Briefs: NPP jitters, PayPal loan launch imminent, ministers at odds over Asia Infrastructure Investm 21 October 2014 4:35PM John Kavanagh Briefs, The New Payments Platform steering committee issued a statement yesterday saying the program was continuing with a legal review and participant commitment process, and that all 17 participants have been conducting their own assessments of the fully costed proposal. The statement said: "Most of the current participants, including the four major banks, have confirmed their continuing commitment to the program." The release of the statement appears to be in response to inquiries by The Australian, which reported that Westpac was getting cold feet about its financial commitment to the big payments infrastructure project. PayPal Australia wants to partner with banks on the development of a business lending facility it will launch in local market, the company's chief executive Jeff Clementz told the Australian Financial Review. PayPal will launch PayPal Working Capital Loans in Australia and the UK this week, following its launch in the US. Loans of A$6000 to $20,000 will be offered through PayPal accounts. PayPal is not planning to offer personal loans in Australia, Clementz said. Treasurer Joe Hockey is open to the idea of Australia joining the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank proposed by China, but Foreign Minister Julie Bishop is opposed, The Conversation reports. Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb also believes the proposal has merit and could add value to the region. Australia has been under pressure from the United States not to participate in the new bank. ANZ's managing director of commercial banking for Australia, Mark Whelan, has been given a promotion. Whelan will take on global commercial banking and join the bank's group management board. He has been given the task of improving connectivity for commercial clients across the bank's network of 33 countries. Peter Langham, the chief executive of Scottish Pacific Debtor Finance, has been appointed chairman of the Debtor and Invoice Finance Association of Australia. Langham has been in the industry more than 30 years and started with the Bank of Scotland Group in the UK. DIFA represents companies in the receivables finance market, which had A$63 billion of sales in 2013/14. Siobhan Hayden has been appointed as the new chief executive of the Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia. Hayden has spent the past eight years at Finware Australia, a provider of software to mortgage brokers. She has also worked as a project manager at Woolworths.