* UBS Group AG is merging its Asia-Pacific equity and debt capital market businesses, according to an internal memo seen by S&P Global Market Intelligence. The Swiss bank also appointed ?Gaetano Bassolino, current regional head of the debt capital market business, as its head of Asia-Pacific capital markets. The changes take effect immediately.
GREATER CHINA
* Hong Kong-based Chong Hing Bank Ltd. unit Chong Hing Insurance Co. Ltd. and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. Ltd. unit OCBC Wing Hang Bank Ltd. agreed to extend the long stop date for the sale of their respective stakes in Hong Kong Life Insurance Ltd. to Sept. 30 from March 20. In March 2017, investment holding company First Origin International Ltd. announced it was acquiring Hong Kong Life from a number of shareholders, including Chong Hing Insurance and OCBC Wing Hang Bank, for HK$7.1 billion.
* A survey from the People's Bank of China showed increased business confidence among bankers in the country, despite a higher percentage of bankers believing that the central bank's monetary policy was "relatively tight," Reuters reported. Of the polled bankers, 26.7% said the policy was "relatively tight" in the first quarter, compared with 19.1% in the fourth quarter of 2017.
* Chinese commercial banks' structured deposits increased 38% year over year to nearly 8 trillion yuan at the end of January, with the growth rate much higher than overall deposit growth, Beijing-based Caixin reported. Large lenders in the country saw a 27% year-over-year growth in structured deposits, while small and medium-sized banks saw a year-over-year increase of 44%.
* China's large state-owned banks have so far issued 22x the amount of interbank certificates of deposits in 2018 compared with the same period in 2017, the Securities Times reported. Some 435 banks have also disclosed plans to issue a total of 13.61 trillion yuan of interbank deposit certificates in 2018, an increase of 70.5 billion yuan from the previous year.
JAPAN AND KOREA
* Japan's lower house of parliament is expected to approve the extension of Haruhiko Kuroda's term as governor of Bank of Japan on March 16, Reuters reported, citing "a parliament source." The government nominated Kuroda for another five-year term, and the appointment is expected to receive approval as a majority of the seats in both houses of parliament are held by the ruling coalition.
* Japan-based Mizuho Bank Ltd. signed a memorandum of understanding with China's Department of Commerce of Shandong Province to work on ways to attract and support Japanese investments and businesses entering the Chinese market, Tokyo's The Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun reported.
* South Korea's Financial Services Commission plans to revise the Act on Corporate Governance of Financial Companies to prevent a financial company's incumbent chief from joining an internal committee to nominate outside directors, The Korea Herald reported. The move aims to enforce stricter corporate governance rules to address a lack of transparency in nomination processes for heads of local banking institutions.
* South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service penalized 11 employees of Korea Investment & Securities Co. Ltd. for conducting illegal trades using their borrowed-name accounts, Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency reported.
ASEAN
* Philippine National Bank's consolidated net profit rose 14% year over year to 8.2 billion pesos from 7.2 billion pesos, mainly driven by growth in the lender's core operating income. Net interest income edged up 13%, while net service fees and commission income grew 16%.
* The Bank of Thailand instructed local financial institutions to prepare for rapidly growing electronic payments in the country, after the PromptPay fund transfer service proved popular with local people, generating as much as 490 billion baht worth of 127 million transactions in just one year, Post Today reported. System improvements are necessary to minimize the risk of service disruptions particularly at peak times, the central bank said.
* Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (Thai) PCL launched an e-commerce platform, called "ICBC E-Mall," to let local suppliers offer their products through parent Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd.'s website, Manager Daily reported, citing Zhigang Li, the unit's chairman.
* Vietnamese banks' total assets in 2017 climbed 17.62% year over year to 10 quadrillion dong, Viet Nam News reported, citing a report from the State Bank of Vietnam. Of the total assets, state-owned lenders held 4.57 quadrillion dong worth of assets, joint stock commercial banks accounted for 4.02 quadrillion dong, and joint-venture banks and wholly owned lenders held 954 trillion dong.
SOUTH ASIA
* India's Punjab National Bank detected another credit-guarantee fraud amounting to 91 million rupees within its Brady House branch in Mumbai, Reuters reported, citing a complaint filed by the lender with the Central Bureau of Investigation. The lender told the authority that two officials in April 2017 "entered into a criminal conspiracy" with directors of a company called Chandri Paper and Allied Products to fraudulently issue two letters of undertaking. The same set of bank officials were allegedly involved in the fraud cases involving jeweler Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi.
* General Insurance Corp. of India, or GIC Re, obtained approval to start operations at Lloyd's of London in April, to be called "GIC Syndicate 1947," The Economic Times reported, citing a company statement. Pembroke, a Liberty Mutual Co. that serves as a specialist provider of Lloyd's managing agency services, will manage the new syndicate.
* India-based Bandhan Bank Ltd.'s 44.73-billion-rupee IPO was subscribed 0.40x on the first day of bidding, Bloomberg News reported, citing bourse data. The IPO, which will close March 19, was set with a price range of 370 to 375 rupees per share.
* Sri Lanka's National Savings Bank posted a full-year 2017 profit before tax of 14 billion rupees and a profit after tax of 9.6 billion rupees. The increase was primarily driven by an interest income of 103 billion rupees along with a gain of 1.1 billion rupees from trading in government securities.
* A Sri Lankan court issued a warrant to former Central Bank of Sri Lanka Governor Arjuna Mahendran, a suspect in a central bank bond scam involving controversial issuances of Treasury bonds in 2015 and 2016, ColomboPage reported. The court also remanded two other suspects, namely former Perpetual Treasuries Ltd. Director Arjun Aloysius and CEO Kasun Palisena, until March 29.
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
* Australia's banking royal commission, a judicial inquiry into the scandal-ridden financial industry, heard that Commonwealth Bank of Australia CEO Ian Narev knew about the risks of a practice of paying brokers more for bigger loans, but failed to act on it, Reuters reported. The lender opted to protect "volume" in its mortgage business instead of ordering changes to its remuneration practices, said Daniel Huggins, CBA's executive general manager for home buying.
* In a separate report by The Sydney Morning Herald, the royal commission heard that customers of CBA's wholly owned mortgage broker Aussie Home Loans, along with some lenders and the corporate regulator, were initially not informed about a fraud committed by a mortgage broker named Shiv Sahay. Shay's conduct was uncovered in 2013. He pleaded guilty to three fraud charges in 2015 after a regulatory probe discovered he created and used false bank statements for some of his clients to secure home loans.
IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD
Middle East & Africa: StanChart to launch 1st online bank in Ivory Coast; Moody's downgrades Tunisia
Europe: BNP Paribas in final talks to buy RBI unit; Munich Re launches €1B buyback
Latin America: BNDES profit falls slightly in 2017; Sura sets up Mexican unit
North America: Senate passes Dodd-Frank revision bill; Wells Fargo faces sanctions
North America Insurance: California mulls public insurance option; GOP health proposal will cut premiums
Janna Estares, Sally Wang, Sarun Saelee, Cathy Hwang, Emi White and Aditya Suharmoko contributed to this report.
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