Andrew Tjaardstra

The Central Bank of the UAE has approved Zand, a digital bank, to launch Zand AED, a multi-chain AED-backed stablecoin.

It is the group's largest public IABS issuance to date and its first in the Rule 144A/Reg S format with US onshore investors involved. Clifford Capital's group CEO told FA the deal "reflects the growing interest and appetite in infrastructure returns from institutional investors".

Starting on November 17 Chihiro Ashizawa has joined from Clifford Chance. Meanwhile Ashurst is looking to merge with US law firm Perkins Coie to create a top-20 global firm with a footprint in Apac and the Middle East.

The FSDC's current director and head of policy research will start in February 2026 for a three-year term.

Hong Kong’s financial secretary Paul Chan described the government's issuance of a third digital green bond as "reflecting the market support for tokenised products". The many times oversubscribed issuance had a large range of global investors.

Jean-François Mastrangelo has joined the British bank in Hong Kong; he most recently worked at Societe Generale.

The Hong Kong airline will pay $896m for the stake which was first bought by Qatar Airways in November 2017; the SAR is seeing a tourism bounce back.

Blackstone has bought 9.9% of India’s Federal Bank and a stake in India’s Ace Insurance Brokers.

Gyungmin Kim is replacing Jeyhyung Rhee who is leaving the bank, while Minjib Kim will support him as a director.

Deutsche Bank has appointed Cora Chiu as head of investment management, North Asia, to replace Cedric Ko.