Asia Pacific

Conferences are supposed to be fun, especially if you’re an invited guest, which usually leads to a perfect concoction of free booze, food and five star accommodation. Unfortunately that wasn't the case on my recent trip to Beijing — quite the opposite in fact.

Size was the highlight for BMW Automotive Finance this week as it executed the joint largest China auto ABS by a foreign company, raising Rmb4bn ($607m) with its Bavarian Sky China 2016-1 Trust.

Index provider MSCI surprised markets on Tuesday by once again delaying the inclusion of A-shares in its Emerging Markets index. It conceded that China had made some progress, but said the country still has more work to do to tackle concerns over repatriation and restrictions on launching financial products linked to onshore exchanges.

Barclays names new HK chief — Lee leaves Goldman loans team — Chadha departs from Deutsche — DBS India finds new banking head — Huray for RHB IB

CIMB has made 16 people redundant in investment banking and equities, the second time the Malaysian lender has cut regional jobs this year amid a slump in deal flow.

National Bank of Abu Dhabi is betting big on India’s fast growing economy, after opening a branch in Mumbai last November. The bank has ambitious plans for south Asia, its chief executive for India told GlobalCapital Asia recently.

The Australian lender priced an A$500m five year floating rate covered bond on Wednesday on an oversubscribed order book. Though it was unable to tighten pricing, the final spread was in line with the last five year A$ benchmark issued by CIBC.

South Korea’s financial authorities announced a new set of capital-control regulations in a bid to provide its financial system with a better buffer against external shocks.

Restrictions on launching A-share linked financial products is one of the remaining hurdles for Chinese equities joining the MSCI. But as solving the issue will require China to relinquish more capital controls, there is unlikely to be a swift conclusion.

Barclays has appointed Anthony Davies as chief executive of the bank's Hong Kong branch, according to sources.

Ping An Insurance Group is planning to list its brokerage unit on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, according to a filing with the bourse.

MSCI has once again highlighted the inability for foreign investors to move money freely in and out of China as a reason for leaving A-shares out of its Emerging Market Index. While the world’s second largest economy has moved quickly to reform other parts of its financial sector, market participants are divided about whether China will budge on capital controls.