S&P Global Market Intelligence offers our top picks of banking news stories and more published throughout the week. Please note that some entries may have links to third-party sources that require a subscription.
IPOs, deals and more
* One97 Communications Ltd. which operates India's Paytm, is set to file a draft prospectus for its planned $2.3 billion IPO, Reuters reported.
* South Korea's Kakaopay Corp. plans to raise up to 1.632 trillion won via an IPO. The offering is open to the public and anyone can subscribe to Kakaopay shares on Aug. 4 and Aug. 5.
* SBI Holdings Inc.'s Singapore subsidiary invested an undisclosed amount of money in financial technology startup AND Global.
* BPI Family Savings Bank said it will solicit consent from the holders of its 4.30% fixed-rate bonds for its ongoing merger with its parent, Bank of the Philippine Islands.
* Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. struck a deal to buy 74.9% of nonbanking financial firm Fullerton India Credit Co. Ltd. from Fullerton Financial Holdings (International) Pte. Ltd. for about $2 billion.
* Australia's Police & Nurses Ltd. agreed to sell its majority stake in unit Police & Nurses Financial Planning Pty. Ltd. to Wealth Management Partners Group.
* Macquarie Group Ltd.'s asset management arm agreed to acquire the global equities and fixed income business of AMP Ltd.'s AMP Capital division for up to A$185 million.
* PNB Housing Finance Ltd. said it will address calls from its promoter to reconsider the terms of its 40 billion Indian rupee investment deal once its appeal on a ban against the agreement is dealt with in court.
Regulatory developments and other court actions
* Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission decided to relax minimum capital requirements for six domestic systemically important banks, in a move to help them boost lending by NT$400 billion in 2021, Taipei Times reported.
* The Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand filed a criminal complaint against digital asset exchange platform provider Binance for conducting a digital asset business without a license.
* The Australian Securities & Investments Commission ordered the mandatory licensing of debt management service providers, effective July 1.
* The Securities and Exchange Board of India issued new guidelines for market infrastructure institutions' handling of technical glitches.
* India's central bank reiterated its call on banks and other regulated financial firms to make preparations for the transition away from Libor.
* China plans to boost law enforcement regulations to better crack down on violations in the securities industry, as it calls for a zero-tolerance requirement against such breaches.
* The Chinese central bank continued to urge banks to boost lending and financial services support to micro, small and midsize enterprises.
* South Korea's Financial Services Commission reduced the legal lending rate cap to 20% from 24%, with effect from July 7.
* The Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd. will shorten the time between final pricing and the debut of new shares of an IPO to two from five business days and reduce the funds locked up during the subscription period.
* Westpac Banking Corp. started proceedings against Forum Finance Pty. Ltd. in the Federal Court of Australia after uncovering its exposure to potential fraud worth around A$200 million after tax.
* Australian Federal Court Judge Michael Wigney ordered the indictment charges against Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., Citigroup Inc. and Deutsche Bank AG be revised to fix "defects and deficiencies," The Australian reported.
Penalties, fines and compensation
* Westpac Banking Corp. agreed to pay an estimated A$87 million to former customers of its advice businesses for the failure of its financial advisers to notify them of corporate actions between 2005 and 2019.
* India's National Housing Bank imposed a monetary penalty on Housing Development Finance Corp. Ltd. over violations of its guidelines on disbursement of housing loans to individuals.
* India-based Punjab & Sind Bank was fined 2.5 million rupees for violations of certain provisions of the central bank's cybersecurity framework.
* The Reserve Bank of India also imposed monetary penalties totaling 145 million rupees on 14 lenders including the local arm of Credit Suisse Group AG for noncompliance with one or more of its guidelines on lending to nonbank financial companies.
* China's banking regulator fined Postal Savings Bank of China Co. Ltd. 4.5 million yuan for charging fees illegally and submitting false information, among other things.
In other news
* The gross nonperforming asset ratio at India's banks may rise to 9.80% by March 2022 in the baseline scenario assumed by the Indian central bank's stress tests on the sector.
* The average amount of outstanding loans and discounts at Japan's major, regional and shinkin banks in June rose 1.4% year over year to around ¥577.833 trillion.
* Japan's Nomura Holdings Inc. will stop providing cash prime brokerage services in the U.S. and Europe due to substantial losses from its dealings with Archegos Capital, Bloomberg News reported.
* The board of Philippine National Bank approved a plan to convert Allied Integrated Holdings Inc. into a digital bank.
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