From the press release desk this week…
Southeast Asia
Malaysia’s CIMB has formally launched its banking presence in the Philippines this week, according to local media reports. It will also be the first bank in the country to have an all-digital platform, in which customers can open a savings account online via its mobile app. The bank plans to offer unsecured loan offerings by April, while other digital financial products are expected to be launched by the second half of 2019…
The Stock Exchange of Thailand plans to increase the exchange’s market capitalisation to THB 30trn ($960m) by 2023 from THB 16.78trn, according to local media reports. The bourse’s target is part of its three-year plan, which includes educating investors on investment planning, developing the capital market’s infrastructure and explore new opportunities with technology…
Hedge funds
Hedge funds globally started off strong in January, returning nearly 4% after returning negatively in 2018, according to an Evestment report. Equity funds had the highest returns last month at 5.44%, with long/short equity strategies returning 5.97%…
Source: Evestment
Cryptocurrency
Around $145m of cryptocurrency investments have become frozen after the founder of Vancouver-based cryptocurrency exchange exchange Quadriga died in December, according to various media reports. The digital assets were protected by founder Gerald Cotton’s password, which has become unretrievable. Around 115,000 registered users are affected…
Regulation and enforcement
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has revoked the licence of W Falcon Asset Management (Asia) for window-dressing its liquid capital, breaching the terms of a restriction notice and failing to provide timely notification of the resignation of its director who engineered the window-dressing scheme. The disciplinary action follows an SFC investigation, which found that Falcon provided the SFC with false or misleading information in its licence application and financial returns between 2014 and 2017…
The SFC has revamped its licencing process to enhance the efficiency and transparency of its gatekeeping function. The regulator has introduced revamped licencing forms, a new edition of the licencing handbook and mandatory submission of all annual returns and notifications. The regulator said that the revamped forms have been standardised and come with clear instructions and navigation guides, which should help the SFC more efficiently gather the information it needs to assess an applicant’s fitness and properness to be licenced…
