GREATER CHINA
* The senior management of HSBC Holdings PLC's Hong Kong branch believes it would not be affected by the latest round of 10,000 job cuts, as further reductions in its headcount may affect productivity, Apple Daily reported, citing unnamed sources. The Hong Kong branch declined to comment on the matter.
* AliPay (China) Internet Technology Company Ltd., the e-payment service by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., said Chinese customers who traveled overseas during the country's National Day holiday spent a record average of 2,500 yuan each, up 14% from the previous year, China Times reported.
* Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission will introduce a real-time mechanism to monitor the capital reserves of online banks to make sure they have adequate liquidity, China Times reported. The institutions will also be required to be fully insured against deposits within two months of operation.
JAPAN AND KOREA
* Japan Post Holdings Co. Ltd. said its stake in U.S.-based Aflac Inc. exceeded 5% as of Oct. 4, Tokyo's The Nikkei reported. Japan Post had previously said it planned to accumulate Aflac shares up to about 7% in December 2018.
* Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank Ltd. new brokerage unit, OKB Securities Co. Ltd., has officially commenced operations, The Nikkei reported. OKB Securities is wholly owned by the Gifu Prefecture-based regional bank.
* Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. issued A$500 million of five-year green bonds, The Nikkei reported. It is the first-ever Australian dollar-denominated green bond issuance by a Japanese financial institution.
* South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service will conduct a comprehensive audit of Shinhan Financial Group Co. Ltd. and its commercial banking unit in October, The Korea Herald reported. The regulator will look into the group's governance structure, ahead of a planned management reshuffle in 2020, a Shinhan Financial spokesperson confirmed.
* Viva Republica Co Ltd., which operates the Toss peer-to-peer payment platform, is considering collaborating with Standard Chartered Bank Korea Ltd. for its second bid for a digital bank license, the Korea Economic Daily reported, citing industry sources. The Financial Services Commission will begin accepting digital bank license applications Oct. 10.
ASEAN
* The Thai General Insurance Association and the General Insurance Association of Japan signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on an information-exchange program to boost each other's operations and to promote the general insurance sector in Thailand and Japan, Krungthep Turakij reported.
* Midsize banks in Indonesia, including PT Bank Mestika Dharma Tbk, PT Bank Jasa Jakarta, PT Bank Pembangunan Daerah Riau Kepri and PT Bank Pembangunan Daerah Jawa Tengah, have begun reducing their base retail lending rates, Bisnis Indonesia reported.
* Cigna Thailand, a unit of U.S.-based insurer Cigna Corp., has appointed Teeravuth Suthanaseriporn its new CEO, The Nation reported.
* Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam posted consolidated profit of 17.6 trillion dong and pretax profit of 17.2 trillion dong in the nine months ended September, up 50.6% and 51.9%, respectively, from the year-ago period, Viet Nam News reported. The lender's return on average assets stood at 1.65% and the return on average equity was 25.75%.
SOUTH ASIA
* Deutsche Bank AG named Sriram Krishnan and Rajesh Thakur co-heads of its global transaction banking business in India, The Economic Times reported, citing an internal note from the lender. They will succeed Anjali Mohanty, who will head global subsidiary coverage in Asia-Pacific. Further, Anand Jha was appointed the new head of trade finance in India while Shyamal Malhotra will oversee all client coverage in the country.
* The shareholders of India-based Jammu & Kashmir Bank Ltd. rejected the reappointment of directors Rahul Bansal, Mohammad Ashraf Mir, Sanjiv Agarwal and Sunil Chandiramani, the lender disclosed in a filing. The bank said in a separate filing that the Reserve Bank of India appointed Rajesh Kumar Chhibber, interim chairman and managing director of the lender, to be its chairman and managing director, effective Oct. 10.
* India's Bandhan Bank Ltd. and GRUH Finance Ltd. set Oct. 17 as the effective date and record date for their proposed merger, after the companies were granted clearance from the National Company Law Tribunal.
* Bank of Baroda cut the pricing on its loans linked with the Reserve Bank of India's repo rate by 25 basis points following the central bank's rate cut, The Press Trust of India reported. The new pricing will apply to personal and consumer loans as well as all other retail loan products linked to the repo rate.
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
* Australia's iSignthis Ltd. confirmed in a release that its shares were suspended from trading on the Australian Securities Exchange on Oct. 2 due to share price volatility in recent months. The company said it would continue cooperating with ASX and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. It also reiterated its compliance with all disclosure requirements.
* Max Eung, a former advisor with National Australia Bank Ltd., received a three-year sentence from the New South Wales District Court following a conviction for gaining an unfair financial advantage by taking A$166,000 from his clients in 2016 and creating false bank accounts in their names, The Australian Financial Review reported.
* Major proxy advisers Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. and Glass Lewis & Co. LLC as well as the Australian Shareholders' Association recommended that Commonwealth Bank of Australia's shareholders vote in favor of the bank's decision to reinstate short-term bonuses for senior executives, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD
Middle East & Africa: EU to drop UAE from blacklist; Uganda licenses 2 new banks; S&P acts on Morocco
Europe: HSBC may cut 10,000 jobs; Bank Millennium could see €1.6B Swiss franc loans hit
Latin America: Banco BMG aims to get 2B reais from IPO; BTG withdraws delisting of unit
North America: SEC chief slams trading database; Crapo may revise Senate cannabis banking bill
Global Insurance: Florida Specialty deemed 'unsound'; Munich Re invests in Next; Asian typhoon
R Sio, Emily Lai, Jonathan Cheah, Jaekwon Lim and Santibhap Ussavasodhi contributed to this report.
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