Halister News

(Bloomberg) -- Anti-Money Laundering Council or AMLC had to conduct probe before seeking court order to freeze several bank accounts, Executive Director Julia Abad says at briefing in Manila.

• Agency learned of heist when Bangladesh central bank called them on Feb. 11; AMLC filed petition for freeze on Feb. 29 and Court of Appeals issued freeze order day after
• Rizal Bank filed suspicious transaction reports involving bank accounts on Feb. 12 after agency called its attention, could have acted on its own: Abad
• Bank filed reports within 10-day period allowed by rules
• Agency still looking at whether bank committed lapses: Abad
• Rizal Bank shrs -2.4% to lowest since August 2011
• NOTE: How $81 Million Slipped Through Philippine Cracks: Timeline Link

(Bloomberg) -- Anti-Money Laundering Council wants Congress to include casinos and real-estate agents on list of institutions required to report suspicious transactions, Executive Director Julia Abad says at briefing in Manila.

• Lawmakers must also strengthen Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ supervisory powers over remittance cos which are also vulnerable, Abad says
• Absolute lifting of bank secrecy would be good, she says
• NOTE: Philippines Must Ease Bank Secrecy, Boost Launder Law: Tetangco Link
• NOTE: Strong lobby prevented lawmakers from including casinos among covered sectors in 2013 amendment, Senator Serge Osmena said on March 15

--With assistance from Ditas Lopez and Siegfrid Alegado.

(Bloomberg) -- Japan’s 40-year govt bonds are surging on very small trading volume in thin liquidity, as there aren’t many sellers of these securities, says Tomohisa Fujiki, chief rates strategist at BNP Paribas, in an interview.

• Sees risk that market participants will seek to sell less amount of super-long debt than BOJ’s offer to buy them from secondary market at two remaining operations expected for this sector for rest of March
• JGB 40-year yield down 20 bps to record 0.445%; 30-year yield down 12.5 bps to 0.425% after earlier touching all- time low of 0.415%

(Bloomberg) -- USD/KRW non-deliverable forwards account for 37.1% of total volume today, according to trades reported to DTCC; USD/INR second-most active at 17.3%, USD/MYR third at 10.7%.

• Total volume was $9.6b as of 2:47pm HKT; global total yesterday was $50.0b, with USD/BRL accounting for 20.9%

(Bloomberg) -- Commodity-linked currencies led by AUD and CAD recover some of yesterday’s losses amid range bound trading.

• AUD/USD +0.36% to 0.7605 vs 0.7569/0.7609 range
  • Australian economy is adjusting “quite well” to falling commodity prices, RBA’s Stevens says
  • U.S. voiced concern in 2015 on Australia’s FX statements regarding its desired direction of the exchange rate
  • EUR/AUD may fall to 1.45 before resuming uptrend: Westpac
  • 4Q house prices rose 8.7% y/y vs 8.5% estimate
  • Hedge fund MST Capital, which successfully bet against the Aussie, now bets the currency will gain versus kiwi
  • ANZ bank plans to eliminate 12 jobs in its markets division to cut costs; reductions will be across regions
• USD/CAD -0.29% to 1.3063 vs 1.3062/1.3103 range
  • OPEC expects oil prices to rebound to a “moderate” level even if Iran doesn’t agree to freeze production
• USD/JPY +0.11% to 112.07 vs 111.84/112.21 range
  • Macro account buying in early Asia session helped lift pair above 1112.00, triggering buy stops along the way, traders say
  • BOJ and ECB may have called a truce in FX wars, which will benefit Chinese policy makers, HSBC says
  • Japan’s All Activity Index rose 2% m/m in Jan.; est. +1.9%
• NZD/USD -0.01% to 0.6761 vs 0.6755/0.6776 range
  • S&P affirms N.Z. credit ratings, outlook remains stable; cites monetary and fiscal flexibility, resilient economy
• EUR/USD +0.08% to 1.1250 vs 1.1230/1.1260 range
  • Light buying from leveraged accounts lifted euro in the early Asian session, traders say
• GBP/USD +0.06% to 1.4378 vs 1.4366/1.4387 range
  • A U.K. vote in favor of exiting EU in June will spawn the deepest market slump since Greek debt crisis, according to analysts and investors due to speak at a conference on Europe’s junk market in London on Tuesday
  • Cameron defends Osborne, attempt to heal rifts within the ruling Tory party after a weekend of splits
• BBDXY -0.04% to 1,189.23
• U.S. Treasury 10-year yield steady at 1.919%
• S&P futures down 4 points to 2,039
• Brent crude +0.2%, gold +0.1%, copper -0.3%

(Bloomberg) -- Anti-Money Laundering Council isn’t waiving bank confidentiality rules at today’s briefing, Executive Director Julia Abad says, declining to discuss details of $81m funds stolen from Bangladesh central bank and transferred to Rizal Bank accounts in Philippines.

• ~36.3m covered transactions and 146,398 suspicious transactions reported to council last year
• Abad discussing functions of council at briefing
• NOTE: Lawmakers Want to Know if $850m More Fund Headed to Philippines Link
• NOTE: Philippines to Hold Banks ‘Accountable’ for Role in Cyber Heist Link
• NOTE: Philippines Not Obliged to Return Money to Bangladesh: Senator Link
• NOTE: How $81 Million Slipped Through Philippine Cracks: Timeline Link

--GARFIELD REYNOLDS

(Bloomberg) -- Thailand’s central bank is forecast to leave benchmark rate unchanged given an economy on the mend and a deflation print that is expected to turn into inflation over the coming months, Bloomberg strategist David Finnerty writes.

• Bank of Thailand will retain policy rate at 1.50%, according to 19 of 20 economists in Bloomberg survey; one expects a 25 bps cut; decision due tomorrow at 2:30 pm local time
• Economy shows signs of gradual, though uneven, recovery, central bank Governor Veerathai said earlier this month
• Exports rose 10% in February from year earlier based on preliminary data, Finance Minister Apisak Tantivorawong said yesterday; government plans issue measures to boost consumption during Songkran holiday that falls in mid-April
• In Jan., government approved a plan to spend 35b ($980m) on infrastructure in villages to boost economic growth
• Headline inflation is likely turn positive during the first half of 2016, the central bank said last month
• Feb. CPI was -0.50% y/y versus -0.53% in Jan.; core CPI increased to 0.68% from 0.59%
• NOTE: David Finnerty is an FX strategist who writes for Bloomberg. The observations he makes are his own and are not intended as investment advice.

(Bloomberg) -- Here’s a roundup of debt rating changes of Indian cos. To get this story sent to your inbox in real-time, run NI INRATINGS , click on Display & Edit, then Set Alert Delivery. DOWNGRADES:

• Amar Plastics
  • Long-term bank facilities cut to BB- from BB at Care
  • Cites deterioration in capital structure

• Ario Infrastructure
  • LT bank facilities cut to BB from BB+ at Care
  • Cites decline in total operating income

• Bank of India
  • Basel II perpetual, upper tier 2 bonds cut to AA- from AA+ at Care
  • Cites increased sensitiveness to bank’s capital adequacy ratio, profitability during the long tenure of the instruments

• CMJ Breweries
  • LT loan facilities cut to D from BB- at Crisil
  • Cites delays in servicing term debt obligations

• Corporation Bank
  • Basel III perpetual bonds cut to AA- from AA at Care
  • Cites increased sensitiveness to bank’s capital adequacy ratio, profitability during the long tenure of the instruments

• IDBI Bank
  • Basel II lower tier 2 bonds cut to AA from AA+ at Care
  • Cites more than expected deterioration in asset quality

• Oriental Bank of Commerce
  • Basel III tier 1 bonds cut to A+ from AA- at Care; tier 2 cut to AA from AA+
  • Cites increased sensitiveness to bank’s capital adequacy ratio

• Shri Omtee Steel
  • LT loan facilities cut to D from B at Crisil
  • Cites delay in servicing term loan obligations

UPGRADES:

• Jai Sakthi Mills
  • LT bank facilities revised to BB- from B+ at Care
  • Cites healthy growth in income

• K.Kumar Raja Projects
  • LT loan facilities revised to BBB- from BB+ at Crisil
  • Cites increase in scale of operations

• Sri Ram Cables
  • LT bank facilities revised to BB- from B at Care
  • Cites significant growth in scale of operations