Asia-Pacific

China
When Alibaba announced in May that it was hiring former Goldman Sachs managing director Douglas Feagin to run the international unit of its finance arm, Ant Financial, many observers had a sense of déjà vu.
 

The fast-growing nation is actively seeking FDI, but foreign investors must contend with endemic corruption and layers of bureaucracy.

Philippines
Investor unease over the future of the Philippines, one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing economies, has soared following Rodrigo Duterte’s landslide victory in the May presidential election.

Singapore has overtaken Hong Kong as Asia’s top financial center and now ranks third globally behind London and New York. This is the key takeaway from the latest Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI), a ranking by British commercial think-tank Z/Yen Group.

Arthur Kroeber, head of research and founding partner of Gavekal Dragonomics, spoke with Global Finance about China’s politics, its markets and its future role in the global economy.

Maybank Islamic is developing outside Malaysia, establishing a footprint in the region. With a return on equity of 16%, achieved despite a capital ratio of 17%, the trick will be to sustain the bank’s bullish approach to investing despite the country’s economic downturn.

Bank of China, the fourth-largest bank in the world, has been an ener-getic leader in expanding overseas. In an interview with Global Finance, Chen Siqing, the bank’s president, spoke about internationalization efforts and the importance of overseas growth. 

Following a record-breaking year for worldwide mergers and acquisitions, dealmaking declined to a two-year low in the first quarter of 2016.

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ is learning to speak Arabic.

The People’s Bank of China has introduced bigger movements in its daily fixings of the country’s currency against the dollar. If sustained, this subtle change could signal that the central bank is preparing to allow greater flexibility in foreign exchange trading.

India’s “Make in India” campaign has begun to pay dividends in the defense sector—a field where sharing of technology, processes and patented know-how by global giants does not happen easily.

When Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) merged with Hana Bank, they formed Korea’s largest bank, with $243 billion in total assets in 2015, and $143 billion in lending as of November. CEO Ham Young-joo sat down with Global Finance editors to discuss economic conditions and KEB Hana’s plans for growth.

On May 9, voters in the Philippines will elect a new president amid growing concerns over whether the strong legacy of president Benigno Aquino III will continue.

President Jokowi is a radical departure from Indonesia’s political and military elite, which perhaps explains why he is such a populist leader at home. But foreign investors find him difficult to read.

Newsmakers | China
Liu Shiyu, who became the new head in mid-February, has an impressive pedigree. But the challenges he faces will require nothing short of mastery.

Asian Development Bank Section: ADB Annual Meeting
Last year’s historic Asian Development Bank (ADB) annual meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan saw the bank and member countries commit to a wide range of goals and reforms.

Capital Markets | Fixed Income
China’s $7.4 trillion onshore bond market, the third-largest in the world, is opening to foreign institutional investors in the latest step by China to integrate its capital markets into the global financial system.

Singapore could face a technical recession in the first half of this year as plunging oil prices and a drop in China’s appetite for imports weigh on the city-state’s economy.

The question this year for investors in China is whether the government will continue moving toward a free-market economy—or keep grabbing the wheel.

Capital Markets | Mergers & Acquisitions
In an effort to boost the country’s sagging economic growth, China is consolidating key industries, hoping to make them more efficient ahead of eventual partial privatizations.