Australian bank eyes Humm Group; Singapore, China discuss financial cooperation

TOP NEWS IN BANKING & FINANCIAL SERVICES

* Australia's Bank of Queensland Ltd. is weighing a potential acquisition of buy-now, pay-later firm Humm Group Ltd. and the bank has engaged advisors, including Goldman Sachs, The Australian reported, citing sources. Latitude Financial Group Ltd. has also expressed interest in Humm Group's noncommercial leasing business.

* The Monetary Authority of Singapore said it and the People's Bank of China would explore deeper public-private sector collaboration in green finance, particularly in areas such as taxonomies and green financial technology. Further, Singapore Exchange Ltd. and the China Foreign Exchange Trade System are in talks to establish connectivity between their bond trading platforms.

➤ Hong Kong could be more competitive in SPAC listings after tweaking rules

The tweaks cover the minimum required backing of institutional investors, as well as rules governing dilution on warrants, investments from private investments in public equity and mergers with target private businesses.

➤ Fed approvals 'bode well' for US bank deals stuck in backlog

While the recent U.S. bank deal approvals from the Federal Reserve are a good sign for pending deals, it is unlikely the agency will hand down any more approvals by Dec. 31, one expert said. Old National and M&T are still targeting year-end closes.

BANKING

* China-based Chongqing Rural Commercial Bank Co. Ltd. said its 570 million restricted shares held by shareholder Loncin Holdings Co. Ltd. will be frozen for three years under court rules, accounting for 5.02% of the lender's total equity.

* South Korea's five largest commercial banks shut down 179 domestic branches in the first 10 months of 2021 with 72 more planned for closure by the end of the year, Yonhap News Agency reported, citing data from the Financial Supervisory Service.

* Toss Bank will resume consumer lending Jan. 1 after regulators renewed the online bank's cap on total lending volume, Yonhap News Agency reported. The digital lender suspended lending shortly after its launch in October because it quickly ran out of the lending quota set by regulators.

* Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam will offer customers free online money transfers after saying it would waive fees for maintaining services and money transfer transactions on the Vietnamese lender's VCB Digibank application from Jan. 1, Viet Nam News reported.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

* Morgan Stanley will boost its stake in Morgan Stanley Securities China Co. Ltd., its brokerage joint venture with China Fortune Securities Co. Ltd. by 4.06% to 94% through the injection of 698 million Chinese yuan, Reuters reported.

* ORIX Leasing Pakistan Ltd. said the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan issued it a certificate of incorporation on the change of its name to OLP Financial Services Pakistan Ltd.

POLICY AND REGULATION

* The Hong Kong Monetary Authority proposed new rules to scrap the role of lawyers as middlemen in residential mortgage transactions where the payment from the property buyer goes directly into the seller's bank account.

* Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission said securities and futures companies must disclose cybersecurity incidents that cause serious losses, the consequent losses as well as the countermeasures taken to lower risks in annual reports from next year, Taipei Times reported.

* Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission fined CTBC Bank Co. Ltd. NT$14 million, Bank SinoPac Co. Ltd. NT$4 million and Bank of Panhsin NT$2 million after the lenders' employees or sales agents allegedly stole NT$20 million in total from clients, Taipei Times reported.

* Bank Negara Malaysia released draft rules updating the minimum regulatory requirements that money services businesses should observe in terms of governance, risk management, operational requirements and IT requirements.

* The Reserve Bank of India said in its financial stability report that the scheduled commercial banks' gross nonperforming assets could climb to 8.1% of total assets by September 2022 from 6.9% in September under the baseline scenario and to 9.5% under the severe stress scenario of its macro stress tests for credit risk.

* RBL Bank Ltd. CEO Vishwavir Ahuja stepped down after the Reserve Bank of India's chief general manager, Yogesh Dayal, who was appointed to the board by the regulator, told a Dec. 25 board meeting the central bank would have no choice but to supersede the board if Dayal remained in the role, Mint reported, citing two sources.

* The State Bank of Pakistan introduced a Shariah-compliant standing ceiling facility for Islamic banking institutions, under which it will provide financing to them on an overnight basis against Shariah-compliant collateral, looking to bring such banks at par with conventional lenders in terms of liquidity management avenues.

* Pakistan's federal cabinet approved the revised draft of a proposed law that would make the State Bank of Pakistan autonomous, define domestic price stability as its primary objective and place a complete restriction on the government's borrowing from the central bank, Dawn reported.

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R Sio, Kanas Chan, James Lim and Santibhap Ussavasodhi contributed to this report.

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