MANILA, March 15, Reuters – A 288 million dollar syndicated loan for the Philippines Long Distance Telephone Co marks a major initiative by Manila’s commercial bank creditors to recycle existing debt, bankers said. BOT International (HK) Ltd, Citicorp International Ltd and the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp are lead managing the loan. Syndication started…
19 January 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, Jan 19, Reuter – The Philippines has emerged from a tumultuous year with democracy apparently firmly in place after Monday’s local elections, but there is no euphoria among analysts over the country’s economic prospects. The economy has turned in its best growth in seven…
10 February 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, Feb 10, Reuter – A sword poised over a Gordian knot is the official symbol of the Philippine body charged with selling about 6.8 billion dollars in bad debts accumulated by the country’s two major government banks. “That’s an appropriate symbol for the work…
19 February 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, Feb 19 – The Philippines’ 27.8 billion dollar foreign debt makes it a bit player in attempts to find solutions to the debt crisis and Manila prefers to let large debtors take the initiative, Central Bank Governor Jose Fernandez said. “I think anybody who…
25 March 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, March 25, Reuter – Philippine banks have largely recovered from years of crisis, but high intermediation costs still constrain lending, bankers and analysts say. The industry’s total assets grew to 259.9 billion pesos at end-1987 from 236.4 billion a year earlier, according to a…
18 April 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, April 18, Reuter – China is negotiating with the Manila-based Asian Development Bank for six loans this year, a Chinese official said on Monday. Li Dongqun, alternate executive director on the ADB board, told Reuters in an interview that Peking wanted to move slowly…
18 April 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, April 18, Reuter – Filipino and foreign businessmen have launched a sharp attack on the Philippines’ 20-month-old debt/equity swap program, charging it is too restrictive and arbitrary and actually deters investors. “Disillusioned investors are the worst possible advertisement for the Philippines,” said a statement…
20 April 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, April 20, Reuter – Japan’s attempt to use the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to recycle part of its 30 billion dollar private-sector surplus is not meeting with much success, banking officials and diplomats said. Japan, with 15 pct of the 47-member ADB’s 22.8…
20 April 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, April 20, Reuter – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is still awash with funds, with liquid assets of 4.5 billion dollars, 74.2 pct of its undisbursed loan balances, at the end of 1987, Treasurer Alan Gill said in an interview. This compares with liquid…
27 April 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, April 27, Reuter – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has found it difficult to identify suitable projects to assist in China because of Peking’s centrally planned economy, bank president Masao Fujioka told Reuters in an interview. China became the 47-member bank’s newest member in…
27 April 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, April 27, Reuter – Taipei has ended a two-year boycott of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) but its dispute over a name-change by the bank continues, Central Bank Governor Chang Chi-Cheng said on Wednesday. The boycott was triggered in 1986 when China was admitted…
28 April 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, April 28, Reuter – South Pacific island nations want to form a new regional development bank to increase their access to financial resources, a Western Samoan official said on Thursday. The idea was put to the management of the Asian Development Bank on the…
28 April 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, April 28, Reuter – The Asian Development Bank’s annual meeting opened with a call from Philippine President Corazon Aquino to keep the bank’s leadership Asian and to temper its policy prescriptions. “(The bank) must continue to view banking, especially development banking, as a relationship…
29 April 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, April 29, Reuter – Taiwan delegates to the Asian Development Bank’s annual meeting continued to cover their badges saying “Taipei, China” on Friday, defying the Bank’s efforts to change the island’s name in deference to China. Such protests by the Taiwanese, who have also…
10 December 1998 Reuters News English (c) 1998 Reuters Limited NEW DELHI, Dec 10 (Reuters) – BankAmerica Corp will sell its retail banking business in India but remains committed to its wholesale banking business in the country, a senior bank official said on Thursday. “The bank will continue its wholesale banking business in India,” Josephine…
22 May 1997 Reuters News English (c) 1997 Reuters Limited KATHMANDU, May 22 (Reuter) – Nepal’s coalition government plans to grant the Himalayan kingdom’s central bank full independence, the finance minister said on Wednesday. The Nepal Rastra Bank is currently under the supervision of the finance ministry. “We are considering that the central bank should…
18 May 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, May 18, Reuter – Philippine banks are missing opportunities by restricting foreign exchange trading to U.S. dollars and not dealing in stronger currencies like the yen, Central Bank Governor Jose Fernandez said. He told Reuters in an interview that technically, commercial banks could buy or…
18 May 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, May 18, Reuter – The Philippine economy is growing strongly in real terms but is in danger of overheating, Central Bank Governor Jose Fernandez said. “The growth is real,” he told Reuters in an interview. “The reason I talk about overheating is when you…
28 July 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, July 28, Reuter – The Philippines plans to approach its creditor banks for a new-money loan package and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a new funding program this autumn, central bank governor Jose Fernandez said on Thursday. He told a news conference that…
3 August 1988 Reuters News English (c) 1988 Reuters Limited MANILA, Aug 3, Reuter – The Philippines has told its commercial bank creditors they must help bridge a 1.8 billion dollar financing gap in 1989, a senior official close to talks held in New York last month told Reuters. The official said Philippine officials had…
12 September 2003 Reuters News English (c) 2003 Reuters Limited BEIJING, Sept 12 (Reuters) – China has not ruled out another big bailout of its ailing state-run banking sector but sees signs the banks have turned a corner and are on track to meet foreign competition, the country’s new banking regulator said on Friday.…
12 September 2003 Reuters News English (c) 2003 Reuters Limited BEIJING, Sept 12 (Reuters) – China’s new banking regulator said on Friday foreign banks should begin making up lost ground and challenge local peers within months, dismissing concerns they are losing market share in a potentially highly lucrative market. Foreign banks now command a…
15 September 2003 Reuters News English (c) 2003 Reuters Limited TAIPEI, Sept 15 (Reuters) – Taiwan will permit its banks to do business in China next year if mainland regulators grant the island some supervisory authority and allow banks to accept local currency deposits, Taiwan’s top policymaker on China said on Monday. A week after…
24 November 1997 Reuters News English (c) 1997 Reuters Limited NEW DELHI, Nov 24 (Reuters) – The collapse of Yamaichi Securities could signal the end of the worst of Japan’s “post-bubble” economic adjustment, Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Mitsuo Sato said on Monday. “I think we need to go through that kind of challenge in…
8 June 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, June 5 – The Philippines’ interest payments on its foreign debt will increase by 157 million dollars this year if the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) climbs to an average of 7.5 pct, Central Bank Deputy Governor Edgardo Zialcita said. “Assuming that the uptrend…
8 July 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, June 8, Reuter – The closure last month of the Manila Banking Corporation, one of the Philippines‘ nine largest banks, highlights the weaknesses still plaguing the country’s financial institutions, bankers and analysts said today. Manila Bank was declared insolvent by the Central Bank of…
21 August 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Aug 21 – Elders Finance, a division of (Elders IXL Ltd), is interested in buying a minority stake in either Union Bank of the Philippines or the Philippine Commercial International (PCI) Bank as part of a major thrust into the country, banking sources said. They…
From the Managing Editor An early breakfast is something that most journalists don’t care for. Most of my tribe skip it and among those who don’t, very few sip their coffee before 10 am. Like Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, we finish our days late and start them late, you see. It was, therefore, unusual for…
From the Editor Raghuram Govind Rajan is a lucky man. Two weeks into his new job as Governor of the Reserve Bank of India his friend Ben Bernanke, who he calls “cautious and nuanced” in his book Fault Lines, handed him a big gift- a delay in the “taper” in the US Federal Reserve’s quantitative…
28 September 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Sept 28 – The Philippines is poised for a risky showdown with its creditors that could take the global debt crisis into new territory, bankers and economic analysts polled by Reuters said. Over the past week, a combative Congress has made a series…
25 September 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Sept 25 – The Philippines’ recent debt restructuring hangs in the balance after a Senate panel ruled that an executive order issued by President Aquino in July should be repealed. That order allowed the government to take over a loan made to a private…
Sometimes India’s economy resembles a rambunctious teenager brought up short by a finger-wagging headmaster. Our finance minister can now recite with his eyes closed a string of figures that seek to prove that India has not done badly at all in comparison with the rest of the developing- and indeed the developed- world. P. Chidambaram…
8 October 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Oct 8 – The Philippine peso plunged to a record low of 20.850 against the dollar on Thursday from 20.697 on Wednesday in its biggest single-day fall in President Corazon Aquino’s 19-month rule. A Bankers’ Association of the Philippines spokesman said only one million dollars…
22 October 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Oct 22 – The Philippine Central Bank and creditors of a private fertiliser firm are racing to finalise a new compromise over a 56.5 million dollar debt that is holding up the country’s recent debt rescheduling agreement, sources close to the talks said. A…
24 November 1987 Reuters News English (c) 1987 Reuters Limited MANILA, Nov 24 – The Philippines has moved to defend its foreign exchange reserves by curbing U.S. dollar trading between banks, easing bank deposit rules for overseas workers and cutting purchases of debt paper with foreign exchange. The new rules were announced as the peso…
From the Editor Pity the modern banker, who is described in one of the stories in this issue as “pin-striped”. In India, of course, some of the most powerful bankers sport bandhinis, ikats and kanthas. But you have to feel sorry for our bankers. We don’t have anarchists waving their fists at bank CEOS’ pay…
Just as we were putting this special issue of Business Today to bed. Thomas M. Hoenig. President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, wrote a provocative essay titled Too Big to Succeed in The New York Times, noting that America’s five largest financial institutions are 20 per cent bigger than they were before…
The government must resist the temptation to dip its hand in the till. The Reserve Bank Of India (RBI) is the best-run company in India: transparent, diligent, accountable, and (ostensibly) independent. Its official capital is a paltry Rs 5 crore, yet year after year it rewards its sole shareholder, the government, with mind-boggling dividends. The…