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and Austrian banks survive government's staged cyberattacks.

Investor loan growth slowed to less than 1%.

It is ahead of the APAC average adoption rate of 64%.

Malaysian Islamic banks could lean on their parent groups cashing in to boost digital drive.

ACU-driven overseas loans rose 7.5%.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trustbank received approval to operate an information bank. Japanese banks are entering a new era as they go into personal info brokering, The Asahi Shimbun reports. The government-backed Japan Federation of IT Associations has given the green light for Sumitomo Mitsui Trustbank and Felica Pocket Marketing, a subsidiary of retailer Aeon Co., to operate a data brokerage service that will allow them to establish an information bank that will buy and sell customers' personal data. Under the service, the company will receive data from customers such as their name, purchase history and health-related information, in trust. Upon customer consent, the bank will provide data to companies that are eyeing to develop new products. Similar to the bank's practice of paying interest on a deposit, customers who shared their information will be compensated with cash, coupons or bank services.

The five licenses are split into two full digital and three wholesale.

The prominent default of a financing firm in 2018 hit bank confidence.

HSBC, BEA, StanChart, and Hang Seng did the move in anticipation of stiffer competition from virtual lenders. Amidst the rise of virtual banks, three major Hong Kong banks revealed that they will waive minimum balance fees for their customers in a move to further boost financial inclusion. Starting August 1, HSBC, Bank of East Asia (BEA) and Hang Seng Bank will remove minimum balance fees for certain accounts. HSBC was the first to announce that it will enable free basic banking services for their customers with passbooks, statement accounts, personal and advance integrated accounts, as well as those with super ease accounts. The move will also kill monthly or annual service fees and miscellaneous charges such as counter transaction fees for some personal savings account. Currently, bank users of HSBC’s personal integrated account need to pay a monthly fee of $7.68 (HK$60) once the average total balance reaches $640 (HK$5,000) over a period of three months. Meanwhile, those with advanced integrated accounts pay $15.36 (HK$120) when a three-month average balance is less than $25,601 (HK$200,000).

A homegrown bank pulled ahead of global rivals like Standard Chartered.

State-owned banks can expect a mild capital boost of up to 30bps.

And German banks could face $695m over dividend tax concerns.

The number fell from as high as over 7,500 in 2014.

Competition and cooperation will shape the interaction between incumbents and TSPs.

Lenders grapple with low profitability and limited capital two years since they kicked off. After two years since their debut, Korean virtual lenders Kakao Bank and K Bank have managed to capture just 0.6% of the KRW-denominated loans market as of end 2018, according to a report by Moody’s with data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). The lenders have been the most active in the unsecured personal loan market with plans to extend to retail loan segments like mortgages. “Korea’s two virtual banks have brought modest competition in some retail loan segments but no broad disruption in the two years they have been operating,” the report said. To jockey for market share, the ratings agency noted that K bank has a loan portfolio geared toward non-prime borrowers or individuals with credit rating less than four out of 10, pushing its delinquency rate above the regional banks. Meanwhile, Kakao Bank, with a higher portion of prime borrowers, has shown better asset quality compared to its commercial bank peers. Kakao Bank has focused its lending business on prime borrowers, and its proportion of loans with lending rates of less than 4% was at around 82% of total newly extended loans in May 2019. “Virtual banks have not yet shown competitive advantages in using proprietary data sources for underwriting. We expect asset quality of the virtual banks will reflect on the risk undertaken in terms of the proportion of high risk borrowers,” Moody’s said.

Corporates, which account for 76% of loans, have strong debt-servicing abilities.