Briefs: BOQ writes off new CRM system, stats on managed funds, Japan to ease banking rules, RBS out 27 February 2015 5:25PM Banking Day staff Briefs, Bank of Queensland will take a $7 million hit to its half-year earnings after it announced APRA had blocked plans to introduce a new cloud-based customer relationship management system, the AFR has reported. The bank has been piloting the use of a CRM system from Salesforce since late 2012 in a few branches and had planned to role it out across the bank. It said the board had decided to impair the $10 million pre-tax carrying value in the system, which is the amount it has invested to date. The latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that, at 31 December 2014, the managed funds industry had A$2.49 billion funds under management, an increase of $57.6 billion (two per cent) on the September quarter. The main "valuation effects" during the December quarter 2014 were: the S&P/ASX 200 increased 2.2 per cent; the price of foreign shares, as represented by the MSCI World Index (excluding Australia), increased 0.8 per cent; and the Australian dollar depreciated 6.7 per cent against the US dollar. Japan is considering relaxing rules on what businesses bank holding companies can own, allowing lenders to invest more freely in IT ventures as they face growing competition from non-bank online payment services, reports the Economic Times. The rule changes would also allow bank holding companies to allocate assets and functions more freely among subsidiaries. Nearly 1500 staff of the Royal Bank of Scotland based in India might be out of a job. The Economic Times reports that the bank will try and sell its operations and give up its branch status in the country.