Macquarie to raise A$1.5B; South Korea to support banks by improving rules

TOP NEWS IN BANKING & FINANCIAL SERVICES

* Macquarie Group Ltd. intends to raise A$1.5 billion through a nonunderwritten institutional placement, to be followed by a nonunderwritten share purchase plan to finance future investments. The Australian firm reported net profit after tax attributable to ordinary shareholders of A$2.04 billion in the first fiscal half ended Sept. 30, jumping 107% from the prior-year period. It declared an interim ordinary dividend of A$2.72 per share for the half.

* Financial Services Commission Chairman Koh Seung-beom said the South Korean regulator would improve and ease regulations to allow banks to expand the scope of their investment advisory businesses and new forms of financial services and business, The Korea Herald reported.

➤ ANZ to make amends after mea culpa on missing Australia's housing boom

Australia's second-biggest bank has hired more staff and allocated greater resources to its home loans business as it prepares for "what we think will continue to be a pretty active market," CEO Shayne Elliott said after Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., or ANZ, reported earnings.

➤ Stablecoins face industry-defining regulatory guidance

While the adoption of stablecoins in the U.S. is at the very early stages, regulatory clarity is viewed as necessary for the industry to decide the next moves.

EARNINGS SPOTLIGHT

* China's China CITIC Bank Corp. Ltd. posted an 11.85% year-over-year increase in its third-quarter net profit to 12.73 billion yuan from 11.38 billion yuan in the prior-year quarter.

* Agricultural Bank of China Ltd.'s net profit for the third quarter grew 14.04% year over year to 64.43 billion yuan. For the nine-month period ended September, net profit was 186.71 billion yuan, up about 13% from a year earlier. Its nonperforming loan ratio improved 9 basis points to 1.48%.

* Postal Savings Bank of China Co. Ltd. posted a net profit of 23.50 billion yuan for the third quarter and 64.50 billion yuan for the nine months ended September, up 22.47% and 22.07% from the respective prior-year periods. The lender's net interest margin remained flat at 2.37%.

* Haitong Securities Co. Ltd. reported a 21% year-over-year increase in net profit to 3.66 billion yuan for the third quarter. The firm said an asset impairment due to a credit loss led to a write-off of 1.52 billion yuan, which was equivalent to more than 10% of net profit for fiscal year 2020.

BANKING

* China Zheshang Bank Co. Ltd. said in a bourse filing that the Chinese bank plans to raise up to 18 billion yuan through a rights issuance, with an allotment of up to three rights shares for every ten existing shares.

* SBI Holdings Inc. President Yoshitaka Kitao said during the Japanese company had no intention to increase its Shinsei Bank Ltd. tender offer price of ¥2,000 per share, The Nikkei reported.

* Thailand-based Bangkok Bank PCL and Switzerland-based Pictet Group formed a strategic partnership to boost the lender's wealth management services in Thailand.

* Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank completed the sale of a 49% stake in its VPBank Finance Co. Ltd. subsidiary to Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. unit SMBC Consumer Finance Co. Ltd. The acquired firm will be renamed VPBank SMBC Finance Co. Ltd. and the Vietnamese bank will still hold a 50% of charter capital at the firm.

* Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank signed a two-year $200 million syndicated loan agreement with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., following a $100 million financing secured by the Vietnamese bank in the week of Oct. 18.

* An Binh Commercial Joint Stock Bank received approval for its proposed public offering of 114.26 million shares to existing shareholders at 10,000 dong per share at the rate of 20% in the fourth quarter, expecting to raise over 1.14 trillion dong, Viet Nam News reported.

* Citigroup Inc. named Matthew Nimtz and Jonathan Quek co-heads of banking, capital markets and advisory in the ASEAN region, succeeding David Biller, The Business Times reported, citing an internal memo.

* Jana Small Finance Bank Ltd. named a former chairman of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India, Subhash Khuntia, as its part-time chairman, Mint reported.

* Fino Payments Bank Ltd. raised 5.39 billion rupees by allocating 9,337,641 equity shares to anchor investors ahead of its IPO.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

* China's Haitong Securities appointed Li Jun general manager, effective Oct. 28. Li had served as a principal staff member of the Shanghai Financial Services Office.

* The board of India-based SBI Cards and Payment Services Ltd. approved raising 20 billion rupees in aggregate via the issuance of nonconvertible debentures in one or more tranches.

* Nonbank finance firm Avanti Finance Pvt. Ltd. raised $15 million as part of its Series A extended round from investors Oikocredit, Nomura, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Dr. K R Shroff Foundation, Mint reported.

* Vastu Housing Finance Corp. Ltd. founder and CEO Sandeep Menon said the firm is raising about $200 million from a consortium of investors led by Norwest Venture Partners, Creation Investments and IIFL Asset Management through a combination of primary and secondary sale, The Economic Times reported.

POLICY AND REGULATION

* Sun Tianqi, head of the Financial Stability Department at the People's Bank of China, said cross-border internet brokerages — even if they are licensed elsewhere — are conducting illegal financial activities if they offer such trading in the U.S. and Hong Kong markets without a relevant license in China, the South China Morning Post reported.

* A report by the Australian parliamentary financial services committee found that buy-now, pay-later services are largely unregulated compared to other credit products, The Australian reported. It added that a parliamentary inquiry into this space is warranted to investigate issues related to consumer protections, the impact of such services on other sectors, as well as fees and transparency issues, among others.

* The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority sent a letter to banks outlining expectations on operational preparedness for potential zero and negative market interest rates and cash rate.

Click here for a summary of indexes on the S&P Capital IQ Pro platform.

As of Oct. 28, US$1 was equivalent to 74.78 Indian rupees, 22,765 Vietnamese dong, ¥113.29 and 6.39 Chinese yuan.

R Sio, Eden Estopace, Kanas Chan, Jonathan Cheah, James Lim and Santibhap Ussavasodhi contributed to this report.

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