Square's acquisition of Afterpay gets nod; shareholders OK Fubon, JihSun merger

TOP NEWS IN BANKING & FINANCIAL SERVICES

* The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission does not plan to conduct a public review of Square Inc.'s acquisition of Afterpay Ltd., The Australian Financial Review reported. Afterpay Chairperson Elana Rubin said the firm's board unanimously supports the deal because it would allow it to further accelerate its growth in the U.S. and globally, among other things.

* The shareholders of Taiwan-based Fubon Financial Holding Co. Ltd. and JihSun Financial Holding Co. Ltd. approved their merger, the Taipei Times reported. They also expect to complete the merger of the two companies' units by the end of 2022, including the amalgamation of Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank Co. Ltd. and Jih Sun International Bank Ltd. as well as Fubon Securities Co. Ltd. and Jih Sun Securities Co. Ltd.

➤ Singapore banks likely to reach loan targets, analyst says

The city-state's three major banks posted improved loan growth rates for the nine months ended Sept. 30 amid a rise in lending activity from both retail and corporate borrowers in Singapore and Greater China.

➤ Most US community banks post stronger earnings, margins in Q3

Only 13.7% of community banks in the U.S., which have less than $10 billion in total assets, reported year-over-year increases in total net loan growth in the third quarter.

BANKING

* Dou Rongxing, former chairman of Zhongyuan Bank Co. Ltd., has been detained for investigation of unidentified issues, Caijing reported. Dou resigned from the Chinese bank two months ago, citing work adjustment.

* HSBC Holdings PLC asked all of its staff in Hong Kong who have not received their first dose of the vaccine against COVID-19 to do so by Nov. 30 or submit to a COVID-19 test every two weeks, the South China Morning Post reported.

* Indonesian private lender PT Bank JTrust Indonesia Tbk planned a rights issue worth 1.5 trillion rupiah to increase capital and boost lending, Bisnis Indonesia reported.

* Indonesian media conglomerate PT Elang Mahkota Teknologi Tbk will acquire a 93% stake in PT Bank Fama International for 908 billion rupiah, pending approval in an extraordinary shareholder meeting, The Jakarta Post reported.

* CIMB Thai Bank PCL expects to cut the nonperforming debt ratio for housing loans below 4% by the end of 2021, Bangkok Post reported, citing the Thai firm's head of consumer products, Ekasith Phrutthipalakorn.

* IndusInd Bank Ltd. said nearly 84,000 loans were disbursed without customer consent, adding that 26,073 clients were active with loans outstanding at 340 million rupees, or 0.12% of the Indian bank's September-end portfolio.

* Commonwealth Bank of Australia entered into an agreement with U.S.-based H2O.ai Inc., which operates the cloud-based machine learning platform H2O AI Cloud, to take up a minority stake in the firm and become its exclusive financial services partner in Australia and New Zealand.

* Westpac Banking Corp. said an independent reviewer considers the bank's progress on actions and activities from its Integrated Plan to be on track. The plan is part of an enforceable undertaking agreed in December 2020 with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, following issues found in Westpac's risk governance.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

* iFAST Corp. Ltd. CEO Lim Chung Chun said the Singapore-based company would consider pursuing more licenses in Europe as part of its five-year plan to build a global business model, The Business Times reported.

* Peer-to-peer lending platform Finzy, which is owned and operated by India-based Bridge Fintech Solutions Pvt. Ltd., raised $2 million as part of a bridge round and is looking to raise $10 million as part of its series A round, Mint reported. It will use the funds to boost its technology and enhance product offerings for its lenders and borrowers.

POLICY AND REGULATION

* Yi Gang, governor of the People's Bank of China, said the country would improve its legal system on personal data protection in the financial sector and strengthen the supervision on personal data protection. Yi also advocated to boost international cooperation and coordination in anti-monopoly, data supervision and consumer right protection.

* The Bank Indonesia and the Monetary Authority of Singapore announced the extension of the $10 billion bilateral financial arrangement to Nov. 4, 2022, including a bilateral swap agreement that allows for the exchange of currencies between the two central banks of up to S$9.5 billion, or 100 trillion rupiah.

* Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, said banks in the city-state would have to make mandatory disclosures in line with recommendations from the G20's task force on climate-related financial disclosures and undergo stress tests to make sure they are managing risks related to climate change and other environmental issues, Bloomberg News reported.

* The chairperson of the Philippines' Securities and Exchange Commission, Emilio B. Aquino, said the regulator is coming up with new guidelines for online lending platforms of lending and financing companies. Ahead of the release of the new rules, it placed a moratorium on the registration of new platforms.

* India's Central Board of Direct Taxes froze over 530 million rupees of deposits in a lender after it found irregularities in the opening of bank accounts, Press Trust of India reported, adding that over 1,200 new bank accounts were opened without a permanent account number. The publication identified the bank as Buldana Urban Cooperative Credit Bank, citing sources.

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R Sio, Eden Estopace, Sally Wang, Sarun Saelee, Cathy Hwang, Emi White and Aditya Suharmoko contributed to this report.

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