Thailand Financial News

Fitch Ratings has today affirmed Bank of Ayudhya Public Company Limited’s (BAY) Foreign Currency Issuer Default Rating at ‘BBB-’ (BBB minus) with Stable Outlook, Short-term Foreign Currency rating at ‘F3′, Individual rating at ‘C/D’, Support rating at ‘3′ and its subordinated debt rating at ‘BB+’.
(more…)

The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET)’s Board has approved a plan for the Exchange to work with the securities companies on enlarging the investor base. To keep market representatives up-to-date on financial innovations and increase the number and quality of securities companies’ services, training and study tour scholarships will be made available.
(more…)

The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) and its sister market for high-potential firms - Market for Alternative Investment (mai) – are hosting an event on June 6  where young entrepreneurs can present their business plans to listed companies and venture capitalists.
(more…)

Short-haul air traffic in the Middle East and to/from India is tipped to expand at double-digit rates each year for the remainder of this decade, according to a new report from the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, to be released next month.

The “Middle East Aviation Outlook” report states that all ingredients for “extraordinary” short haul, intra-regional growth are present, including a youthful and affluent population.
(more…)

Bangkok Bank in partnership with the Bangkok Mass Transit System (BTS) and Visa International (Thailand) today launched the new ‘Be1st-BTS’ Visa debit card, a smart new way to shop and ride on the BTS. The new Be1st-BTS card is a combined ATM card, a debit card and a contact-less travel card, the first of its kind in Thailand.
(more…)

HSBC today announced the appointment of Dr Rudolf Apenbrink as Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Investments, Asia-Pacific. He will take up his new role in mid-July, succeeding Blair Pickerell who recently left the firm.

Apenbrink is currently CEO of HSBC Investments in Germany with responsibility for Group Investment Businesses in Germany, Austria and Eastern Europe, and a member of the Global Management Committee.
(more…)

SWIFT announced today it experienced strong growth in all major markets in 2006. A traffic increase of 13.7% and sustained financial performance have enabled SWIFT to return a total of EUR 65 million in benefits to customers.

Messaging traffic increased by 13.7% to 2.86 billion messages SWIFT returns EUR 65 million in customer benefits

The savings for the community constituted EUR 23 million in free hardware security modules, an 8% mid-year price reduction of EUR 16 million, and a rebate for the fifth consecutive year worth EUR 26 million.
(more…)

NASD today announced that it has fined New York’s HSBC Brokerage (HBI) $250,000 for failure to have adequate systems in place to supervise government securities transactions to ensure best execution.

In addition, the firm routed orders to HSBC Securities (HSI), an affiliated firm, without taking adequate steps to ensure that customers would not be harmed in the pricing of these securities.
(more…)

Hang Seng Bank (China) Limited (Hang Seng China), the mainland China subsidiary of Hang Seng Bank (the Bank), commenced business today (28 May).

The official opening ceremony for Hang Seng China, headquartered in Shanghai, will be held this Friday (1 June 2007).
(more…)

Banco de Oro wishes to announce that it has been in receipt today of an official notice of approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission of the merger of Banco de Oro Universal Bank and Equitable PCI Bank with BDO as the surviving entity.

Likewise approved were the change in name to Banco de Oro-EPCI, Inc.
(more…)