TOP NEWS IN BANKING & FINANCIAL SERVICES
* The Reserve Bank of India is said to have sought suggestions from banks on conducting payment settlements with Russian lenders amid the conflict in Ukraine, The Economic Times reported, citing unnamed sources. The regulator told banks to explore an alternative mechanism of payments for trade in case Moscow is removed from the rest of the global banking system, the sources said. The report did not include a comment from the Indian central bank.
* Japanese prosecutors arrested four SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. employees for alleged market manipulation by trading multiple stocks in an attempt to prevent a decline in share prices, Reuters reported. SMBC Nikko Securities said in a release that it has set up an investigative panel of three lawyers to look into the incident.
➤ Singapore banks may pause hunt for overseas deals to digest recent acquisitions
Singapore's lenders will keep looking for M&A deals, but may focus on completing recent acquisitions for now after DBS Group Holdings Ltd. and United Overseas Bank Ltd. started the year with announcements to buy chunks of Citigroup Inc. assets in Asia-Pacific.
➤ US banks hesitant to reach out on the yield curve ahead of Fed action
Banks continued to invest more cash in the bond market in the fourth quarter of 2021, but were hesitant to reach too far out on the yield curve ahead of expected rate hikes by the Federal Reserve, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data.
BANKING
* China Everbright Environment Group Ltd. appointed Wang Jiang, president of China Construction Bank Corp., as the Chinese firm's new chairman to replace current chairman Li Xiaopeng, who is stepping down due to his age, Caixin reported.
* Bank of Shanghai Co. Ltd. said in a bourse filing that the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission approved the lender's wholly owned subsidiary, Bank of Shanghai Wealth Management Co. Ltd., to open business. The unit has a registered capital of 3 billion yuan.
* South Korea-based Shinhan Financial Group Co. Ltd. appointed Kim Jo-seol, an economics professor at the Osaka University of Commerce, as a director while Woori Financial Group Inc. appointed Song Soo-young, a partner at law firm Shin & Kim, to its board, The Korea Times reported.
* Indonesian private lender PT Bank Permata Tbk said risk director Suwatchai Songwanich resigned, Bisnis Indonesia reported.
* Land Bank of the Philippines will absorb 2,500 employees of the dissolved United Coconut Planters Bank, the Philippines' Governance Commission for Government Owned or Controlled Corporations said in a release. The commission also abolished Landbank's card and e-banking group, as well as its e-banking support unit.
* State Bank of India appointed former Ujjivan Small Finance Bank CEO Nitin Chugh as deputy managing director to drive digital banking operations for the Indian bank for an initial period of three years, Mint reported.
* Canara Bank said in a bourse release it raised 10 billion rupees from issuing Basel III-compliant additional Tier 1 bonds at a coupon rate of 8.07% each year.
* Commonwealth Bank of Australia priced a multi-tranche debt deal, with US$3.25 billion in the three- and five-year tranche and US$1.25 billion in the 10-year tranche, The Australian Financial Review's Street Talk blog reported.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
* Four cryptocurrency exchange operators in South Korea — Bithumb Korea Co. Ltd., Upbit, Coinone Inc. and Korbit Inc. — have blocked Russian IP addresses from their respective trading platforms in joining global sanctions against Moscow, The Korea Times reported, citing industry sources.
* Several Russian lenders, including Russia's biggest bank, Sberbank of Russia, said they are considering issuing cards using China-based UnionPay International Co. Ltd.'s system coupled with Russia's own Mir network, as Visa and Mastercard suspend operations in Russia amid the conflict in Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal reported.
* Credavenue Pvt. Ltd. raised $137 million in a round led by Insight Partners, B Capital Group and Dragoneer, Bloomberg News reported. CredAvenue plans to use the funds to expand in India and into key global markets as well as to make acquisitions.
* Small and medium-sized enterprise financier ScotPac is planning to acquire Australian financial technology firm Business Fuel, The Australian Financial Review's Street Talk blog reported. The former is expected to plug the latter's loans capability and platform into its wider financing structures.
POLICY AND REGULATION
* China introduced a reform of rural credit unions in Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces, China Daily reported. Guo Shuqing, chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission said the local authorities should tighten the qualification requirements for executive management teams of rural credit unions and regulate the structure of corporate governance at the credit unions.
* The Bank of Thailand and the Thai Ministry of Finance allowed U.S.-based PayPal Inc. to continue providing services for Thai customers until the end of 2022, Manager Daily reported. The payment provider previously said it would suspend some services for customers in Thailand as it was seeking ways to comply with regulations in the country.
* Singapore prohibited all financial institutions in Singapore from conducting transactions or establishing business relationships with VTB Bank, Vnesheconombank Promsvyazbank and Bank Rossiya, Nikkei Asia reported. Singapore will ban financial institutions from facilitating any transactions involving cryptocurrencies that could allow Russian entities to circumvent the sanctions.
* The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication asked a few of Bangladesh's banks to suspend transactions with the seven Russian lenders facing sanctions from the U.S. and EU over the conflict in Ukraine, Dhaka Tribune reported.
Click here for a summary of indexes on the S&P Capital IQ Pro platform.
As of March 4, US$1 was equivalent to 6.32 Chinese yuan and 76.49 Indian rupees.
R Sio, Sally Wang, Sarun Saelee, Cathy Hwang, Emi White and Aditya Suharmoko contributed to this report.
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