SINGAPORE/HONG KONG/TOKYO -- Banks across Asia are profiting from the global trend toward tighter monetary policy to fight inflation -- with two big exceptions.
The U.S. Federal Reserve's repeated interest rate rises this year set the tone for many Asian central banks, with the notable exceptions of China and Japan -- although a recent policy shift by the Bank of Japan has appeared to signal tightening is on the way there too. As a result, lenders in the region's two biggest economies are not enjoying the kind of fatter borrowing margins seen elsewhere.