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Top Story: Singapore finance minister urges U.S. and Europe to harmonize financial rules
"We need something closer to harmonization," Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who is also chairman of the central bank and a deputy prime minister, told Reuters in an interview. "If you look at many advanced countries today, compared to five years ago, things have gotten more domestic and less international and that's a risk for the global economy whether it's financial regulation or other matters."
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Top Story: Asia's banks face $1 trillion Basel III capital shortfall, says DBS chief
A combination of strong economic growth and the requirements of Basel III could leave Asian banks facing a $1 trillion capital shortfall within five years, according to Piyush Gupta, chief executive of Singapore-based lender DBS. The increasing size of Asian bank balance sheets as a result of these developments means that even though Basel III will not require banks in the region to increase their capital reserves in the next one or two years, the medium-term outlook could include a "meaningful capital shortfall", according to Gupta.
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Top Story: Need for Basel III framework for Asia
A system which is safe, efficient and equitable is needed to address the new issues in the banking industry today as the industry has moved into different environments with different risks, according to an independent think-tank, Fung Global Institute. Andrew Sheng, the president of Hong Kong-based Fung, said Basel III is not sufficient to address the current issues faced by the banking industry, especially Asian banks, which are mostly retail.
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Market Development
+ IFC, OJK ink corporate governance road map
Top Story: Zeti urges nations to be prepared to face easing of US stimulus
Countries have to position themselves to better absorb the volatility generated by the tapering off of US quantitative easing exercise, Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz said. She said the financial markets would converge towards a more stable condition as the economy recovered. "Any such volatility is envisaged to be temporary," she told reporters here today.
IN THIS UPDATE:
Market Development
+ Corporate governance 'needs to spread'
Top Story: ASEAN integration needs to be flexible, say experts
ASEAN integration should not be a blanket initiative; instead governments and practitioners need to take into account the unique characteristics and different growth levels of the countries when planning a regional capital market convergence, according to experts. Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) deputy chief executive Datuk Nik Ramlah Mahmood said the reality was that ASEAN countries were growing at different speeds.
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Top Story: ASEAN nations complete first-ever corporate governance scorecard
Results of the first-ever ASEAN Corporate Governance (CG) Scorecard will be released on 5 June 2013, resulting from the completion of the inaugural assessment of publicly-listed companies using the standardized ASEAN Corporate Governance Scorecard. It is part of a broader agenda for ASEAN regional capital market integration under the ACMF which is supported by the ADB through the “Promoting an Interlinked ASEAN Capital Market” technical assistance. The report may be downloaded from ADB’s website at www.adb.org.
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Top Story: New BI Governor to Push on Reciprocity Negotiations
Agus Martowardojo, who was sworn into office as the new governor of the central bank on Friday, said he is seeking for negotiation with neighboring nations to push on banking reciprocity. “We have to prepare the local banks to be able to become players in regional as well as international,” said the former finance minister and former chief executive of Indonesian state-lender Bank Mandiri.
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Top Story: UCITS future in Asia questioned
UCITS has enjoyed unprecedented success penetrating Asia but the party may be ending for the investment vehicle as three Asian initiatives prepare to challenge the European brand. In one example, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Capital Markets Forum (ACMF) has a project to facilitate the cross-border offering of collective investment schemes within Asean. ACMF has completed the development of a regulatory framework and is working on implementation details.
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Top Story: Singapore calls for improved ASEAN financial reporting standards
At a recent symposium held by the International Federation of Accountants, Josephine Teo, Singapore's Minister of State for Finance and Transport, called for a rise in the standards of financial reporting in ASEAN. She said that an important step towards more efficient and integrated capital markets would be the harmonization of standards across the region, and that, to attract investors, it would help to have a high quality financial reporting regime and strong corporate governance practices applied consistently across the ASEAN economies.
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Top Story: ASEAN+3 endorse initiative for infrastructure financing bonds
ASEAN countries, together with China, Japan and South Korea, on Friday endorsed an initiative on "Fostering Infrastructure Financing Bonds Development" in order to boost infrastructure projects in Southeast Asian countries. The finance ministers, central bank governors and senior officials of these countries said the Asian Bond Markets Initiative, or ABMI, has been making continuous progress under the auspices of the ASEAN+3 framework in promoting issuance and facilitating the demand of local currency denominated bonds.
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