Nordic Business Council Philippines (NBCP) issued its 2016 annual report on Philippine and challenges in the trade and investment sectors. Meanwhile the Central Bank expected a strong growth in the economy.

Japan's regional banks are enhancing unsecured retail lending as it offers high profit margins. Loans on mortgage and small firm borrowing are declining. Japan banks are suffering from ultra-low interest rate regime to increase revenues.

Global markets have been moving in tandem with state of Chinese economy and US Presidential elections these days. After rebounding in the previous month, the global markets are waiting for next level triggers from US elections and stimulus plans on China's economy.

The Bangladesh central bank said that it has lost $100 million from its account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, later discovered to be transferred to the Philippines banking system. The central bank claimed that the Fed’s system was hacked, although the New York Fed denied that there was any hacking attempt made regarding that transaction.

China is working on a new financial super-regulator mechanism to take care of banking, securities and insurance segments under one umbrella. Recent turmoil in the financial markets are driving the Chinese government to revamp financial monitoring mechanism.

The timeframe to this plan is still unknown, but the central bank claims that the process has been going on since 2014. China has stated some benefits for having a digital currency in their financial system, including transparency, digital track-recording, as well as reducing transaction costs. Bitcoin, a global digital currency, gained popularity in China in 2013 but has also brought some controversies about the risks.

Giving much wider scope of speculation on possible interest rate hike in next October meeting, the US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen has indicated that there would be interest rate hike this year. Yellen further opined that it's necessary to increase short-term rates in a gradual manner as the improvement in labor market further continues and inflation rate reaches to the government target of two percent. The US Central Bank has been sending feelers about the possible rate hike this year for some time. The job market growth is the major factor that puts the US Fed in a comfortable position to take a decision on interest rate hike.

Euro zone banks should expect another round of health checks in 2016, the European Central Bank's top banking supervisor was quoted as saying, adding that Greece's banks remained solvent.

China's money supply grew at its slowest pace on record and investment growth sank to its lowest in nearly 15 years as April data showed the world's second-largest economy was still losing momentum despite a concentrated burst of policy easing.

Most central banks have been easing policy since the start of the year and are set to do more, but it still isn't clear whether that new activism, which has pushed stock markets to record highs, will help the global economy much.