S&P Global Market Intelligence offers our top picks of banking news stories and more published throughout the week. Please note that some entries may have links to third-party sources that may require a subscription.
M&A corner
* South Korea's NongHyup Financial Group Inc. is on the lookout for acquisitions in the investment and retail banking sectors in Southeast Asia as part of its plans to boost profits from overseas operations.
* A consortium of investors led by Indonesian businessman Ilham Habibie will buy an approximately 60% stake in PT Bank Muamalat Indonesia Tbk for 2 trillion rupiah.
* Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. completed the sale of its aligned dealer groups business to IOOF Holdings Ltd.
* Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. will reportedly buy back the 34% stake in Sumitomo Mitsui Card Co. Ltd. owned by Japanese telco NTT Docomo Inc.
* Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. Ltd. unit OCBC Wing Hang Bank Ltd. and other shareholders of Hong Kong Life Insurance Ltd. terminated the sale of the Hong Kong-based insurer to investment holding company First Origin International Ltd.
* Punjab National Bank plans to raise 85.83 billion rupees in the second half of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2019, by selling noncore assets.
* The Reserve Bank of India approved the merger of Kerala State Co-Operative Bank with 14 district cooperative banks in the state of Kerala. The merged entity will be called Kerala Cooperative Bank.
* The boards of Bank of Baroda and Vijaya Bank granted in-principle approvals to the two banks' proposed merger with Dena Bank.
Regulatory actions in Japan, India
* Japan's Financial Services Agency is set to ban Suruga Bank Ltd. from extending new property loans in the coming days following a lending scandal at the regional bank.
* Earlier, it was reported that the Japanese financial regulator will carry out a survey to query regional banks and other lenders on their lending to property investors amid concerns over the buildup of a potential bubble in the sector.
* Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India barred Bandhan Bank Ltd. from opening new branches without prior approval and told it to freeze CEO Chandra Shekhar Ghosh's remuneration after the lender failed to meet certain rules.
* The Indian central bank imposed a 50 million-rupee fine on Federal Bank Ltd. for failing to comply with the central bank's guidelines.
* The Indian central bank also fined Karur Vysya Bank Ltd. 50 million rupees for violating income recognition and asset classification norms.
Monetary policy decisions and more
* The central bank of Pakistan increased its policy rate by 100 basis points to 8.5% from 7.5%, effective Oct. 1.
* The central banks of Sri Lanka and Australia kept their respective policy rates unchanged.
* Malaysia's central bank issued guidelines to encourage Islamic banks to adopt value-based intermediation.
In other news
* Malayan Banking Bhd., or Maybank, obtained approval from Singapore's central bank to incorporate its community financial services business in the city-state.
* India's Lakshmi Vilas Bank Ltd. plans to raise around 20 billion rupees by March 31, 2019, through a preferential share issuance.
* Union Bank of the Philippines completed its 10-billion peso rights offering.
* Taiwan-based Far Eastern International Bank Ltd. obtained domestic regulatory approval to set up representative offices in Singapore and Ho Chi Minh City.
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