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The Straits Times: Singapore insurer Great Eastern posts 52% higher Q3 profit of $273.4 million The better performance came amid sustained sales momentum in Singapore and Malaysia, said Great Eastern. The better performance came amid sustained sales momentum in Singapore and Malaysia, said Great Eas...

The Straits Times: Singapore insurer Great Eastern posts 52% higher Q3 profit of $273.4 million The better performance came amid sustained sales momentum in Singapore and Malaysia, said Great Eastern. The better performance came amid sustained sales momentum in Singapore and Malaysia, said Great Eastern.PHOTO: ST FILE Chong Xin Wei UPDATED Nov 06, 2024, 03:56 PM SINGAPORE - Great Eastern posted a 52 per cent year-on-year increase in net profit to $273.4 million for the third quarter ended September, from $180.2 million in the previous corresponding period. This was driven by contributions from its insurance business and favourable investment performance from shareholders’ funds, said OCBC Bank’s insurance arm on Nov 6 in a business update. The group’s new business embedded value amounted to $176.9 million, up 7 per cent on the year from $165.1 million. Total weighted new sales for the third quarter fell 7 per cent at $390.8 million, from $419.4 million previously. For the nine-month period, total weighted new sales rose 19 per cent on the year at $1.4 billion, and new business embedded value rose 13 per cent to $515.8 million. The better performance came amid sustained sales momentum in Singapore and Malaysia, said Great Eastern. Net profit for the nine-month period was up 39 per cent on the year at $860.5 million. Great Eastern said the capital adequacy ratios of its insurance subsidiaries for the quarter “remain strong and well above their respective minimum regulatory levels”. Shares of Great Eastern have been suspended from trading since July 15, when the number of shares in public hands dipped below the 10 per cent free float threshold after OCBC’s offer for the insurer’s shares closed. THE BUSINESS TIMES APN news: DBS Bank Leverages Asian Network, Digital Expertise to Enhance Wealth Offering for HNI and NRI customers by NS November 29, 2024 Bengaluru – DBS Bank has announced a significantly enriched wealth proposition for its customers in India, building on its existing offering and introducing new, digitally enhanced features, tailored to the needs of NRIs and HNIs. The bank also inaugurated its third flagship branch in Indiranagar, Bengaluru, reinforcing its presence in the country’s technology hub, with a comprehensive suite of bespoke offerings and cross-border solutions for HNI clients and NRIs to access both domestic and global banking capabilities. The latest branch opening adds to the 26 DBS branches already serving Bengaluru and underlines the importance of the city to the bank’s operations in India. In its largest increase in history, new financial wealth of US$588 billion was generated in India in 2023 and the country is expected to add wealth of ~US$730 billion annually until 2028. This increase in affluence has led to the emergence of new customer needs, and coupled with the rising phenomenon of the globally mobile Indian, there is a requirement for customised solutions that factor in personal, business and lifestyle preferences. DBS Bank has leveraged its presence across Asia, and its advanced digital capabilities to design a differentiated offering, that gives DBS Treasures customers, with a Total Relationship Value of more than INR 30 Lakh, total access to a full suite of customised wealth management solutions, experienced relationship managers, exclusive privileges, and the trusted advantage of the DBS network. The full proposition, including preferential FX rates for international fund transfers, waived service fees, and zero ATM withdrawal fees, is available to customers across the six key DBS markets of Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, India and China. In 2023, DBS Bank launched its super-premium, invite-only credit card in India, the DBS Vantage Card, offering exclusive benefits for high-net-worth customers and international travellers. These benefits include 8 Vantage Points for every ₹200 of international spends (1 VP = ₹1), zero forex mark-up on international transactions in Singapore, and a low forex mark-up of 1.75% for transactions elsewhere. The bank has pioneered an online account opening experience for its new NRI customers which lets them complete the account opening process (prior to document submission), within an hour, setting the standard for seamless onboarding. In line with the needs of a multi-location lifestyle, global Indians can open a DBS savings account with view-access and can track their application through the DBS Mobile Application Platform. View-access gives customers the functionalities of a savings account, except for fund withdrawal. Once all mandatory documents are submitted, customers can transact and withdraw funds with full account functionality. The new streamlined DBS process is a major step forward in accessibility and convenience for NRI banking, reducing the time and effort of paper documentation and follow-ups and ensuring a smooth and efficient customer experience end-to-end. Richa Tripathi, Head – Wealth Management and Treasures, DBS Bank India, said, “Having been in India for over 30 years, DBS has developed a robust understanding of the preferences of high-net-worth Indians, both in the country and abroad. The pattern of wealth creation in India has become more decentralised, demanding stronger regional presence. DBS Bank India’s large branch network, coupled with advanced digital expertise, supports its ‘phygital’ strategy, which can comprehensively serve the rapidly growing new wealth in India. At the same time, Bengaluru’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and rise in investable wealth make it an ideal market for piloting our premium banking products and propositions. The new signature DBS branch in Bengaluru will offer more exclusive and personalised services for the complex and evolving needs of our affluent and NRI customers as well as business owners. Our online account opening solution for NRIs enables them to unlock more value through a seamless, location-agnostic experience. Asia, with India at the heart, is the rising epicentre of wealth and, as the largest bank in Southeast Asia, we look forward to bringing all the advantages of our Asian connectivity to our Indian and NRI clients.” The bank in India has also tailored its wealth management approach for resident elderly customers with a proposition known as “DBS Golden Circle”, designed to not only address this demographic’s financial needs, but also to enhance their overall quality of life through a suite of specialised services, enabling them to ‘Live more, Bank Less’. HSBC: HSBC can stand strong in a fragmenting world By Liam Proud November 7, 20247:05 PM GMT+7 Updated a month ago Georges Elhedery, HSBCÕs chief executive for the Middle East and North Africa, gestures during an interview with Reuters in Dubai Georges Elhedery, HSBC chief executive for the Middle East and North Africa, gestures during an interview with Reuters in Dubai, United Arab Emirates August 7, 2017. REUTERS/Tom Arnold/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab LONDON, Nov 7 (Reuters Breakingviews) - When HSBC (HSBA.L), opens new tab,(0005.HK), opens new tabopened, opens new tab its doors in Hong Kong and Shanghai in 1865, Chinese trade flows were just bubbling up again after the Second Opium War, opens new tab between the ruling Qing dynasty and British and French imperial powers. Tensions between East and West aren’t quite that bad today, but tariff talk and widening geopolitical rifts nonetheless threaten the cross-border banking model epitomised by the UK-based group. How new CEO Georges Elhedery handles those challenges will be closely watched by rival globe-trotting banks such as Citigroup (C.N), opens new tab and Standard Chartered (STAN.L), opens new tab. There’s every reason to think that the 159-year-old lender can stand strong. Advertisement · Scroll to continue HSBC is the archetypal global bank. Headquartered in London, its biggest market by pre-tax profit is Hong Kong, accounting for just over a third of the 2023 total. No country housed more than a fifth of its 221,000 total employees as of last December, opens new tab, the largest being India at 19%. Insiders like to joke that it is the only bank in the world where most staff are working when the CEO is asleep. A recent reshuffle, opens new tab by Elhedery, who took charge in early September, underscores the lender’s global nature. Granted, the former finance chief divided the geographic businesses into Eastern and Western clusters, which at first glance looks like a possible prelude for a split. Yet in HSBC’s new structure, those regional divisions are secondary to the main reporting lines – Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, international wealth and corporate and institutional banking. The latter two are global businesses. Hong Kong and UK retail are the dominant businesses for HSBC Hong Kong and UK retail are the dominant businesses for HSBC The corporate and institutional division, in particular, is inherently cross-border. HSBC facilitated $850 billion of global trade in 2023, according to the bank’s estimates, which is about 4% of the total volume of merchandise trade in that year, based on World Trade Organization figures, opens new tab. The bank disclosed, opens new tab in 2022 that 45% of its wholesale revenue was international, referring to transactions that take place outside of its clients’ home market. as it has no obvious path to delivering a fresh budget. HSBC also estimated at the time that it was collecting about one-fifth of the transaction banking fees up for grabs from Western European, North American and Middle Eastern companies operating in Asia, excluding Japan. Meanwhile, it has said that investment banking and markets clients whose business straddles both East and West offered considerably higher returns for HSBC. Internationally mobile retail banking clients are also twice as lucrative as local ones. In other words, the group’s fortunes are tied to globalisation, and there’s not much Elhedery can do about it. That might sound like a problem at a time when political and trade tensions are rising between China, the United States and Europe. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has threatened a 60% tariff on Chinese goods. Beijing and Brussels risk a tit-for-tat over electric-vehicle duties. Yet the recent past offers hope for Elhedery and his investors. HSBC’s wholesale-focused businesses held up well during the last U.S.-China tit-for-tat starting in 2018, which saw then-President Trump’s administration slap tariffs on $380 billion of products, according to the Tax Foundation, opens new tab. Beijing responded in turn, and by the end of 2019 the new levies covered more than half of bilateral trade, based on calculations, opens new tab by the Peterson Institute for International Economics. At the same time, Trump also hit Europe with tariffs. The commercial-banking division of HSBC, though, grew at a handy 9% compound annual rate between 2017 and 2019. Admittedly, rising U.S. interest rates over that period helped, but even the most tariff-sensitive bit of the division kept expanding. Revenue from trade and receivables financing grew at 1% in compound annual terms over the same period. Trade-focused revenue in the investment bank, which typically handles larger corporate clients than the commercial division, posted a 4% rate of expansion. Global trade has barely changed as a proportion of GDP since 2015, ranging from a low of 26% in 2020 to a high of 31.1% in 2022 Global trade has barely changed as a proportion of GDP since 2015, ranging from a low of 26% in 2020 to a high of 31.1% in 2022 That resilient performance reflects the fact that global import and export volumes kept rising even as tariffs ramped up. Trade as a percentage of global GDP was 27.9% in 2017, before the tit-for-tat, and 28.1% two years later after all the China-U.S. levies, according to World Trade Organization estimates, opens new tab. Even during 2020, when the pandemic locked down much of the world for months, the figure only dipped by a few percentage points. HSBC’s own trade and receivables finance revenue in the commercial bank dipped just 4% that year. The implication is that even as supply chains move around, the overall volume of goods crossing borders is hard to budge. The historical figures, then, suggest that HSBC has adapted well so far to the new reality of fragmented global trade, where money and goods increasingly move between China and third countries like Vietnam before finding their way to Europe or the United States. In the group’s numbers, this shows up as a decreasing reliance on the People’s Republic. In the first half, opens new tab of 2024, HSBC generated more pre-tax profit in India than mainland China across its commercial banking unit and the global banking and markets division. The two countries were neck and neck a year earlier. HSBC cannot defy geopolitical forces entirely. Its substantial Chinese operations and its status as one of the largest clearers of U.S. dollar transactions make it vulnerable to pressure from either side. The bank got tangled up in the aftermath of the 2018 arrest of Huawei finance boss Meng Wanzhou in Canada, which eventually cost it business with Chinese state-owned enterprises, Reuters reported. A full-scale U.S.-China showdown could force it to make difficult choices. Elhedery’s job, however, is to make sure the bank keeps moving with its customers, while staying as far away from politics as possible. Provided the global trading system remains intact, Elhedery will stand a good chance of weathering the geopolitical storm. The Indian business is bigger, measured by pre-tax profit, than the Mainland Chinese one The Indian business is bigger, measured by pre-tax profit, than the Mainland Chinese one Follow @Breakingviews, opens new tab on X CONTEXT NEWS HSBC’s new CEO Georges Elhedery on Oct. 29 said that he would present a “business update” in February, detailing his plans for the group that he took over on Sept. 2. Elhedery on Oct. 22 said that he was restructuring the group along four new business lines: Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, corporate and institutional banking, and international wealth. The boss of the corporate and institutional unit, Michael Roberts, will also oversee a geographic cluster of businesses known as the “Western markets”, which will comprise the non-retail banking bits of the UK business, continental Europe and the Americas. David Liao and Surendra Rosha, joint heads of the new Hong Kong unit, will also head the “Eastern markets” geography, which includes all of Asia, Oceania and the Middle East. (The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. Refiles to fix typo in paragraph six, removes repeated word in paragraph seven.) Bangkok post: Bank of Thailand sets out target for inflation range The Bank of Thailand has reiterated that an inflation rate between 1% and 3% is appropriate to support the country's economic growth potential. Speaking at the Monetary Policy Forum on Wednesday, Piti Disyatat, deputy governor for monetary stability at the central bank, said the regulator forecasts a headline inflation rate of 1.2% for 2025, within its target range and rising from an anticipated 0.5% in 2024. Core inflation (excluding fresh food and energy) is expected to increase to 0.9% in 2025, up from 0.5% this year, according to the central bank. Finance Minister Pichai Chunhavajira said on Tuesday after a meeting between the Finance Ministry and the central bank to set an inflation target for 2025 that the country's inflation rate needs to be around 2% to support economic growth. Thailand's headline inflation rate was 0.2% year-on-year in the first nine months of this year, with core inflation averaging 0.48%. "If the inflation rate increases to 2%, as the government intends, this is still within the central bank's range. The Finance Ministry and the central bank reached a consensus on this level at Tuesday's meeting," said Mr Piti, who was involved in the discussion. According to Mr Piti, the inflation target considers Thai economic growth, with the central bank expecting inflation of 1-3% aligning with growth potential of 2.8-3%. In the longer term, Thailand's potential growth could increase with ongoing structural reforms, he said. Mr Piti said inflation is influenced by both internal and external factors, each contributing about 50%. Internally, energy and fresh food prices, which are largely uncontrollable in the short term, make up around 90% of inflation's demand-side factors. "The low inflation level is partly related to structural elements, such as heightened competition from imported goods and government initiatives to stabilise price fluctuations, like the Oil Fuel Fund," he said. "There are no indications of deflation, as widespread and sustained price declines have not been observed." The central bank forecasts Thai GDP growth of 2.7% for 2024 and 2.9% for 2025. Growth is expected to become more balanced, with expansions in the tourism and export sectors, according to Sakkapop Panyanukul, assistant governor for the monetary policy group at the central bank. Foreign tourist arrivals are projected to reach 36 million this year, rising to 39.5 million in 2025. As of Oct 28, there have been 28.3 million foreign arrivals this year. Tourism income is expected to hit 1.4 trillion baht this year, increasing to 1.6 trillion baht next year, said Mr Sakkapop. However, notable risks remain, such as US-China trade tensions, especially following the upcoming US presidential election, and geopolitical risks, including potential escalations in the Middle East, he said. Siam Piwat: Siam Piwat supports world-class business case competition CIBCC 2024, creating a well-growing platform for all To further solidify its position as the Icon of Innovation and a leading developer of world-class projects, Siam Piwat Group has supported the 10th Chulalongkorn International Business Case Competition (CIBCC) 2024, organized by the Chulalongkorn Case Club and the international programs of Chulalongkorn Business School, Chulalongkorn University, reflecting Siam Piwat’s commitment to creating a well-growing platform that benefits both internal and external stakeholders. Representing Siam Piwat’s executives, Ms. Caroline Murphy, President – Sales and Business Relations, and Ms. Amporn Chotruchsakul, President – Business Support, attended the opening ceremony, with Ms. Murphy serving as a guest speaker on the topic “Siam Piwat as A Creator of World-class Experiential Destinations.” The opening ceremony was held on May 20, 2024 at the Chulalongkorn University Auditorium and presided over by Ms. Supamas Isarabhakdi, Minister of Higher Education, Science, Research, and Innovation (MHESI). Siam Piwat and WHA Corporation Public Limited Company have participated in the CIBCC 2024 as case companies. The competition is taking place from May 20 to 26, 2024 at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok and in Rayong. On May 20, 2024, Siam Piwat Group’s executives and employees welcomed and gave a tour of Siam Paragon, Siam Center, and Siam Discovery to the representatives from the 20 participating universities from around the world, faculty members, and the CIBCC team, totaling 150 people. Siam Piwat is committed to driving sustainable business growth and creating value for people, communities, society, and the country by spreading its contribution far and wide. This project is a vital opportunity for Siam Piwat to support social activities, serve as a model, and provide a practical learning experience based on real business operations, reflecting its commitment to creating a well-growing platform for all internal and external stakeholders.