SYDNEY/HONG KONG (Reuters) – The fluorescent green Lamborghini, license plate: “GRRRR,” and the banker who owned it, are gone from the garage at Macquarie’s Hong Kong offices.

The growl that departed early last month in a shake-up at the Australian group’s equity derivatives arm is symbolic of the bank’s shift away from racy banking products and towards the plain vanilla.

SYDNEY/HONG KONG, Dec 1 (Reuters) – The fluorescent
green Lamborghini, license plate: “GRRRR”, and the banker who
owned it, are gone from the garage at Macquarie’s Hong Kong
offices.

The growl that departed early last month in a shake-up at
the Australian group’s equity derivatives arm is symbolic of the
bank’s shift away from racy banking products and towards the
plain vanilla.

HONG KONG (Reuters) – KPMG’S chairman on Friday called for a global set of standards for the auditing industry and said the Olympus Corp scandal in Japan reveals evidence of “significant fraud.”

Michael Andrew, the chairman, also outlined steps needed to improve the auditing industry in a in a speech entitled, “Fraud, Financial Crises and the Future of the Big Four.” He spoke to the Foreign Correspondents Club in Hong Kong.

HONG KONG/LONDON (Reuters) – London-based jeweler Graff Diamonds plans to raise about $1 billion in a Hong Kong listing next year, a move that could fund expansion in Asia and capitalize on booming gem prices.

The buyer last year of the 24.78 carat “Graff Pink,” Graff and its flagship Bond Street store are controlled by Britain’s 13th richest man, septuagenarian Laurence Graff.

HONG KONG, Nov 9 (Reuters) – London-based jeweller Graff
Diamonds is looking to raise about $1 billion in a Hong Kong
initial public offering planned for next year, according to a
source familiar with the matter, to help fund the firm’s
expansion in Asia.

While most IPO markets are virtually shut across the world
due to uncertainties around the euro zone debt crisis, Graff’s
pursuit of a Hong Kong listing shows that companies are still
positioning themselves into the pipeline.

HONG KONG, Nov 9 (Reuters) – Bankers, enduring rounds of
deep job cuts, face the grim prospect of having nowhere to turn
to for immediate employment in the industry, as nearly all
branches of finance have pulled back on hiring.

Unlike 2009, when the industry was split between banks
recovering and banks expanding, this time around, the economic
climate has forced a broad retreat across the entire sector.

HONG KONG/NEW YORK (Reuters)- China is expected to steer clear of Europe’s bailout fund and its investment vehicles as regulators and politicians scramble to pull together a plan aimed at expanding the debt clean-up.

Instead it will continue to focus on specific countries and on specific assets in Europe, attaching diplomatic strings wherever possible and heeding the call from within its borders to be careful of wading too deeply into the euro zone mess.

HONG KONG/NEW YORK (Reuters)- China is expected to steer clear of Europe’s bailout fund and its investment vehicles as regulators and politicians scramble to pull together a plan aimed at expanding the debt clean-up.

Instead it will continue to focus on specific countries and on specific assets in Europe, attaching diplomatic strings wherever possible and heeding the call from within its borders to be careful of wading too deeply into the euro zone mess.

TOKYO, Oct 21 (Reuters) – The $687 million fee Japan’s
Olympus Corp paid its financial advisers for the $2.2
billion purchase of a British medical equipment maker is one for
the record books, literally.

The payment is the largest M&A fee ever made, Thomson
Reuters data on fee estimates shows, surpassing the previous
record of $217 million involved in the 70 billion-euro takeover
in 2007 of ABN AMRO by RFS Holdings, a vehicle set up by Royal
Bank of Scotland and others.

HONG KONG/MUMBAI (Reuters) – Firings are picking up pace at foreign banks across Asia, with industry professionals and headhunters saying more rounds are set to come.

Since the 2008 financial crisis, Asia’s rapid economic growth led to an expansion of the banking industry in the region, with most foreign banks insulated from deeper cuts that occurred along the way in the United States and Europe.