Naoko Nemoto, managing director for financial institutions ratings at Standard & Poor’s, examines the themes that have emerged in Asia-Pacific from the application of its revised bank criteria. (Finance Asia)

Morgan Stanley, the only large Wall Street bank to avoid major job cuts this year, said on Thursday that it would fire 1,600 employees in the first quarter to cut costs as trading and banking revenue show few signs of recovering. (Reuters)

Executives at Merrill Lynch have yet another reason to hate their marriage with Bank of America: much lower bonuses. (Fox Business)

Singapore Exchange’s (SGX) Central Depository (CDP) system will soon see a radical overhaul. The CDP, which holds the shares of about 1.4 million individual investors here, will undergo a revamp which will take about three years to complete. (Asia One)

“The year 2011 will probably go down in history as the year of the perfect storm for India,” says Rajeev Malik, economist at CLSA, the Singapore-based stockbrokers. “Whatever could go wrong, did go wrong.” (Financial Times)

New China Life Insurance Co yesterday fell on its debut in Hong Kong, reflecting a slump in demand for new equity as China’s growth slows and Europe’s debt crisis persists. (Shanghai Daily)

Singapore’s MRT becomes the London Underground for an evening. (Singapore Yahoo!)