Japan’s Shinwa Bank and Eighteenth Bank Ltd have decided to postpone their planned merger by six months, saying they wanted to bring the dates of their merger and systems integration closer together to avoid complications for customers, Reuters reported.
Eighteenth Bank and Shinwa Bank got approval in August from Japanese authorities to merge after alengthy review that had sparked a battle between the antitrust watchdog and financial regulators.
The postponement was earlier reported by the Nikkei business daily, which attributed the delay to preparation for a change in the local calendar with the abdication of the emperor next year.
The Nikkei said the banks decided to postpone the merger by six months to avoid potential system troubles with the added workload of making necessary changes to the system with the change of the imperial era in May next year.
Full Content: Reuters