Singapore

Lender plans to step up non-US business from Asia to 50% from current 20%.

Lender's deposit base up 222%, home loans surpassed S$1bln, 61,500 credit cards issued in first year.

Move underscores T&M’s ambition to be leading Asian currency and fixed income house following exponential growth.

In July, Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) held its fifth annual public accountants conference. A central theme at the conference was audit quality and the value of audit. These are topics attracting attention across the world at the moment as a fall-out from the global financial crisis. And bank auditors are the focal point of much of this attention. Several consultations are currently underway in leading financial markets across the world, looking at the role and value of audit. In the US, the Lehman court case resulted in questions being asked about the value of audit – not just in the US but across the world. In the European Union, the Commissioner for the internal market, Michel Barnier, has already published a Green Paper on corporate governance in financial institutions and has another one up his sleeve on all aspects of audit , expected to be published shortly. In the UK, the Financial Services Authority – the market regulator – and the Financial Reporting Council are consulting on the auditors’ role and the contribution they could make to prudential regulation. Any crisis brings change. The important thing now is to make sure we learn all the lessons we can from the global financial crisis. That goes for all market participants, the accounting and auditing profession included. There is no doubt that auditors play an important role in financial markets, promoting confidence in financial information provided by banks and other financial institutions and acting as a discipline for directors and management. An auditor goes into a company with the purpose of providing greater confidence in the financial statements prepared by a company’s management and directors in accordance with the appropriate financial reporting standards. They do this by giving an independent opinion on its truth and fairness – an opinion that is reached by gathering evidence to support the financial statements, usually on a sample basis, by examining risk management processes, governance, systems and internal controls and by challenging management on the assumptions and decisions they have made. Auditors use their professional judgement to reach conclusions and recommendations which are then reported back to audit committees and senior management. Where there are issues which they believe the users of annual reports need to be made aware of, they will include a statement to this effect. Independent auditors are not there to assume management roles or compensate for inadequate in-house finance teams. Ultimately it is the company directors who are responsible for the success or failure of the entities they lead and run. The role of the auditor has primarily been to ensure that shareholders are provided with information which enables them to hold the directors of the companies they own to account. As a result of the crisis, we have had to think about how the audit model needs to evolve to meet the needs of regulators, investors, management and society as a whole. Over the past 18 months ICAEW has also been examining how the current audit model needs to evolve.  On the back of stakeholder research we have published a report entitled Audit of Banks – Lessons from the Crisis which recommends a number of practical steps which could be taken to help meet changing stakeholder expectations.  On bank reporting we think risk information is often presented in a piecemeal manner in bank annual reports, spread between the audited financial statements and the unaudited front sections of these reports. Banks need to focus on clearer presentation which allows users to understand the big picture - often obscured by the volume of detailed information. Summary risk statements are a potential way of meeting this objective particularly if auditors are able to provide assurance on these statements.   We also think insufficient information is provided under the current framework about the work that underpins an audit. This makes it difficult for investors to assess the performance of bank auditors or to understand the key areas of challenge. To address this gap, banks themselves can help, for example by confirming that they have discussed with their auditors the critical accounting estimates and judgements disclosed in the financial statements as well the information disclosed in the front end of their reports.  More regular exchange of information between auditors and the bank supervisor will enable both to perform their duties more efficiently and effectively. Finally, we also think auditors and other external experts have particular skills that could be used to support banking supervisors in performing their functions more effectively. However, if there is one big lesson from the crisis for auditors, it may be that more needs to be done to explain the value of audits to those outside the audit process. Making more information available about discussions between auditors and banks could increase the value placed on audit and thereby increase market confidence. The Audit of Banks – Lessons from the Crisis report can be downloaded from www.icaew.com/fsf.

The [US]$2.5 trillion in market value losses incurred between January 2007 and October 2008 incurred by the world’s top 200 banking players and the new wave of regulation and government intervention, which is resulting in higher capital ratios, the need to de-leverage balance sheets and higher non-performing loan provisions are creating an urgent need to change. This new environment is forcing banks to seek new ways to improve the consistency, transparency and quality of their finance and risk information.

63% of survey respondents have more than one product outside their main bank.

Company opens first full-service one-stop financial soutions centre at its City Square Mall Branch.

Stephen Green will leave HSBC Holdings plc to become UK Minister of State for Trade and Investment in January 2011.

Sale intended to raise funds to ease high US dollar loan-to-deposit ratio and improve financial standing.

Lender to launch trust company in Singapore and representative offices in other Asian nations.   Swiss private banking group Julius Baer is decisively growing Asia into its second home market. It plans to upgrade its Hong Kong presence to a booking centre before the end of this year, to open a representative office in Shanghai, China, and a Trust Company in Singapore next year, upon application and regulatory approvals. The Bank is also rapidly developing its Asian investment capabilities further as a centre of excellence for the rest of the Julius Baer Group, according to a Bank Julius Baer report. These plans were announced by its top management when Julius Baer convened a Board of Directors meeting for the first time in Singapore to signify the importance of Asia. Bank Julius Baer also hosted an exclusive gala dinner for clients and business associates to celebrate its 120th Anniversary.

In the earlier years, other than the Southeast Asia region, Singapore has benefited from the flight of wealth away from North Asia.

Raju transfers to Deutsche Asset after recent high-level hirings and 13.6% decline in lender's consumer banking.

Lender to employ 800 staff to woo customers from 18mln rich Asians with $100,000 to invest.

Collaboration enables DBS/POSB customers to replenish PayPal accounts for online shopping without credit card.

Appointees provide expertise for advisory and financing services of Asia-Pacific resources and energy sector.

The talk in the street has never been more diverse with so much optimism and pessimism coming together at the same time. While the local market has seen more positive news coming through, the international channels have in contrast remained more sombre, with less than positive data from the US and European markets, lawsuits against institutions and the brewing uncertainty in the Korean peninsula. In Singapore, some of the market sentiments within the financial sector are: • Many long-only money managers are not in a rush to buy in. There is a general impression that the stock market has risen too fast in too short a period of time, in the absence of sustainable fundamentals. • Many textbook economists are pointing to a period of inflation in the years ahead with more printed money flooding into supply. The preferred hedge is to store up in physical gold. • Employees who were lucky to keep their jobs last year are starting to feel unappreciated and for not being compensated fairly for their loyalty through recent difficult times. Some other key trends we have observed in the Singapore market include: • With limited upsides in their home markets and the increasing strength of Asian currencies (some of which have been allowed to appreciate), institutions are favouring markets in the East over those in the West, and hence are injecting more investments into Asia at a faster pace than before. • Institutions that had originally considered Singapore purely as a cost centre for hubbing IT and operations, are now increasingly focusing on growing its revenue here. This can be seen in the build-up of sales and trading desks focusing on the Asia Pacific markets. • It appears that Hong Kong is closing in on the heels of Singapore for being a wealth management hub. After a period of relative inactivity for most of 2008/9, many banks are currently busy recruiting for priority-private bankers. • Investment bankers have also jumped on the bandwagon, making their rounds with new employers. • The pay premium for base salaries has returned, though it is largely reserved for asset-acquiring P&L generating positions. • The growth in front office hiring will lead to a corresponding expansion of middle office roles related to client servicing and reporting. • For back office positions, salary premiums for job moves are still relatively conservative. Most open roles are for junior to mid level (VP) hires. Supply of talent exceeds demand for director level and above positions. • Inward migration of senior foreign talent to Singapore can be expected as overseas head offices are starting to dispatch their best talent to ‘take charge’ and manage their biggest growth markets. Eventually a successful stint in Asia would seem almost necessary for anyone aspiring to climb up the corporate ladder back in head office. With more and more companies looking towards Asia for growth and expansion opportunities, Singapore will remain a strong market in the East, particularly with its business-friendly policies that have been put in place by the Singapore government. The only foreseeable threat to Singapore’s hiring market would tend to be more global in nature. For instance, markets will rise and fall based on decisions made by rating agencies and the accounting bodies that decide on valuation or mark-to-market practices. More major shocks are to be expected if there is lack of interest in the government bond markets or if there is a major sovereign debt downgrade, which may in turn lead to another chain of write-downs by creditor banks. The indices may blip frantically in the near term but judging from its performance in the recent global crisis, it would seem that Asia’s emerging markets will be able to ride out any of these shocks in the longer term. The continent should stand to benefit significantly from any uncertainties in the ‘submerging’ markets, and can continue to expect a flight of capital and jobs towards its direction. The Asian hiring markets have been highly active over the last three consecutive quarters since Q409, and we anticipate that there may be a technical ‘breather’ in the second half of the year as the hiring markets try to stabilise and take stock of their hiring activities vis-à-vis targeted profitability and growth plans.