Asia Banking
PANNIER: China’s big push into Uzbekistan
Wave of projects in energy, mining, factories and construction and water conservation. Critical minerals could be next.
Singapore’s lender OCBC warns of slower loan growth in 2025 after missing profit estimates
Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp, Singapore’s second-largest lender, has forecast a slowdown in loan growth for 2025 following a weaker-than-expected rise in fourth-quarter earnings.
Hacker targets Indonesian banks with ransomware threats
Bjorka, the hacker who previously made headlines in Indonesia during 2022 and 2023, has resurfaced, now using an X account to warn that several major Indonesian private and state-owned banks are potential targets of ransomware attacks
Russia’s Mir cards remain an open question in India
Indian Ambassador to Russia Vinay Kumar has expressed optimism about Indian financial institutions adopting Moscow’s Mir payments system and Russian banks adopting New Delhi’s RuPay payments system
Reserve Bank of India resumes bond purchases after three years to manage liquidity
The Reserve Bank of India conducted net purchases of government bonds in the secondary market last week.
Cost of repairing Syria’s power infrastructure put at $40bn by electricity minister
Production facilities, transmission points, high voltage lines and distribution networks “ruined”, he says.
Indian banks' profitability to moderate in FY26
Indian banks' profitability is expected to moderate in FY26, following an inflexion point in FY25, largely due to delinquencies stemming from over-leveraging in unsecured assets and rising unsecured credit costs.
Former chief of the Bank of Japan sees more rate hikes on the horizon
The Bank of Japan is expected to continue raising interest rates in the coming years as inflation shows signs of sustainably reaching the central bank’s 2% target, according to former Governor Haruhiko Kuroda
China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway officially launched, but sidetracked at least until summer
Project moving forward under yellow signal.