StanChart buys Pakistan bank; China bones up bank regulation at home, while being asked to help with Burma's banking sector NOTE: In the three articles below, another cross-border acquisition, by Standard Chartered in Pakistan, and two related stories about China's regulation of banks -- domestically, trying to look harder, while being asked externally to assist isolated (and human rights-challenged) Myanmar with its banking sector... -Matthew Matthew Lee, Esq. Executive Director Inner City Press / Fair Finance Watch NCRC board member; NCRC blog = www.fairlending.org USA Tel: 718-716-3540 E: MLee [at] innercitypress.org Standard Chartered buys into Pakistan's Union Bank Standard Chartered PLC, the British lender that makes most of its profit in Asia, agreed to buy an 81-per-cent stake in Pakistan's Union Bank Ltd. for $413-million (U.S.) in cash to more than double its branches in the country. The purchase will help Standard Chartered expand in a $118-billion economy that Pakistan's Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz estimates will expand at an annual pace of 8 per cent in the next five years. Standard Chartered will also expand its outlets in the country to 111 as it anticipates a possible peak in growth rates in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. "It will prove to be a sound strategic purchase and fits with the rest of the group," said James Hamilton, an analyst at WestLB Securities in London. STAN (London) rose 29 pence to £13.03 ($27.80 Canadian). UNBL (Karachi) rose 1.10 Pakistani rupees to 86.35 Pakistani rupees ($1.60). Bloomberg Myanmar asks China for help to reform its banks Friday, August 04, 2006 BEIJING - Myanmar, isolated from the world financial system by sanctions to punish it for human rights abuses, has asked for China's help to reform its banking system, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Myanmar Prime Minister Soe Win also said during a meeting with Chen Yuan, president of China Development Bank, that the two countries should develop closer economic ties, Xinhua said in a report late on Thursday. "Noting that Chinese banks started reform earlier than Myanmar for more than a decade and possess many successful experiences, Soe Win said the country would like to learn from China in these aspects," Xinhua said in a brief report. Chen met Soe Win at Myanmar's new jungle capital of Naypyidaw, north of Yangon, Xinhua said, adding it was the first time the head of the Chinese policy bank had visited the former Burma. Chen also met the finance minister. Myanmar's shaky financial system suffered a major shock in 2003 with a run on private banks by people fearful they were about to collapse. But China's financial system has its own problems. Its banks are burdened with billions of dollars in bad loans, a legacy of decades of forced lending to state-owned firms, which the government has been trying to deal with using massive capital injections to prop up financial institutions. Myanmar also suffers economic sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe to pressure the military regime to release Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest and recognise her party's 1990 election victory, which the junta ignored. Some Myanmar banks have also been accused by the United States of money laundering. China, typically weary of supporting or imposing sanctions, is one of Myanmar's few diplomatic allies, coveting its natural gas reserves and timber and valuing its military bases that give it access to the Indian Ocean. UPDATE 1-Chinese regulator to intensify banking oversight Sun Aug 6, 2006 4:03pm ET160 BEIJING, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Chinese regulators will subject the country's banks to intensified checks in a bid to "strictly control the valves of credit", a top banking official said in remarks released late on Sunday. Jiang Dingzhi, vice chairman of China Banking Regulatory Commission, recently told officials that Chinese commercial banks needed to crack down on risks from lax lending controls. "At present, production over-capacity and problems with industry structure are presenting credit risks to the banking sector, and exchange rate reform and interest rate marketisation present the sector with market risks," Jiang said in the remarks issued on the banking regulator's Web site (www.cbrc.gov.cn). In recent weeks, Chinese officials have exhorted banks and local governments to strengthen implementation of measures aimed at cooling an economy growing at its fastest pace since 1995 -- 11.3 percent from a year earlier in the second quarter. Jiang said bank regulators would intensify supervision to ensure the "reasonable control of the scale and rhythm of credit". Lending would be examined based on banks' capital adequacy ratios, levels of non-performing loans and the purpose of the credit, he said. Credit for real estate development would be scrutinised to halt lending to projects that lack funding and land approval, he said. "The massive risks confronted in the course of real estate development are being married off to commercial banks," he said. Officials had to "conscientiously implement central macro adjustment policies and strictly control the valves of credit, preventing and easing banking risks," Jiang said. © Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved. ID: 38089 Autor(en): NCRC - Matthew Lee Erscheinungsdatum: 11.08.06

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Erzeugt: 11.08.06. Letzte Änderung: 18.12.06.
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