The Central Bank's Spot Rates for transactions with Commercial Banks announced on the morning of November 05, 1998 were as follows:

The approximate middle exchange rates of following currencies calculated on the basis of cross rates quoted by Gulf International Bank, Bahrain as it appeared in Reuters Financial Information System on November 05, 1998 were as follows:

Average rates at which the following currencies were quoted by Commercial Banks in Colombo for Telegraphic Transfers at mid-day on November 05, 1998 were as follows:

Average Weighted Prime Lending Rate (AWRP) and Lowest Prime Rate (LPR)
The Average Weighted Prime Lending Rate (AWPR) during the week ended October 30th, 1998 was 14.7 per cent for all banks. The Lowest Prime Rate among banks during this week was 13.5 per cent.

Average Weighted Deposit Rate of Commercial Banks (AWDR)
The Average Weighted Deposit Rate (AWDR) of Commercial Banks for the month ended October 31st, 1998 was 9.2 percent.

Casualties of crisis

Top 200 Asians
This year's listing of the Top 200 Asian banks reflects the massive upheaval that has occurred in the region's banking sector due to the financial crisis.

By Alison Warner
The gyrations that swept through Asian banking markets in 1998 have resulted in a radical shake-up of The Banker's Top 200 Asian listing. The extent of the upheaval in the rankings is unprecedented in the history of the listing.

Last year, the devaluation of the Thai baht on 2 July triggered currency turmoil throughout southeast Asia.

Banking systems across the region were thrown into crisis and the IMF stepped in to hammer together rescue packages for Thailand, Indonesia and Korea, and the Philippines' facility was extended and augmented. As the economic slowdown across the region deepend, non-performing loans started to mount up and to eat into banks' capital and profits. Steep falls in the local currencies also impacted the rankings by Tier Once capital and assets, which are shown in dollars (although real profits growth is based on profits expressed in local currency, adjusted for inflation).

While the crisis rearranged many of the rankings further down the listing, the same names as last year, that is, Chinese, Australian and Singaporean banks, featured in the top 10 places in the Top 200. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China and Bank of China swapped positions to appear first and second this year, followed by National Australia Bank, which retained third position.

The highest share of the total $ 173 billion Tier One capital of the Top 200 banks is held by China, which has 21%, up from 18% last year. Taiwan has the second biggest share of 17%, up from 15%, last year, followed by Australia with 15%, up from 14%. However, Korea's share has halved to 7% from 14%, in evidence of the severe difficulties its banks have encountered. Total Tier One capital has fallen 14% from $200 billion last year.

Of total assets, China holds by far the biggest proportion with 37%, followed by the Taiwan with 15%, Australia with 14% and Korea with 9%.

In terms of profits, the listing by country reveals the losses suffered by many banks, notably the South Korean, of which 19 out of 27 were in the red at the end of financial year 1997/1998.

Although others registered lower profits, the full impact of the escalating Asian crisis will be reflected next year.

Korean Banks
The Korean banks also featured strongly among those which recorded big falls down the listing due to shrinking levels of Tier One capital. Hanil Bank, for example, fell to 36 from 16 and Cho Hung Bank to 38 from 17. Among more dramatic plunges, Seoul bank fell to 100 from 32, reflecting a more than 40% fall in capital.

In contrast, Sime Bank shot up to 55 from 138 last year, after the bank's majority shareholder, Sime Darby, doubled the bank's capital to support its effort to gain Tier One status.

However, earlier this year Bank Negara Malaysia (central bank) revealed Sime Bank recorded a pre-tax loss of M$ 1.6 billion ($421 million) for the six months to the end of December after it had been forced to make M$1.8 billion provisions to cover bad and doubtful assets. Part of the losses were accounted for by Sime Securities, the bank's stock broking subsidiary, which was hit hard by the financial crisis. Bank Negara also revealed that Bank Bumiputra had severe asset problems.

In March this year, Rashid Hussain Berhad clinched a deal to take over Sime Bank with a view to merging it with RHB Bank, its banking subsidiary, after abandoning talks to acquire Bank of Commerce. Last month, Bank Bumiputhra announced that it would merge with Commerce Asset Holding, parent of Bank of Commerce, in a transaction which would create Malaysia's second biggest banking group. Both deals will impact next year's listing.

Next year's listing will also reflect the restructuring of the Korean banking sector, which got under way this year. In June 1998, the government ruled that the five strongest banks, that is, Shinhan Bank, Housing & Commercial Bank Korea, Kookmin Bank, Hana Bank and Koram Bank, should take over the five smaller, weak banks, Donghwa Bank, DongNam Bank, Dae Dong Bank, Chung Chong Bank and Kyungki Bank, respectively. Mergers have also been announced between Kookmin and Korea Long Term Credit Bank and between Hana Bank and Boram Bank.

Liquidity problems
Names which have disappeared from the listing this year include United Bank of Pakistan where liquidity problems and a negative capital position led to the management of the bank being handed over to State Bank of Pakistan (central bank). The State Bank has since raised Rs. 21 billion ($ 419 million) for the bank by fully subscribing to a rights issue and intends to privatise it. Union Bank of Hong Kong has also disappeared from the listing, after China Merchants Group, which owns China Merchants Bank, acquired a 51.5% stake. The two banks have been consolidated which has lifted China Merchants Bank to 66 from 97 last year. Tamara Bank of Indonesia and Union Bank of Bangkok of Thailand fell out of the table because of a shrinkage in their capital last year.

New names appearing this year include Development Bank of the Philippines (121), which has converted to a commercial bank. Bank BTN is the result of the merger of the Indonesian Bank Tagungan Negara and Bank BNI. Other new entrants include Andhra Bank of India, Phileo Allied Bank (Malaysia), Banco Seng Heng of Macau, Muslim Commercial Bank of Pakistan, Syndicate Bank and IndusInd Bank of India. Some appear because they have provided up -to-date information while others' capital has risen.

While a number of Thai and Indonesian banks have fallen down the rankings this year, next year's listing will give a truer picture of the havoc wreaked on those countries by the Asian crisis. In Indonesia, the banking system is now judged to be largely insolvent and in April this year the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) froze the operations of seven banks (too small to appear in the listing) and placed another seven under IBRA management. Five of those placed under IBRA management appear in the listing; Bank Dagang National Indonesia, Bank Ekspor Import Indonesia, Bank Danamon Indonesia, Bank Umum Nasional, Bank tiara Asia. The seven used more than Rs. 2 trillion of government liquidity, that is, more than 500% of their total equity, according to IBRA.

In a further move, at the end of May, IBRA replaced the management of Bank Central Asia, the flagship of Salim Group, the country's biggest conglomerate, after the bank was reported to have received a large amount of funds lent by Bank Indonesia (central bank) to seven troubled banks. On 23 August, Bank Indonesia suspended the operations of Bank Dagang Nasional Indonesia, whose demand deposits, savings and time deposits were transferred to Bank Negara Indonesia and Bank Dagang Negara.

Thailand
Similarly, in Thailand, the Thai authorities have taken drastic measures this year to shore up the sinking banking system. In the first two months of 1998, the Bank of Thailand (central bank) nationalised four stricken banks which had received hefty injections of liquidity from the Financial Institutions Development Fund (FIDF), its support fund. In August, the authorities announced that two of the four, one of which is Siam City Bank (137 in the listing), would be recapitalised through a debt to equity conversion and sold to new investors. Of the remaining two, Krung Thai Bank (43), the state-owned bank, was to take over First Bangkok City Bank (39). The authorities also intervened into two more weak banks, one of which is Laem Thong Bank (187 which is to be merged with Radhanasin Bank, a new bank set up by the government this year. Krung Thai Bank itself is to be recapitalised and restructured.

Two Thai banks have succeeded in clinching deals with foreign banks this year. DBS Bank of Singapore has taken a 54% stake in Thai Danu Bank and ABN Amro Bank of the Netherlands agreed to acquire 75% of Bank of Asia.

Another merger which will impact the listing next year is of Tat Lee Bank and Keppel Bank to form Keppel TatLee Bank. Tat Lee became a wholly owned subsidiary of Keppel on 15 August following an exchange of shares and warrants. The two banks intend to integrate their operations before the end of this year. Tat Lee was badly hit by the Asia crisis and made a loss in 1997, largely because of its high level of regional syndicated lending, particularly to Indonesian companies.

Continuing restructuring among the banks is likely to spur further mergers and acquisitions and, in the countries worst hit by recession or economic slowdown, more banks will have to be rescued or allowed to fail.
-The Banker