporate banking.

In both roles, he replaces Toshirou Toyoizumi, who

is retiring and has been appointed senior adviser

for the securities division.

The changes take effect on April 1.

„ Andy Yung has resurfaced at DBS BANK,

Hong Kong, after a brief stint at Bank of

Communications, Hong Kong.

Yung started in January as vice president on the

loan origination team with a focus on North Asia.

He reports to Stockor Ng, senior vice president and

team head for syndicated finance at DBS Bank

Hong Kong.

Yung was deputy chief product manager

in BoCom’s structured and capital finance

department for about two months.

Before BoCom, Yung was at HSBC, where he was

last an associate director of the loan syndication

team.

„ Frank Sun, former head of Asia healthcare

investment banking at UBS, has joined private-

equity firm YUNFENG CAPITAL as managing director.

Alibaba chairman Jack Ma jointly set up the firm in

2010 with David Yu, founder of display advertising

company Target Media.

Sun is not the first former investment banker to

head to Yunfeng as former Goldman Sachs banker

Yali Zhu joined last year as head of its Hong Kong

brokerage.

After spending 11 years with the Swiss investment

bank, Sun was one of a number of investment

bankers to leave last year. He had also worked at

Morgan Stanley.

„ FLAGSTAFF PARTNERS, an Australian boutique

advisory firm, has hired Matt Wilson as managing

director from JP Morgan.

Wilson was head of healthcare and technology,

media and telecommunications coverage and

co-head of financial sponsors coverage for the US

bank in Australia and New Zealand.

He was with JP Morgan for over 10 years and spent

just over three years at Macquarie Bank.

Flagstaff has also promoted Steve Hammerton and

James Hawkins to MD.

Hammerton joined Flagstaff in 2009 and was

previously a director in Merrill Lynch’s London

and Melbourne offices. He has worked at

PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Hawkins has been with Flagstaff since 2011 and

was formerly with Macquarie Capital and law firm

Clayton Utz.

IN BRIEF

Monetary Authority of Singapore

No cryptocurrency trading ban yet

Singapore’s central bank has been studying

the potential risks that cryptocurrencies pose,

though there is no strong case, as yet, to ban

trading of the digital coins in the city-state,

according to Deputy Prime Minister Tharman

Shanmugaratnam.

“Cryptocurrencies are an experiment. The

number and different forms of cryptocurrencies

is (sic) growing internationally. It is too early to

say if they will succeed,” Shanmugaratnam said.

“If some do succeed, their full implications

will also not be known for some time,” the

deputy prime minister said in a written answer

to questions from members of parliament on

banning the trading of bitcoin or cryptocurrency.

“The Monetary Authority of Singapore has been

closely studying these developments and the

potential risks they pose. As of now, there is no

strong case to ban cryptocurrency trading here.”

Bank Mandiri

Profit soars 49% on lower provisions

State-controlled BANK MANDIRI saw its 2017

net profit soar 49% year on year to Rp20.6trn

(US$1.52bn) on lower provisioning for soured

loans, as well as rapid growth in fee-based

income.

Indonesia’s largest bank in asset terms said

the growth last year marked a rebound from its

worst showing in five years in 2016.

Mandiri’s provisions for bad loans declined

35% to around Rp15.95trn, while its gross non-

performing loan ratio fell to 3.46% from 4.00%

a year earlier.

The bank has been under pressure to tackle bad

debt after provisioning rose in recent years with

NPL spreading beyond the commodities sector

to consumer-related businesses.

Fee-based income grew 16.4% in 2017.

Mandiri’s net interest income last year rose 1%,

while its net interest margin came in at 5.87%,

versus 6.44% in 2016.

DBS Group

Higher NIM projected in 2018

DBS GROUP expects an improving interest rate

environment to lift its 2018 net interest margin,

having reported a 33% increase in quarterly

profit, on par with market expectations.

The results came after the bank had surprised

markets in November with a doubling of its

quarterly provisions for the troubled oil-and-gas

sector and said the worst was probably over.

Kicking off the reporting season for Singapore

banks on Thursday, DBS said its NIM rose 7bp

to 1.78%.

South-East Asia’s largest bank in asset terms

reported net profit of S$1.2bn (US$905m) for

the 2017 fourth quarter versus S$913m a year

earlier. This matched the S$1.2bn average

estimate of six analysts in a Thomson Reuters

survey.

CEO Piyush Gupta said the driver of full-year

performance was broad-based growth in loans

and fee income, which more than offset the

impact of less favourable interest rates and

trading income.

Net fee income grew 23% in the quarter, with

the wider spread across most streams, led by

wealth management and investment banking.

Credit Suisse

HK fines local units for breaches

Hong Kong’s securities regulator has fined the

local units of CREDIT SUISSE HK$39.3m (US$5m)

for internal-control failures that resulted in

regulatory breaches.

Among the breaches were failures to separate

client securities, report direct business

transactions, comply with short-selling

requirements, the Securities and Futures

Commission said in an e-mailed statement last

Thursday.

These breaches took place between 2010 and

2016.

Credit Suisse had reported the regulatory

breaches and failings to the SFC and involved its

senior management to address the regulatory

concerns at an early stage, the SFC pointed out.

“In this instance, Credit Suisse’s prompt and

extensive co-operation have significantly

expedited the effective resolution of the issues

that caused the SFC’s concerns,” said SFC

executive director of enforcement Thomas

Atkinson.

“Otherwise, the sanctions for similar failures

would have been substantially higher.”

Credit Suisse said it had taken “appropriate

action to ensure its legal and regulatory

obligations were upheld at all times” and to

prevent repetition of these incidents.

“The resolution announced by the SFC today

does not place any constraints on Credit Suisse’s

business activities in Hong Kong or elsewhere.”