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China plans economic supervision overhaul; Australian asset manager mulls M&A

GREATER CHINA

* China could announce an overhaul of the country's economic supervision structure when top leaders meet for the 13th National People's Congress, beginning March 5, Bloomberg News reported, citing a Chinese-language report from Xinhua News Agency. The plans are part of a broader overhaul of the Communist Party and the government, and aims to improve financial stability and prevent systemic risk. Authorities are also planning to step up efforts to ease direct government intervention in markets and enhance antitrust efforts.

* China's four biggest banks by assets — Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., Agricultural Bank of China Ltd., Bank of China Ltd. and China Construction Bank Corp. — received regulatory approval to open branches in Xiong'an New Area, a special economic zone in Hebei province, Caijing reported.

* Taiwan's First Financial Holding Co. Ltd.'s net income declined 10.7% year over year to NT$15.43 billion in 2017 due to a default on a large loan extended to Ching Fu Shipbuilding Co., Taipei Times reported, citing a spokeswoman from the company. First Financial unit First Commercial Bank Co. Ltd. is the lead bank in a NT$20.5 billion syndicated loan linked to the shipbuilding company. The bank wrote down NT$4.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2017 in relation to the loan.

JAPAN AND KOREA

* Hiroyuki Nishi was appointed as the new president of Japanese company Nissay Asset Management Corp., effective March 25, The Nikkei reported. Nishi is an executive of Nippon Life Insurance Co., the parent company of Nissay Asset Management.

* Japan's Credit Saison Co. Ltd. is expected to introduce performance-based personal loans to drivers of GrabTaxi Holdings Pte Ltd in Southeast Asia in 2018, The Nikkei reported. The loans will be introduced through a venture company which will be established with GrabTaxi.

* Bank of Korea may increase benchmark rates in May to prevent capital outflow should the U.S. Federal Reserve decide to hike its interest rates, the Segye Ilbo reported. The South Korean central bank last increased rates in November 2017, the first such increase in six years.

ASEAN

* Thailand-based TMB Analytics said the central bank's monetary policy committee may consider raising the country's policy rate to minimize risks related to banks' "search-for-yield" behavior and prepare for a potential crisis caused by the persistent uncertainty in the global economy, Krungthep Turakij reported.

* Thailand's Ministry of Justice is set to issue measures to regulate cryptocurrencies to protect cryptocurrency traders from incurring heavy losses or falling prey to scammers, Bangkok Post reported. The ministry will propose the measure to the Ministry of Finance and plans to announce them on March 6.

* CIMB Bank Bhd. and CIMB Islamic Bank Bhd. launched a crossborder banking service to allow customers in Malaysia and Singapore to transfer funds without additional crossborder fees, among others, Bernama reported.

* Land Bank of the Philippines will begin courting shareholders of Philippine Dealing System Holdings Corp., or PDS Holdings, for a 66.67% stake in the company, BusinessWorld reported. The offer period will run from March 5 to April 5, with the bank looking to close the deal in one month.

* Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. is looking to raise 52 million pesos by selling foreclosed assets as part of efforts to boost capital for payments to uninsured depositors and other creditors, The Philippine Star reported. The state-owned insurer will auction 130 assets from banks, as well as assets it had acquired.

* Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank is looking to list its shares on Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange and raise US$162.74 million through the sale of 158 million treasury shares to foreign investors, DealStreetAsia reported. The bank, which also plans to sell 14 million preferred shares from the treasury stock to its employees, will use the proceeds to increase its assets and expand its networks, among other things.

SOUTH ASIA

* India's Central Bureau of Investigation said Yashwant Joshi, a foreign exchange manager working at Punjab National Bank's Mumbai branch, received gold and diamonds as bribes from Nirav Modi, the businessman at the center of a US$2 billion fraud case involving the bank, Reuters reported, citing statements from the federal police to a court.

* Indian Overseas Bank said the Indian government will inject 48.67 billion Indian rupees by way of a preferential allotment of equity as part of its recapitalization program. The bank will issue the shares at 23.03 rupees each.

* India's central bank refused to relax Know-Your-Customer rules for mobile wallet entities, Business Standard reported. Industry players earlier requested that the central bank relax rules for transactions amounting to less than 10,000 rupees a month, as the infrastructure needed for the full implementation of the rules has yet to be rolled out.

* Pakistan Stock Exchange resolved its disagreement with the Securities Exchange Commission of Pakistan by agreeing to reconstitute its board and electing minority shareholders as board members, The News International reported. The board is set to meet on March 14 to finalize an election date.

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

* Australia-based Perpetual Ltd. is considering a potential takeover of Pinnacle Investment Management Group Ltd to resolve its search for a new CEO, The Australian Financial Review's Street Talk blog reported. Perpetual's board is said to be eyeing Pinnacle Investment Management boss Ian Macoun as a potential replacement for CEO Geoff Lloyd.

* Australian asset manager AMP Ltd. could soon kick-start the sale process for its New Zealand wealth management unit, and private equity firms are expected to be among the potential suitors, The Australian reported citing unnamed sources. Macquarie and UBS are said to be working on the potential sale.

* Australia's banking regulator is considering removing a 10% limit on investor lending, noting that tougher rules imposed on home loans, including a 30% limit on interest-only loans, resulted in a slowdown in lending and cooling property prices, Reuters reported.

* The New Zealand Exchange and the Financial Markets Authority joined the Reserve Bank of New Zealand in looking into whether insurer CBL Corp. Ltd. violated several rules, including failing to disclose necessary information to the market, Insurance Business reported. The regulators said it will work with the central bank to assess information available to them.

Janna Estares, Sally Wang, Sarun Saelee, Cathy Hwang, Emi White and Aditya Suharmoko contributed to this report.

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