THE CENTRAL BANK OF RUSSIA (CBR) sparked a mini banking crisis last month after it used new anti-money laundering laws for the first time to strip a bank of its licence.

Wachovia, one of America’s biggest banks, has agreed to purchase SouthTrust of Alabama, the US’s 31st largest bank, for $14.3bn, in an all-share takeover. The bank that will result from the acquisition will be the fourth biggest US bank by assets and a leading retail bank in some of the US’s fast-growing, south-eastern states, such as North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and Florida.

Abdullah Al-Ghurair, chairman of Dubai-based Mashreqbank, receives the Union of Arab Banks’ (UAB) Arab Banker of the Year award from Dr Joseph Torbey, chairman of the UAB, at The International Arab Banking Summit
gala dinner held in association with The Banker at Goldsmiths Hall in London June 23.

In June, Eurex US unveiled a package of incentives to try to encourage greater use of its fledgling futures exchange. Since the launch of the exchange in February, it has failed to gain traction or to take liquidity from the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT).

Iceland’s biggest financial institution, Kaupthing Bank, has continued its aggressive expansion with the acquisition of the Danish medium and long-term financier, FIH, for DK7.1bn ($1.2bn). The purchase, from Sweden’s Swedbank, which surprised bankers who expected FIH to be bought by a Swedish bank, allows Kaupthing to expand its corporate banking capabilities and its presence in the Nordic region.

Total wealth of high net worth individuals (HNWIs) has only now “returned to levels only seen before the global recession took hold in 2001,” according to a recent report.

Premier Yu Shyi-kun appointed Taiwan Sugar Corp chairman Kong Jaw-sheng to head Taiwan’s new Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), which will begin operation on July 1.

Switzerland’s UBS Group heads the Top 10 list of global private banks with $1031.2bn in assets under management, according to the latest report from wealth management consultancy, Scorpio Partnership.

HSBC’s purchase of a minority stake in a private Indian bank has been pruned to 14.6%, confirming that the move made last year by the Indian government to raise the foreign investment limit in private banks to 74% is not an open invitation to foreign banks.