International banks target Middle East: increasing numbers of international banks are moving into commercial and banking operations in the Middle East region, taking advantage of new liberalisation laws.
THE DECISION OF UK BASED banking giant HSBC to pursue a majority stake in Iraq's Dar Es Salaam Investment Bank confirms a trend. International banking groups have been stepping up their interests in the Middle East over the past couple of years, both by setting up local subsidiaries and...

Papering over the problem: killing the dollar to save Bear Stearns.
AS THE NEWS BROKE on March 14 that the Federal Reserve would backstop the rescue of Bear Stearns by JPMorgan Chase, it's unlikely that many of the drivers paying record-high prices at the gas stations off the West Side Highway thought to glance toward midtown, where two sleek towers...

NCB Capital expresses bullish outlook.
NCB CAPITAL (NCBC) has released a detailed investment strategy report highlighting how the GCC economies are capitalising on their petrodollar windfalls (estimated to be in excess of $2 trillion over this decade) to drive their efforts to diversify their economies away from hydrocarbons. The resultant project pipeline in the...

Bangko Sentral, RCBC dismiss text rumors.
Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) president and chief operating officer Francisco S. Magsajo yesterday denied reports that some of its branches are experiencing unusual withdrawals. The bank official issued the statement in reaction to rumors being circulated via text messaging that RCBC is having financial problems due...

GFH opens $302m subscriptions.
* The Bahrain-based Gulf Finance House B.S.C. (GFH), one of the leading providers of Islamic investment and commercial banking services in the region, has opened subscriptions to its $302m private placement exercise to finance the first phase of its $3.8bn mixed-use entertainment project, Legends. The project is...

Evaluating cost performance of banks in the Asia pacific.
This paper aims to evaluate the cost efficiency of banks in the Asia-Pacific region and test whether the operating performance of banks in poorer economies improves with the inclusion of environmental proxies. Our basic cost efficiency model finds that Australia and Singapore are the most cost efficient banking economies....

Bank industry risk analysis: Australia.
This paper identifies major strengths and weaknesses of the Australian Banking Sector with a focus on risk characteristics. It notes that: the major banks are among the most profitable globally; robust industry regulation is supported by transparent accounting policies and practices; and adequate capitalization is supported by good-quality residential...

Currency privatization as a substitute for currency boards and dollarization.
A nation that seeks to fix the value of its currency relative to that of some other nation's currency can do so in at least three different ways: it can assign responsibility to the central bank for "pegging" the currency's exchange rate, without imposing any particular foreign-currency reserve requirement;...

Current Directions in Financial Regulation: Proceedings of a Conference Sponsored by the John Deutsch Institute for the Study of Economic Policy, Queen's University.
Edited by FRANK MILNE and EDWIN H. NEAVE. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press. 2005. Pp. 248. $29.95 (paper); $75.00 (cloth) This volume makes available the proceedings of the Fourth National Conference on Financial Regulation, held in Toronto in May 2004. The conference organizers sought to bring...

P/$ rate closes at P50.055 to $ 1.
The peso rate closed higher at P50.055 to the US dollar yesterday at the Philippine Dealing System of the Bankers Association of the Philippines from P50.105 last Friday. The weighted average rate depreciated to P50.136 from P50.081. Total volume amounted to $ 348.9 million. Gov't borrowings fall...