banking & finance
Better late than never, here is one of my favorite bank series Deutsche Bank. This year fabric red blossom and shiny pink peonies are just my type even though both are standalone designs they still compliment one another quite well. Thanks to Mr Lee for sharing a pack with me, kamsia!
Presenting the Purple Perennials from CIMB, maintaining their previous year flap design while going back to the more traditional shade of red, their private piece is always a beauty and blooming lusciously among the other bankers. Unfortunately they didn't print any for Hari Raya this year due the MCO (Movement Control Order) carried out by the government in order to fight the Coronavirus. Having said that despite the challenges CIMB still managed to give us their mass market and preferred Raya packets both using an abstract batik illustration of the perennials from CNY. The Raya green and blue complimented the CNY red nicely.
Below we have another well deserve spotlight, Maybank Koi and water lily theme from their mass market design as well as their premier pair of the textured Koi and graceful swallows. Their golden Raya edition is one of the most glittering piece yet and thanks to a fellow SDR collector whom I traded with, has kindly shared 2pcs with me. After a year later I managed to get the premier piece as well as the beautiful (but thin paper) Etiqa floral duo, sadly still no luck with the private edition which is carrying my favorite diamond blue.
Definitely not many pink shades from the banks this year. Beside Deutsche pink peonies we have SMBC pink floral mix with a highlight of the sweet baby blue. Unfortunately my attempt to trade their Raya kind of failed as I didn't realized I traded just one out of the two pieces set, bummer. Citibank definitely rise to the top this year with a set of beautiful vibrant floral of four that many fell in love with. Bringing the most colors so far their Citigold set comes in a golden box as compared to the normal red box and they look absolutely stunning together.
After skipping the zodiac pig last year Ambank is back this time round with the mouse for their mass market design while they have given collectors a set of four red ruby embossed floral for their Signature Priority Banking. Hop over to my Facebook page to find the golden mice on this beautiful set. Thanks to Mei Fern for helping me capture the golden AmInvestment / AmPrivate Banking red beauty as well as the big and beautiful Raya set that has my favorite purple shades. Al Rajhi surprised many of us with a rubbery front-back perennials and the feel and touch is just as beautiful and satisfying.
Bangkok Bank made it simple this year with their choice of blossom illustration. Keen to know which design I like best from Bangkok Bank so far... click here to find out (twist: it's not red). The golden peonies from Malaysia meet the golden Fu福 from Singapore. JP Morgan is definitely giving us more colors from Singapore not to mention the paper quality too. Nevertheless they still look pretty good together.
The lanterns are up next and while HSBC Private did not have any, their hidden secret garden can be found flourishing from the inner packet while the outside is rubbery and classy. Their lanterns are of different size and color for the normal vs premier and business ones with the later delivering us a cloud flap and rubbery paper finishing. Standard Chartered lanterns are definitely bigger but much more subtle, even though just a single shade, they have given us the better paper texture with their priority piece. 2020 Raya designs for both HSBC and SC are actually better than 2019 with a brighter green pair by HSBC while SC opted for a darker shade of the green and blue.
OCBC streamlined their mass market, premier and private designs this year with three main themes, bird representing the air, fish representing the water and leave representing earth, all three carrying more of what they each represent within. Take a closer look and you will find the butterflies and birds, the great ocean life and the nature life on earth. The premier set took a step further with a soft touch finishing while their private set transformed the fish and bird into a die cut casing pair, a beautiful series indeed. RHB continued with their premier box set since 2018 while that was still their best trio since, this year floral duo are shimmery and elegant. Find their previous design over at my 2018 and 2019 banking sector.
RHB decided to go single this year on it's mass market design and delivered an embossed chinese knot. BSN is playing with bubbles while Bank Negara also has a few circles and a very subtle dragon apparently. We have lanterns from Bank Islam, Affin and Principal while Nomura, Affin Hwang and Hong Leong Investment played with fishes. Affin Koi with a little bamboo view on the side is quite a charm and their SDR edition stood out even more with the green and blue rubbery duo. Special thanks to my dearest friend Kelly who knew that getting me these would be the perfect birthday present (lol). I also got Affin and Ambank SDR through Kelly which I am so grateful. There is another version for Affin which is the same design but the wordings in gold while Ambank Signature has a great 2P set. Which one of these do you think I managed to trade back?
I only have very few Raya packets, a.k.a. Sampul Duit Raya from the banks this year due to the pandemic situation. Having said that I was quite surprise to see majority of the banks continued to print with exception to a few like OCBC, RHB, Public Bank and maybe a few others. BSN caught many collectors attention with a good quality floral in turquoise gem and it was one of my first few Raya trades this year. With such a catchy SDR I can't wait to see the Deepavali edition. Bank Islam is another that I first traded back because of the unique dark tone with colorful outline artwork that looks like neon signs. I so wanted to get Al-Rajhi because of the floral motif and only succeeded trading them back much later together with Bank Muamalat the complete VIP and normal.
From the Japanese Banks we have Mizuho pair of Fu charm with pearls, a big step backwards from their gorgeous 2019 8pcs set last year, on the other hand took two steps forward for their Raya packets. The sweet glittering floral pair in pink and green is an elegant beauty indeed. Nomura is up next with a pair of stunning crane pair for their Hari Raya edition. In Japan, the crane or tsuru, is a national treasure and a symbol of longevity and good luck. Hence we have MUFG advancing from single designs in the past to a 4pcs mountain by the lake scenery set with it's share of the auspicious crane, fishes and dragonflies.
More Chinese landscape and this beautiful shan-shui-hua (山水画) with the basic elements of the mountains and rivers from Kuwait Finance House is a lovely pair that I like very much. Fundsupermart below is shining and elegant with the ruby and golden butterflies and blossoms. Kenanga is actually a one piece duo design. The same die cut casing is used for the front and back design. I still love them nevertheless.
Once again the bank that has been using the zodiac image since 2016, another artistic illustration of the first ranking zodiac is none other than UOB. This time round they have joined the cover casing trend and just like OCBC, both came out with different color and design casing to differentiate their Mass Market, Premier and Private. UOB even put in a little round window for their droplet shaped mouse to peep through. They have recycled their 2019 Raya design by changing the color and increasing the size by a little. The layout above which I have combined both years, i.e. 4 pieces of 2020 (top) and 4 pieces of 2019 (bottom) is similar to the layout that Paramount Property presented this year with their 2 sets, 8 pieces. Do check out their lovely set over at my developer page. Getting back to the red packets, we have Alliance bank below continuing with another of their single design that matches the older designs since 2017. This year theme is the reunion 福 Fu instead of the floral and lanterns before.
Hong Leong Bank is back with their new front flap theme for both CNY and Raya. At first I thought the CNY pair of gold fish in lily pond with a standing side flap that is similar to their 2019 Deepavali and Hari Raya was the third and final design to complete their 2019-2020 3P. When I saw their Raya kuih edition I realized the pairing might not be what I had thought. Only time will tell and so we shall wait for the arrival of Deepavali. Public bank also took on the fish in their mother-child pair, unfortunately the look is a little old school among all the bankers. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic they did not print any for Hari Raya as well.
I N s u R a n c e
Let's see what we have from the Insurance companies this year starting with AIG red and gold embossing design focusing on a front-back floral piece and a golden 福 fu with fluttering butterflies. Despite the traditional color choice, this chic and elegant pair is a keeper. I am a fan of any butterfly themed design, from AIG little dancing butterflies to Sun Life big Chinese knot butterfly charm, these packets take us to the sunny side of life and what a relatable message from them too.
Yellow is the most luminous of all the colors of the spectrum, capturing our attention at the first glance. Both Manulife and Tokio Marine shined a little sunshine with their red packet design this year. Manulife is a rather simple pair combining the auspicious red and happy yellow with a hot-stamping Chinese knot while Tokio Marine Life brought us a 3pcs set that took on the Japanese knot tying craft, Mizuhiki. The variations of the Mizuhiki knots have different meanings, with each fitting to the needs of the respective social contexts and the core meaning of each Mizuhiki knot is derived from how easily the knot can be undone. Tokio presented us the three different knots with a little modern twist, transforming the Awabi-musubi, Cho-musubi and Musubikiri to the zodiac rat. Be sure to read the detail prints on the cover casing to find out more about these traditional Japanese gifting knots. From the general insurance side, Tokio continued with their cover casing design since 2016 while changing the packets within from 4pcs sets in 2016, 2017, a pair in 2018, back to sets in 2019 and finally to a single floral piece this year. Which year do you prefer? I am going with the darker purple plum tone (click on the years to find out which one 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019).
Zurich continued with it's flowery horizontal packets from 2019 and printed not one but two versions this year, both in pink and red with the top (design 1) which I prefer more in smaller size. Also going horizontal this year is Great Eastern and they have also continued with their past years' zodiac theme bringing us the three happy mice in a couple of versions as well. We have the normal version that is of smaller size but more vibrant compared to their General Insurance matte version that is bigger and also the same size with the Singapore ones. Stay tuned for my Singapore upload for another version as well as the big family portrait > <
Just a couple of rat theme packets from the insurers. Besides Tokio Marine Life and Great Eastern we have the geometric mice pair from MCIS, the tiny golden rat from Manulife/Alliance (tried scanning the QR code and got directed to Alliance official page but product not found, I wonder what happened there) and last but not least a cheerful piece printed by Allianz agent. Allianz official red packet is a pair of fancy tails, the long tail birdie with the veiltail goldfish on a rubbery red background. Also featuring the goldfish with its extra-long, flowing double tail is Prudential PRU Prestige pairing it with the lucky bamboos while their normal version took on six small cranes in different colors.
AIA had always given collectors a reason to chase after their multi festive money packets but this year not only had they reduced from previous 4pcs set to 3pcs after which a pair and finally just a single design this year for CNY, they have also held back their Raya design which is a matching 2P due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Somehow the design made an appearance in Facebook once but I have not seen any other collectors sharing the same. There is another edition under AIA MDRT which featured the magnificent set of fancy tail from the Peacock. Taking a stroll in the botanical garden we have MBSB vibrant piece with butterflies while MSIG trumpet shaped lilies with it's leafy stems marked a new beginning for the year.
Public Mutual pair is thick and rubbery, the kind of quality that many collectors prefer. One need to really pay extra attention to notice the fluttering butterflies though. Before moving on to the credit providers, we have one of my favorite cheongsam motif from Manulife Investment Management and AXA Affin. Manulife is literally dressing up their yellow and red pair in cheongsam which is actually the cover casing while that baby blue piece from AXA had me at first glance and together with it's cream partner completes the pairing perfectly.
From the credit companies we have American Express that has the same chic design with the birdies and flowers as the Singapore version. Chubb is definitely looking better this year, taller and much more elegant with the pointy fan shaped flap. CGC continued with their single design this year with gold, pink and blue pattern Koi fishes that comes in a die cut box. Unfortunately I do not have the box but happy to get 2pcs without trading. I like it as the color is vibrant and catchy unlike their previous years design. City Credit is going loud with strokes of orange bringing us the golden Ruyi 如意 and a pair of beautiful Koi. Union Pay surprised me with their pinky bluey pair that featured big floral with a tiny city view at the background.
Aeon Credit started using screen folders for their VIP edition in 2019. While I did not have the chance to trade a set then I was delighted to deal with a new collector who took up one of my bundle exchange offers. Thanks Amber for the trade. The normal single version is simple and quite dashing while the 4pcs VIP set takes the same illustration to the next level, bringing out that glittery handsome mouse art work beautifully.
Financial matters can be very serious and formal but can be just as fun and adorable like Stockaholics and Maybank Cards below. I absolutely love the three chubby mice especially the one with that smiley eyes and sycee cheese block, not forgetting one my favorite shades, pink! As for Maybank cards, it's a Disney adventure for card holders but only at selected malls.
For more of my latest collection, please visit my facebook page or get the links to my collection by years via my facebook album here. (๑‵●‿●‵๑)