Thursday, March 17, 2005

HSBC to move more jobs to Asia

by Brian Turner

HSBC chief operating officer, Alan Jebson, has stated that he expects to see up to 15,000 call center jobs to be created in Asia over the next 3 years.
HSBC currently already has 4 call centres in India, 3 in China, and 1 each of Malaysia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.
The comments were quickly [...]

Chinese bank boss: sudden exit

by Brian Turner

Zhang Enzhao, chairman of the China Construction Bank, has suddenly resigned for alleged personal reasons.
However, media in Hong Kong have speculated that the move follows fraud probes into the company’s dealings, with money missing from branches, and allegations of kickbacks for bad loan agreements.
Chinese regulators have apparently already revealed a series of scandals involving embezzlement [...]

Wednesday, March 2, 2005

Malaysia economy grows and banking liberalises

by Brian Turner

Malaysia reported that its economy grew by 7.1% in 2004, though a slowdown to 5.6% in Q4 means the country is predicting a slower 6% rise for 2005.
Additionally, the country is continuing to push for World Trade Organisatio membership, with reforms to Islamic banking now pushed through before the original 2007 deadline.
Islamic banking is a [...]