Financial Services Talking Points | 29/08/18

In today’s talking points 7 investors back world’s first blockchain bond, no ministers named for financial services or superannuation in Scott Morrison’s new frontbench, China unveils top 500 private firms with Huawei peaking the list and Chinese tech companies are growing more powerful with banks turning to them for help.

 

7 Investors Back World’s First Blockchain Bond, Demand From Institutions

This month the World Bank and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia have launched the first blockchain bond, based on the Ethereum blockchain technology.  The blockchain bond, called Bond-I has received overwhelming interest from other institutional investors.  It is likely that this groundbreaking technology will shift the once tradition financial market, toward the adoption of this decentralised blockchain system.

CBA’s general manager James Wall said, “since announcing the mandate, the interest we’ve received for bond-i has been overwhelming. It is clear the market is ready and open to the uptake of emerging technologies and sees the potential evolution of the capital markets. It has been a pleasure to work on such a ground-breaking transaction with a forward-thinking organisation like the World Bank.”

Source: Pro Blockchain

 

No ministers named for financial services or superannuation in Scott Morrison’s new frontbench

For the first time in several years, the Morrison government hasn’t included a designated financial services or superannuation minister. Treasurer Josh Frydenburg’s office responded to questions about who would be in charge of these portfolios with “ministerial responsibilities within the Treasury portfolio will be announced in due course”, which prompted confusion from Labor and senior figures in the industries concerned. Both the Shadow Treasurer as well as the chairman of Industry Super Australia remarked that it was difficult to understand the decision, considering both industries are experiencing large inquiries into the way they operate. 

Source: ABC News

 

China unveils top 500 private firms, Huawei peaks list

China has released its list that ranks of the top 500 largest private enterprises in China. Huawei has made one of the top firms of the list. 

For a company to be listed, the business has to have revenues of for than 15.68 billion yuan. The list showed that 11 more companies had revenues that exceeded 100 billion yuan than 2016. 

The list was made by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC) where eighteen of China’s own private firms made the list. 

Source: Xinhua

 

Chinese tech companies are growing more powerful, and banks are turning to them for help

In another sign of the growing clout of Chinese technology giants, many local banks are looking to the firms for help rather than build their own in-house services.

State-owned or state-affiliated lenders account for the majority of the local banking system. They have historically preferred to lend to state-owned enterprises because those are essentially risk free compared to consumers in a society that lacks comprehensive credit histories. 

But now banks are under pressure to work closely with financial technology partners so they can beat competitor banks, according to Nicholas Zhu, vice president and senior analyst at Moody’s financial institutions group in Beijing.

Source: CNBC