*China Construction BankCorp. injected NZ$140 million of equity capital into New Zealandsubsidiary China ConstructionBank (New Zealand) Ltd. to fund its lending growth, Scoopreported, citing astatement from the Chinese lender.
*Ironshore Inc. hasfiled for an IPO in theU.S., about a month after its parent company, Chinese conglomerate , sought approval from the Hong Kong stock exchange to spin offthe Bermuda-based insurer.
*ORIX Corp. unitRobeco Groep NVannounced that itopened an office in Singapore. Maurice Meijers, its client portfolio manager offixed income for Asian markets, will lead office operations.
*Religare EnterprisesLtd. said that U.S. subsidiary Religare Global Asset Management Inc. completed its exitfrom affiliates Northgate Capital LLC and Northgate Capital LP, the Press Trustof India reported,citing an exchange filing. The transaction closed July 22 following receipt ofall required regulatory approvals, Religare Enterprises said.
GREATER CHINA
*China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange said that the country'scross-border capital outflows eased in the first half of 2016, as the foreignexchange settlement deficit plunged to 1.13 trillion yuan, People's Daily reported.China's commercial banks sold foreign exchange worth 5.88 trillion yuan andbought 4.75 trillion yuan worth of foreign currency in the first half.
*The Asset Management Association of China said that 24,094 registered privatefund organizations managed 5.58 trillion yuan worth of private funds as of theend of June, the China Securities Journalreported. Among them,10,747 private securities fund organizations managed 2.29 trillion yuan worthof private securities funds.
*Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission has asked the island's state-runbanks to review the information security systems of their overseas branchesafter a heist targeted FirstCommercial Bank Co. Ltd.'s ATMs, the Taipei Times reported.FSC Vice Chairman Kuei Hsien-nung noted that state-run banks would also have toinspect the operations of their overseas branches to make sure that they complywith both Taiwanese regulations and their host nations' regulations.
*Taiwan's Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said that theunemployment rate in June rose 8 basis points to 3.92% due to new graduatesentering the workforce, the China Postreported.The unemployment rate went up 21 basis points year over year because of a sloweconomy.
*The balance of China's medium-term lending facility stood at 1.8 trillion yuan,Reuters reported.It would be proper for China to replace some MLF balance with a reserverequirement ratio cut in terms of liquidity requirement, according to analysts.China's central bank might still be waiting for a better time for the policy tostabilize market expectations, the news service noted.
JAPAN AND KOREA
*Japan's Mizuho Financial GroupInc. and MitsubishiUFJ Financial Group Inc. will be reorganizing their Europeanoperations to hedge against the effects of Brexit, although neither of them islooking to overhaul their London operations, Tokyo's The Nikkei reported.
*According to the Japanese Ministry of Finance, the country's fund managersbought a net ¥1.72 trillion of medium- and long-term debt abroad in the sevendays ended July 15, after buying a record ¥2.55 trillion of debt in the priorweek, Bloomberg News reported.
*Industrial Bank ofKorea signed a memorandum of understanding with Korbit, a SouthKorean bitcoin startup, during a fintech trade fair in London hosted by SouthKorea's Financial Services Commission, the AsiaEconomic Daily reported,citing a spokesperson of the bank.
*Yim Jong-yong, chairman of South Korea's Financial Services Commission, metwith media representatives after attending the FSC-hosted trade fair and saidthat the chairman will be directly involved in negotiating terms with bankingunions to fully implement the performance-based incentive system, Dong-A Ilbo reported.
*South Korea's WooriBank held a meeting to discuss its business plan for 2016 to focuson the development of its mobile platform business. Shinhan Bank held a similar meeting and emphasized thebank's reinforcement of its digital capabilities, the Chosun Ilbo reported.
*According to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System, the total amount oftransactions of the South Korean won and Chinese yuan exchange in China stoodat US$241 million in the four days ended July 24, the Money Today reported.The average transaction scale of won-yuan exchange surpassed that of theBritish pound.
ASEAN
*Somchai Sujjapongse, chairman of the board at Krung Thai Bank PCL, said the nomination committee hasneither proposed nominees for the bank's president post nor demanded anextension of the application deadline, PostToday reported.There has been only one candidate so far, he added.
*The Association of Investment Management Companies collaborated with the StockExchange of Thailand to organize roadshows in a bid to lure internationalinvestors and boost foreign capital inflows amid ultra-low interest rates inmany countries, Krungthep Turakij reported. The firstoverseas roadshow is expected to take place in September.
*KASIKORN Securities said factors that should be monitored for stock movementduring the week of July 25 include a monetary policy meeting of the U.S FederalReserve, Thailand's monthly economic report and key economic figures in theU.S., Krungthep Turakij reported.
* PTBanten Global Development is acquiring PT Bank Pundi Indonesia Tbk in phases until February2017 for a total of 800 billion rupiah and will turn it into a regionaldevelopment bank called Bank Banten, BisnisIndonesia reported.Bank Banten is expected to start operations in the first quarter of 2017.
*Indonesian Coordinating Economics Minister Darmin Nasution said the country'seconomy in the past three months has shown improvement and if it continues toimprove in the last two quarters of 2016, then growth could reach 5.2%, Kompas reported.
*Bank Indonesia is working to create a clearing and settlement house forderivative transactions and expects it to start operations by 2018, The Jakarta Post reported,citing Nanang Hendarsah, head of financial market development department at BI.
*State lender PT Bank RakyatIndonesia (Persero) Tbk plans to issue 20 trillion rupiah of bonds to refinancematuring debt and take advantage of repatriated funds from the government's taxamnesty program. BRI will sell 5 trillion rupiah of medium-term notes in 2016if market conditions are favorable.
*Malaysian lender RHB BankBhd. aims to get 30% more new customers in the premier segment bythe end of 2016, The Sun reported. The bank currentlyserves about 30,000 customers.
*The Monetary Authority of Singapore and Singaporean law enforcement authoritiessaid a Malaysian investor has been charged with spoofing on the Asian city'ssecurities market, Bloomberg News reported.Dennis Tey Thean Yang was charged with the fraudulent trading of contracts inthe securities of companies, including Guocoland Ltd. and Asia Power Corp. Thecharges are the first joint effort by the MAS and the Singapore police'sCommercial Affairs Department.
*Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said the Philippinecentral bank will consider cutting the reserve requirement ratio for thecountry's banks, currently at 20%, once half or 500 billion pesos of the fundsat the overnight deposit facility are migrated to the term deposit facility, The Philippine Star reported.
*The State Bank of Vietnam said the lending interest rate would continue to bestable over the remaining months of 2016, VietNam News reported,citing Nguyen Thi Hong, the Vietnamese central bank's deputy governor.
SOUTH ASIA
*The Indian government sought to refute claims that loans extended India's MUDRAscheme, particularly those given through microfinance institutions, will boostbad debts in the country's lending system, India's Business Standard reported.
*Axis Bank Ltd.reported a 21.38%year-over-year decrease in net profit for the quarter ended June 30.
*United Bank of Indiasaid the Indiangovernment decided to infuse 8.1 billion rupees into the lender via apreferential allotment. The bank said that 6.08 billion rupees of the total hasbeen allocated for infusion with immediate effect, while the remainder will beinfused by the end of 2016.
*India's Department of Posts, or India Post, plans to open 50 branches of itspayments bank by May 2017, The EconomicTimes reported.The bank plans to open 650 branches gradually across the country. The remaining600 branches will start operations by September 2017, a bank official said.
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
*Rod Sims, chairman of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission,said the competition watchdog has not ruled out the possibility of aninvestigation into Australia's four major banks regarding criminal cartelactivity, The Australian reported.
*National Australia BankLtd. madechanges to its organizational structure and executive leadership as part of itsdrive to focus on the Australian and New Zealand businesses. NAB CEO AndrewThorburn said the bank needs "to be more efficient" despite a strongcost-to-income ratio of 41.6%, TheAustralian reportedseparately.
*Australian investment banks are maintaining or increasing the number of summerinterns, amid lower M&A and capital markets activity levels, The Australian Financial Review reported.
Sally Wang, Sarun Saelee,Cathy Hwang, Emi White and Aditya Suharmoko contributed to this report.
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