Asia-Pacific

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto leader and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has a change of heart regarding US sanctions against her country. 

Japan | Elected Tokyo’s first female governor, Yuriko Koike has made history in Japan. She ran as an independent in defiance of her party—the ruling Liberal Democratic Party—which supported the lesser-known Hiroya Masuda. Koike, 64 years old and a veteran politician, hopes to bring the city’s financial center back to its former glory.

Singapore | The Monetary Authority of Singapore is establishing a new team to bolster monitoring of financial institutions and enforcement of rules against money laundering.  

INDIA | Introduced just a year ago, “green” masala bonds—offshore rupee-denominated bonds to fund private-sector investment addressing climate change—are hot.

Indonesia | Can the much-admired former Finance Minister of Indonesia, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, bring back the magic in her second tour in the post? 

India | The Indian parliament’s adoption of a constitutional amendment bill has paved the way for the biggest tax reform in the $2 trillion economy’s history, as Narendra Modi’s  government prepares to usher in a dramatic change in the tax regime: a single goods and services tax (GST) that subsumes all central, state and local levies.

Private bankers looking to grow in Asia are investing heavily in innovation to stave off disruption, at the same time firms are also turning to technology to tackle more fundamental issues in the industry.

While Asia recently pulled ahead of the West as home to wealthy individuals, some private banks are pulling out, leaving the field to nimble local rivals and committed global Goliaths.

ASIA | The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank began its efforts to finance Asia’s vast need for infrastructure this year. What are the prospects? 

China’s recent efforts to make it easier for global investors to access its enormous stock markets in Shanghai and Shenzhen were not enough to persuade MSCI to include these “China A shares” in its widely followed Emerging Markets Index just yet.

ASIA | As the regional powerhouse restructures and tackles debt problems, neighboring nations are feeling the impact.

For the first time, Asia’s super-rich have surpassed their North American counterparts in both population and wealth. China and Japan, in particular, stood out as wealth powerhouses despite a volatile year for Asian equity markets.  Asia Pacific’s 5.1 million high-net-worth ...

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.