Over two and a half years of antitrust screening is coming to an end, allowing two regional banks in the western prefecture of Nagasaki to merge, reported Nikkei.
Japan’s Fair Trade Commission is working out the final details of its approval of a plan to bring together Eighteenth Bank, the prefecture’s top bank, and Fukuoka Financial Group, whose subsidiary Shinwa Bank is the second largest lender.
To make sure that the merged bank does not monopolize the local lending market targeting small to midsize businesses, the Commission has been examining whether some of the banks’ borrowers might be talked into shifting their debt to other lenders.
The final approval is expected to take place as early as the end of August. The two banks plan to set April as their merger target date.
Full Content: Asian Review
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