Business summary for Dec 20-26

Citigroup sells consumer bank in Philippines

• Citigroup Inc said on Thursday it is selling its consumer-banking business in the Philippines to UnionBank in the third of 13 planned exits from Asia franchises.
• Citigroup said the Philippines transaction will increase its tangible common equity by about $500 million of the total $7 billion increase it expects to eventually come from the Asia divestiture plan it announced in April.
• Unionbank will pay cash for the net assets of the Citi Philippines' consumer banking business plus a premium of 45.3 billion pesos, or about $908 million, Citigroup said.

PNB declares five sen dividend income for ASB unitholders

• PNB said ASB allocation in international investments increased from 5.9% in 2020 to 8.2% this year.
• International public equities contributed 30.7% share to gross income in 2021 as compared to 24.2% last year.

AirAsia suspends new VTL bookings from KL, Bangkok to Singapore

• Low-cost airline, AirAsia Group Bhd, will be suspending new Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) flight bookings between Dec 23 and Jan 20, 2022 from Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok Don Mueang Airport to Singapore.
• AirAsia Malaysia will continue to operate seven times weekly VTL flights from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore.
• AirAsia is closely monitoring the global health situation and reserves the right to announce further policies according to the latest developments.

Thousands of flights cancelled globally as Omicron mars Christmas weekend

• Airline carriers globally scrapped at least 2,401 flights on Friday, which fell on Christmas Eve and is typically a heavy day for air travel, according to a running tally on the flight-tracking website FlightAware.
• The website showed that 1,779 Christmas Day flights were called off worldwide, along with 402 more that had been scheduled for Sunday.
• Commercial air traffic within the United States and into or out of the country accounted for more than a quarter of all the canceled flights over the weekend, FlightAware data showed.

Berjaya Air buys world's most modern Airbus helicopters

• Berjaya Air Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Berjaya Land Bhd (BLand), has purchased ACH160 and H175 helicopters from Airbus Helicopters.
• The ACH160 is a premium version of the new H160 helicopter which was certified by European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
• The ACH160 sets a new benchmark in corporate transportation as the most technologically advanced helicopter in its class.

Foreign shoppers swarm Turkey after lira crash

• The sea of Bulgarian buses parked outside a market in Turkey's historic city of Edirne betrays the scale of the currency crisis impeding president Recep Tayyip Erdogan's path to a third decade of rule.
• The mosque-filled city on Turkey's western edge was an early capital of the Ottoman Empire when it was expanding across the Middle East and Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries.
• It is now the place where shoppers from Bulgaria and the Balkans - themselves some of Europe's poorest countries - go to stock up on everything from underwear to walnuts at a fraction of their cost back home.

Malaysia's LI rises 0.3% in October in anticipation of economic recovery

• The CI recorded a positive month-on-month growth of 0.8 per cent in the reference month.

BSN expects to approve 20,000 applications for MyRinggit-i Banjir scheme

• Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN) expects to approve 20,000 applications for the BSN MyRinggit-i Banjir financing scheme from victims of the recent floods.
• Chief business officer Mujibburrahman Abd Rashid said the applications were open to flood victims nationwide, and not only to those affected in the Klang Valley.
• Mujibburrahman said the process of evaluating and approving the BSN MyRinggit-i Banjir financing scheme applications would be given priority and dealt with as soon as possible.

Hong Leong offers flood relief assistance to affected customers

• Hong Leong Bank and Hong Leong Islamic Bank have mobilised a flood relief assistance programme offering a payment deferment of up to six months on loan and financing facilities.
• Affected customers who are currently receiving assistance under the bank's Payment Relief Assistance Plans or the Pemulih Repayment Assistance, are also eligible to apply for the Flood Relief Assistance.
• The bank is also offering free replacement of bank-related documents such as debit and credit cards as well as cheques and bank statements damaged or lost in the floods.

Kuala Lumpur leaps to 15th place of Top 20 Asia fintech hubs

• The report by global research and analytics firm Findexable and powered by Mambu, a global software as a service (Saas) banking platform, has ranked Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney in Australia as the top three fintech hubs.
• It said Asian countries were among the first to launch specialist digital banking licenses to encourage neobanks as a part of broader economic inclusion strategies.
• With 45 hubs across the region, with one third more than in 2020, fintech firms across Asia Pacific are proving fintech is the engine of the digital economy.