All articles by Hugh Fasken
Hugh Fasken
The rise and fall of giants
But the concentration of consumer banking into fewer and fewer players may not address underlying problems in the market, and still leaves many challenges for governments and regulators Hugh Fasken and John Hill report.Back in May when RBI first published its table of superbanks (see RBI 592), the worlds banking industry was a very different market
News and views fresh from Singapore
The focus of the event was on innovation in cards and payments and, more widely, consumer banking, with presentations from a large number of institutions though much of the debate centred around the global credit crunch. The financial chaos unfolding in the US and the UK, and the consequence for the Asia-Pacific market, was the main topic of conversation outside the conference hall at the recent Innovations event in Singapore run by Retail Banker International and its sister publication, Cards International (see http:www.retailbankinginnovations.com)
UK bank soundness disappears
The 2008-2009 edition of the World Economic Forums Global Competitiveness Report concludes Canada has the worlds soundest banking system in a changing of the guard which sees the UK, traditionally found in the upper echelons of the table, fall below emerging nations such as Senegal and El Salvador.
A fantastic challenge’
His company recently pulled out of the US but, according to Dolton, is still doing well in the UK and remains a strong, viable alternative to traditional banks for consumer loans. London-based Zopa, the worlds first online person-to-person (P2P) lending marketplace, launched in the UK back in 2005
What’s in a name?
In terms of the financial services brands included in the list, two things stick out from this years Top 100 Global Brands run-down from consultancy Interbrand: the high rankings of some deeply troubled groups such as insurer AIG and investment bank Merrill Lynch; and the lack of any Asia-headquartered financial services groups in the list
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From volatility comes opportunity
Hugh Fasken talks to Sanjeev Gupta, chief operating officer of Shinsei Banks Individual Group, which encompasses all of Shinseis retail businesses, and Sandeep Deobhakta, chief operating officer of the retail banking subgroup. Both remain bullish on Shinseis prospects in a changing Japanese banking landscape. In the middle of the ongoing gloom hampering Japans consumer banking and consumer finance markets, Shinsei Bank has made a big bet that the countrys retail financial services industry remains full of opportunity.
The colour of money?
Japans Shinsei Bank has studied one million of its customers, and found that of the 32 colours it offers for its cash card, blue is the most popular choice Colour has long been a core marketing tool for all financial services companies, especially when it comes to cards marketing and the overall branding of a bank Blue is the most popular colour for a card, says Japans Shinsei Bank, the countrys 14th-largest banking group by assets.
Getting tougher
This years annual results, while better than those from 2006, painted a gloomy picture.Japans commercial banking groups and consumer finance specialists have reported weak annual figures for fiscal year 2007 (which closed on 31 March 2008), dragged down by tumbling consumer finance fundamentals.Mizuho reported a 50 percent drop in net income year-on-year, from 621 billion ($6 billion) to 311 billion, despite a 10 percent rise in ordinary income and a 3.4 percent rise in total assets to 154 trillion
The era of the superbank
Industry consolidation and the widespread liberalisation of emerging markets have resulted in a number of huge international banking groups with 10,000 plus branch networks, even more ATMS, tens of millions of online banking customers and trillions of dollars in group assets
Major African and US deals signal Chinese banks’ global ambitions
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the worlds largest bank by market capitalisation, has snapped up a 20 percent stake in Standard Bank, South Africas largest banking group, for ZAR36.7 billion ($5.6 billion), in the biggest overseas acquisition by a Chinese company. It agreed in the summer to pay $583 million for 80 percent of Macaus Seng Heng Bank and last December it took a 90 percent stake in Bank Halim Indonesia for $10 million.ICBCs Standard deal represents the largest foreign investment in South Africa since the UKs third-largest bank, Barclays, spent ZAR30 billion to take control of Absa, South Africas second-largest bank by assets.Trade between South Africa and China is booming, and that will bring great business for us