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HK bourse proposes to UK exchange; KKR to list Australia fund

GREATER CHINA

* Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. proposed to the board of London Stock Exchange Group PLC to combine the two companies in a deal that values the British bourse's entire issued and to-be-issued ordinary share capital at roughly £29.6 billion and implies an enterprise value of £31.6 billion. In a conference call following the proposal, HKEX repeatedly stressed that China's regulators would have no role in the London operations if the deal were to go ahead.

* LSE, however, could turn down the proposal amid doubts about political risk and deal structure, the Financial Times reported, citing people briefed on the offer. Two sources close to the board said the exchange is leaning towards rejecting the offer, and plans to pursue its own US$27 billion takeover offer for financial markets data and infrastructure firm Refinitiv.

* CITIC Securities Co. Ltd., China Merchants Securities Co. Ltd. and Huatai Securities Co. Ltd. received approval from the China Foreign Exchange Trade System to participate in the interbank foreign exchange market. The license allows the firms to carry out spot, futures and swap trading in the forex market.

* China's M2 money supply rose 8.2% year over year to 193.55 trillion yuan at the end of August, according to data released by the People's Bank of China. New yuan-denominated loans reached 1.21 trillion yuan in August, 66.5 billion yuan less compared to the same period last year.

JAPAN AND KOREA

* Asset management firm T. Rowe Price Group Inc. will set up a team in its Japanese office that specializes in multi-asset investment strategy, in a bid to boost its operations in the Asian country, Tokyo's The Nikkei reported. Richard Coghlan, together with several other employees from its U.S headquarters, is set to join the new team.

* SBI Holdings Inc. Chairman and CEO Yoshitaka Kitao told The Nikkei that the business restructuring of Shimane Bank Ltd. will take less than one year. SBI Holdings is investing in the regional bank under an equity partnership.

* Industrial Bank of Korea issued 650 billion won of 10-year subordinated bonds as contingent capital securities with write-down features on Sept. 11. The coupon is 1.70%.

* BNK Busan Bank Co. Ltd. received preliminary approval from the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission to open a branch in Nanjing, China. It will be the South Korean regional bank's second Chinese branch after its Qingdao branch opened in 2012.

* DGB Financial Group Co. Ltd. named Park Jung-hong, a former director at the South Korean asset management unit of BlackRock Inc., as CEO of DGB Asset Management Co. Ltd., effective Oct. 1.

ASEAN

* Moody's appointed Wendy Cheong managing director and regional head for the Asia-Pacific region. Cheong will be based in Hong Kong.

* Indonesia's Financial Services Authority is reviewing a plan to increase the minimum asset value of a financial conglomerate to 2 trillion rupiah, Bisnis Indonesia reported. Financial conglomerates control 65.8% of financial services assets in the country, valued at about 6,930 trillion rupiah as of December 2018, the news publication reported separately.

* Indonesia's PT Bank BTPN Tbk appointed Hanna Tantani as finance director, Bisnis Indonesia reported.

* Thailand-based TMB Bank PCL launched an electronic letter of guarantee service on its internet banking platform, TMB Business CLICK, for large corporate clients, Manager Daily reported. The service allows the clients from both public and private sectors, and beneficiaries to accept letters of guarantee online.

* Bank Negara Malaysia is likely to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 3.00% when its monetary policy committee meets Sept. 12, Reuters reported, citing a poll of economists. Of the 11 economists surveyed, nine expects the central bank to maintain the rate after a stronger-than-expected 4.9% second quarter growth.

SOUTH ASIA

* The board of State Bank of India said in a bourse filing that it approved an offer to divest at least 35 million shares in unit SBI Life Insurance Co. Ltd., or a stake of about 3.5% in the insurer, with a 1% oversubscription option, in order to meet minimum public shareholding guidelines.

* HDFC Bank Ltd.'s mid-corporate loan book is expected to reach 1 trillion Indian rupees by the end of September if it maintains its 21% quarterly growth rate, the Press Trust of India reported. The projection comes as the lender saw its mid-corporate loan book grow more than double in the last three years to more than 900 billion rupees.

* Punjab National Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India have collaborated to establish a total of 23 working groups to oversee the three-way merger process of the lenders, the Press Trust of India reported, citing Sunil Mehta, managing director and CEO of Punjab National Bank.

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

* U.S.-based asset manager KKR & Co. expects to list its A$500 million KKR Credit Income Fund on the Australian Securities Exchange in November, Reuters reported, citing two sources with direct knowledge of the development. The fund will offer annual dividend payments of up to 6%, and will target investors looking for higher-yielding products, the sources said.

* The Australian Securities and Investments Commission said it is looking at 86 cases related to alleged misconducts in the financial sector uncovered by the royal commission's industry-wide probe, The Australian Financial Review reported. The regulator seeks to expedite the process of enforcing penalties and litigation against the country's four biggest banks.

* The Australian senate is looking to establish a committee that would oversee a review of policy settings relating to financial and regulatory technology, which includes the potential creation of an open banking platform in the country, The Australian Financial Review reported. Senator Andrew Bragg is expected to head the committee.

IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

Middle East & Africa: Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank exits India; Zimbabwe forms monetary policy committee

Europe: Nordea COO resigns; Commerzbank offices raided; mortgage blow for banks in Spain

Latin America: Santander Brasil, 2 other banks face fraud lawsuits; Brazil ups growth forecast

North America: Paul Volcker warns on Volcker 2.0; Charles Schwab cuts jobs; fintech raises $15M

Global Insurance: Dorian, Faxai insured losses; Rothesay Life capital raise; Charles Taylor sale

Janna Estares, Emily Lai, Jonathan Cheah, Jaekwon Lim and Santibhap Ussavasodhi contributed to this report.

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