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TOP NEWS IN BANKING & FINANCIAL SERVICES
* Malaysia's Affin Hwang Investment Bank Bhd. entered into a conditional agreement for the proposed divestment of approximately 68.35% of its equity interest in Affin Hwang Asset Management Bhd. to CVC Capital Partners Ltd. 's Starlight Asset for a provisional cash consideration of 1.54 billion ringgit.
* Australia-based VGI Partners Ltd. signed an agreement to merge with Regal Funds Management Pty. Ltd. Under the deal, VGI will acquire 100% of the specialist alternative investment manager, subject to its shareholders' approval.
➤ Singapore's DBS to be largest foreign bank in Taiwan after Citi deal
DBS will pay to Citi a premium of NT$19.8 billion and invest NT$24.5 billion in capital to support the incremental risk-weighted assets and capital needs of the Taiwan business.
➤ Credit card net loss rates end 2021 lower as customers pay down debts
The average credit card net charge-off rate for the six major U.S. credit card issuers stayed below 1% for four months in a row.
BANKING
* Hong Kong's The Bank of East Asia Ltd. plans to buy back 8.43% of its total issued shares owned by Elliott Investment Management's affiliated entities for an estimated consideration of HK$2.904 billion. Upon completion of the deal, the shares will be transferred to the bank and canceled.
* South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service determined KEB Hana Bank should be subject to a partial business suspension for three months and its executives be fined for misselling funds to investors from 2017 to 2019, The Korea Times reported. The regulator will make a final decision after further review of the proposed sanctions.
* Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. Ltd. completed S$13.7 million of goodwill payouts to 790 customers who fell prey to a phishing scam impersonating the Singapore-based lender. No further fraudulent transactions in relation to the scam were reported over the past few weeks, the lender said.
* Philippines-based BDO Unibank Inc. raised 52.7 billion pesos from the issue of a peso-denominated fixed-rate Association of Southeast Asian Nations sustainability bond under its 365 billion peso bond program. Net proceeds will be used to diversify the bank's funding source and finance or refinance eligible assets under its sustainable finance framework.
* Central Bank of India's consolidated net profit for the fiscal quarter ended Dec. 31, 2021, rose 70.2% year over year to 2.82 billion Indian rupees from 1.66 billion rupees.
* Punjab National Bank consolidated net profit for the fiscal quarter ended Dec. 31, 2021, grew 67.3% year over year to 12.50 billion rupees from 7.47 billion rupees. The bank's managing director and CEO, Mallikarjuna Rao, said the lender plans to sell its stake in UTI Asset Management Co. Ltd., Canara HSBC OBC Life Insurance Co. Ltd. and asset reconstruction companies, Press Trust of India reported.
* The Reserve Bank of India restricted Indian Mercantile Cooperative Bank Ltd. from granting or renewing loans and advances, making any investment and incurring any liability, including borrowing funds and accepting fresh deposits without the central bank's prior approval for six months starting Jan. 28.
* Bangladesh's Eastern Bank Ltd. plans to raise 5.0 billion taka via the issuance of nonconvertible subordinated bonds to strengthen its base, The Financial Express reported.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
* MUFG Bank Ltd. will invest around ￥1 billion for a 2% stake in Japan-based cashless payment infrastructure company Transaction Media Networks Inc., Tokyo's The Nikkei reported.
* State Bank of India Chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara said National Asset Reconstruction Co. Ltd., which plans to acquire bad loan accounts from banks, has received all necessary regulatory approvals, Mint reported. Banks plan to transfer at least 500 billion rupees of bad assets to the entity by March 31.
POLICY AND REGULATION
* The People's Bank of China and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange issued new rules seeking to set up a policy framework for the integrated management of overseas loans issued by banks. The rules prohibit the use of these overseas loans, denominated in yuan and foreign currencies, for investment in securities, repayment of overseas debts and other speculative deals.
* The People's Bank of China, the Ministry of Public Security and nine other ministries launched a three-year campaign, commencing January 2022, to fight money laundering to safeguard national security and social stability.
* Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission reprimanded and fined Citigroup Global Markets Asia Ltd. $348.25 million for allowing various trading desks under its cash equities business to disseminate mislabeled indications of interest. The company also reportedly made misrepresentations to institutional clients when executing facilitation trades from 2008 to 2018.
* China Securities and Regulatory Commission Vice Chairman Fang Xinghai met with executives from foreign financial institutions, including BlackRock, Credit Suisse, Fidelity International, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and UBS, to reassure them about the country's economic growth following regulatory crackdowns in 2021, Reuters reported, citing three people with direct knowledge of the matter.
* The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Insurance Commission signed an agreement to establish an interagency, cross-sectoral Supervisory College that will supervise financial conglomerates in the Philippines.
* Pakistan's Senate approved the State Bank of Pakistan Amendment Bill, which will grant complete autonomy to the central bank, Dawn reported.
Click here for a summary of indexes on the S&P Capital IQ Pro platform.
As of Jan. 28, US$1 was equivalent to 6.36 Chinese yuan, HK$7.79, ￥115.17, S$1.36, 51.17 Philippine pesos, 4.19 Malaysian ringgit, 75.01 Indian rupees and 84.87 Bangladeshi taka.
Eden Estopace, Sally Wang, Sarun Saelee, Cathy Hwang, Emi White and Aditya Suharmoko contributed to this report.
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