Briefs: BOQ completes ME deal, Propell partners with Zip, withdrawal from the Pacific

Bank of Queensland completed its A$1.3 billion acquisition of ME Bank yesterday. BOQ said in a statement that the two businesses would continue to operate as separate ADIs in the short term and customers would not see any immediate changes. When BOQ does surrender ME’s ADI licence, ME will continue as a separate brand within the BOQ Group.

Online small business lender Propell has added buy now pay later to the customer payment acceptance options offered on its platform, after signing a deal with Zip Co. Propell was listed on the ASX in April, raising A$5 million in its initial public offering. It is funded by Altor Capital Management.

Correspondent banking relationships in the Pacific region are in decline, according to a new briefing from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. Some Australian and NZ banks are “choosing to reduce or withdraw their services to some parts the Pacific region, which is at the forefront of an international trend of retreat”, it says. Urging banks to “re-consider how they can continue to serve the needs of our Pacific neighbours”, the RBNZ says “if the already sparse correspondent banking network gets even smaller, it would concentrate payments services through a few fragile channels. It could also force payments to go through riskier networks, increasing financial system risk, making remittances more expensive, and potentially disrupting crucial ways of making payments.”