30/11/2017 Asia Business Report

The UK has offered a large potential

divorce bill to the EU worth up to

50 billion euros. Asked on a trip to

Iraq if the figure was agreed, the

Prime Minister, Theresa May, said

talks were continuing. Now on BBC

News, all the latest business news

live from Singapore.

Shares of Australia's big four banks

plunge after the government sets up

a financial commission to

investigate it. And will be rebound

from last quarter's sluggish growth

rates? Good morning, Asia. Hello,

world. Welcome to another edition of

Asia Business Report. I am Rico

Hizon. It's a Thursday. We start off

in Australia. The Prime Minister of

the country announced this morning

he has established a Royal

Commission to investigate the

banking industry. This comes after

the four big banks of Australia

called on the government to open the

enquiry to restore the public's

faith in the financial system. It

caused shares in the big four banks

to fall roughly 1.5% in Sydney

trade. For news on the latest in

Parliament, I am joined by a market

strategist from a trading floor in

Sydney. Thank you for joining us.

Was it a wise move for the big four

banks for an investigation?

Hello.

It was becoming inevitable. There

was a push for a couple of years now

for a Royal Commission. The Labour

Party said it would hold one if they

got in at the next election. I think

the big four banks sniffed the wind

and thought it would be better to

get it over with rather than die by

1000 type. -- cuts.

What could

potentially be the political

fallout, Greg, from the Royal

Commission's findings?

It is

interesting. To unpack. Malcolm

Turnbull has done a backflip. He

realised they could lose a vote on

the floor of Parliament.

Politically, we have a substantially

weakened Prime Minister and

Treasury. In terms of the banks,

there have been many missteps,

especially from the Commonwealth

Bank. Is the Royal Commission goes

after them, we could have even

stronger regulations. -- APR. The

banking regulator has put in place

many over the past two years. That

could impact the economy.

How long

do you think this probe could last

and when will the royal commission

released the findings?

-- Royal

Commission release. The government

has given them a year. That is

plenty of time. We will know in 12

months what the recommendations are

it is going to make. It will all

trickle out over the course of that

period. Anytime the banks try to

rally too far there will be another

news story to put them back.

365

days for the enquiry. This could

hurt the share price and valuations

of the banks. Could this at the

Australian economy?

Yeah, confidence

is important in any economy.

Confidence has been undermined in

the banks through their scandals in

the past two years. The owners of

the banks will hope this draws a

line under the lack of confidence

that was starting to build. To that

extent, yes, it could hurt the

economy. But when we look at things,

the global economy and our economy

is doing well, so on balance, I

don't think it will.

Thank you for

your thoughts on the latest

development on the banking sector in

Australia. Staying with the

financial industry, in the last

hour, the bank of Korea has raised

the cost of borrowing for the first

time in six years. They increased it

a quarter of a percent, bringing to

an end a five-year cycle of low

rates for the fourth largest Asian

economy. South Korea has been riding

an economic boom thanks to its

demand for its electronic service

is. This is the biggest jump in

seven years. Bitcoin went past

11,000 just one day after breaking

$10,000. In fact, there was so much

activity that the major Bitcoin

exchange crashed at one point. An

astonishing climb from its debut

value of 6 cents. It has fallen back

to earth at around $9,000 already.

In India, we will find out later

today how much the economy has grown

when the latest GDP figures are

released. It slipped to a three-year

low in the previous quarter,

prompting the government to look at

ways to restart the economy. One

area of concern is the banking

system. There are now plans to

inject $32 billion over the next two

years into India's banks. Why is

this necessary? Let's find out! This

is the amount of money that is owed

to the banks of India. But how did

things get so bad? For years, large

corporate sober pay back loans. This

is one of them. He is famous for

making beer. Is debt rose to $2

billion. This is causing India big

problems. The debt is eating into

bank profits, choking off new

lending to smaller firms which boost

growth. What do you do with this

much debt? The government has a

plan. 70% of the bad loans are owned

to government run banks. It wants to

inject funds into those banks. They

want to release the money in three

ways. Most will come from selling

bonds. Indian banks are flush with

cash after a ban on almost 90% of

cash last year. They want to buy

bonds using that money and then it

will put cash back into the banks.

This will improve their balance

sheets, allowing them to lend more

money and make profit. The rest of

the money will come from selling

stakes in the banks and the

Treasury. But many say instead of a

bailout would really need to be done

is to reform the banks to make them

more efficient in things like

lending. If that is not done, the

government may have to dive into its

savings once more to rescue the

banks again. India's banking sector

is going through a turbulent time

with rising bad loans and pressure

to cut costs. Private banks are

adopting processes which have led to

job losses. We caught up with the

CEO of one of the largest banks in

India and ask about the 1000 job

losses in ICICI.

Digital channels is

where we are doing most of our

transactions. And we have a lot of

artificial learning. To some extent,

some of the jobs are probably

irrelevant due to new technology.

But if you reskill those people you

can use them in the other jobs that

technology creates.

Let's talk about

what the challenges are four of the

Indian banking sector.

We have the

issue of stretched large corporate

assets. There are multiple reasons

why that happened. I think they are

focusing on the resolution, though.

We have not seen growth in micro

credits are small loans, in India.

-- in. Will private enterprises get

into that?

It is a huge sector. The

economy is getting more and more

formalised through demonetisation.

Money is coming into the economy. It

is becoming more inclusive. That

allows banks to offer loans to

people who were otherwise not

capable of getting loans because

they were not part of the formal

economy.

You are at the helm of one

of India's largest private banks.

What advice do you have for working

women about balancing home and work?

The first thing is, you know, you

have to realise both are important.

Once you decide that, you should do

it if you'd desire to do it! -- you

desire. If you think it is just

expected of you, it will never

happen. You should say you are doing

it because you want a career for

yourself and you desire to see your

family nurtured in a way you feel

proud about. It is about you making

up your mind. Make sure you are

working hard enough. I still sleep

with a list of things to do in the

night next to me even in this

digital age. There are two columns.

One is everything I have to finish

the next day at work, but there is

one column of what I have to

organise at home. But I like to do

it. I put it next to my bed, and

when I wake up in the morning, the

day starts with that and there is

not a minute to waste.

Let's have a

look at the markets. The Asian

markets, most are in negative

territory after a technology sector

sell-off on Wall Street and on

stocks globally. The Dow Jones had

another record high, though. It

surged by more than 100 points, to a

new