Singapore

Rewards programmes have room for improvement.

Return on equity hit a ten-year high.

And Wells Fargo is bullish about its investment banking arm.

Its chief executive stressed that supply chains are hard to move.

The region outperformed Europe and North America in AUM growth. Western wealth hubs fail to match the stellar growth of Asia-Pacific’s asset management scene after the region’s assets under management (AUM) surged 17% to $8.1t in 2017, according to Willis Towers Watson.

The number of adults who save via banks is at a measly 11%.

The new scheme cuts the time it takes to make purchases and payments.

Ride-hailing firm Grab nabbed a place in the top five.

Around 1,850 employees will be moved to the subsidiary.

It will make a local currency bilateral swap agreement where both central banks can exchange up to $9.5b.

Strong lending and fee income figures boosted quarterly earnings.

They will start trading from November 7.

Net interest income grew 9% to S$1.51b.

This marks the slowest on-year pace since February.

The bank branch as we know it, with tellers behind windows and bankers huddled in cubicles with desktop computers, needs reinvention. Most customers now carry a bank in their pockets in the form of a smartphone and only visit an actual branch to get advice or buy complex products. Across Asia, digital transactions are 1.6 to 5 times as frequent as branch transactions.

As the pace of global regulatory change increases, it is clear that the Inter-Bank Offered Rates (IBORs) of major currencies will evolve or that alternate nearly risk-free reference rates (ARRs) will soon be introduced. These changes will have an impact across a wide range of organisations, including banks, buy-side, sell-side and corporates. In this environment, organisations in Asia-Pacific with IBOR exposures should be taking active steps to understand the scale of the transition and the associated risks in order to prepare for the changes ahead.