asean

Lawrence Goh to take on head of group technology and operations with Susan Hwee to become new head of group retail, replacing retiring Eddie Khoo who is joining UOB Vietnam as a senior adviser.

The bank wants to help scale digital 'platform players', and is also offering $150m of venture debt to the Singapore market to provide financing to early-stage, high-growth companies backed by venture capital or private equity.

FinanceAsia spoke to exchange leaders about regional ESG disclosure progress and cross-border product collaboration, while the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) shared an exclusive update on an agreement with Indonesia and Malaysia.

Wai Mei Hong will lead the bank’s strategy in the city-state.

Even if Bitcoin is embraced by other emerging economies, trade ties with China, volatile price swings, and the not-so-distant memory of a regional financial crisis may prevent cryptocurrency from ever taking off in Asia.

Southeast Asian countries are making progress in their plans to issue digital currencies with legal tender, or central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). FinanceAsia explores the implications of this shift.

Even as some companies have announced plans to postpone roadshows or meet investors on account of the novel coronavirus outbreak, banks still expect a robust IPO pipeline for Asia in the immediate future.

The spin-off of ThaiBev’s regional beer assets has three characteristics likely to draw investors’ attention. A successful listing will support the tone for future Thai deals, but, more importantly, set it for Asean ones too.