Other Asia Pacific

Bangladesh: Bankers Get Incentives to Work During Lockdown

By Editors | 15/04/2020

The central bank has ordered banks pay officers and employees full month salary for 10 days’ work during Covid-19 lockdown.

BSP Announces New Measures to Support Domestic Liquidity

By Editors | 13/04/2020

The BSP will expand the eligible securities it can purchase in the secondary market to include all peso-denominated government securities, rather than just those that are highly traded and liquid.

Capital / Liquidity

Bangladesh Bank Frees Up Additional Bank Lending Capacity

By Editors | 13/04/2020

Bangladesh Bank has increased lending and investment limits for conventional and Shariah banks, respectively, and further lowered the cash reserve requirement and repo rate.

Market Infrastructure

Myanmar Awards Licences to Seven More Foreign Banks

By Editors | 13/04/2020

The preliminary licences were awarded to three Korean banks, two Taiwanese banks, one Hong Kong bank and one Thai bank.

AML / KYC

FATF Grants Pakistan More Time to Address AML/CFT Deficiencies

By Editors | 12/04/2020

Pakistan will now have to submit its progress report in August instead of April, and the FATF review scheduled for June will instead take place in October.

Market Infrastructure

Indonesia Has Adopted Measures to Implement PFMI: CPMI-IOSCO

By Editors | 09/04/2020

Since the 2019 update, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia have finished adopting measures that will enable them to implement the PFMIs for all financial market infrastructure types.

Capital / Liquidity

BSP Offers Banks Mark-to-Market Relief, Cuts Liquidity Requirements

By Editors | 08/04/2020

The accounting relief allows banks to effectively reverse unrealised losses resulting from a change in fair value. The MLR cut frees up almost $200mn for smaller lenders.

Securities / Derivatives

BOT to Stabilise Corporate Bond Market, Ramp Up SME Support

By Editors | 08/04/2020

Among the new measures announced are six-month loan payment holidays and new low-cost loans for SMEs, and the establishment of a corporate bond stabilisation fund.

Capital / Liquidity

Sri Lankan Brokers Prohibited from Charging Interest on Margin Loans

By Editors | 08/04/2020

The central bank has also suspended overseas investment and outward remittances by Sri Lankan residents, and cut interest rates for the second time in three weeks.