The Banque Belge pour l'Étranger was a Belgian bank that operated mainly in Asia. It was originally established in 1902 in Brussels as the Banque Sino-Belge, by the Société Générale de Belgique at the request of King Leopold II of Belgium. Its Hong Kong operation, initiated in 1935, was later renamed the Belgian Bank in 1980, Générale de Banque belge pour l’Étranger in 1985, General Belgian Bank in 1992, and Fortis Bank Asia in 2000, before being sold in 2005 to ICBC (Asia), the Hong Kong subsidiary of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
A custodian bank, or simply custodian, is a specialized financial institution responsible for providing securities services. It provides post-trade services and solutions for asset owners, asset managers, banks and broker-dealers. It is not engaged in "traditional" commercial or consumer/retail banking like lending.
The Clearing House Interbank Payments System (CHIPS) is a United States private clearing house for large-value transactions. As of 2023, it settles approximately 500,000 payments totaling US$1.7 trillion per day. Together with the Federal Reserve Banks' Fedwire Funds Service, CHIPS forms the primary U.S. network for large-value domestic and international USD payments where it has a market share of around 96%. CHIPS transfers are governed by Article 4A of Uniform Commercial Code.
A primary dealer is a firm that buys government securities directly from a government, with the intention of reselling them to others, thus acting as a market maker of government securities. The government may regulate the behaviour and number of its primary dealers and impose conditions of entry. Some governments sell their securities only to primary dealers; some sell them to others as well. Governments that use primary dealers include Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Pakistan and the United States.
The Big Four is the colloquial name given to the four main banks in several countries where the banking industry is dominated by just four institutions and where the phrase has thus gained relevance. Some countries include more or fewer institutions in such rankings, leading to other names such as Big Three, Big Five, or Big Six.
