The ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) was eventful again this week. Here are four big stories you may have missed that affected businesses in the ASX 200 index:
RBA investigation into Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX: APT) and others
The buy now, pay later sector is going to be looked by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).
Merchants are not allowed pass on the costs that Afterpay charges, so the RBA is going to consider whether this needs a policy change.
Who knows what the outcome of the review will be? But if merchants are allowed to charge customers then it might change the attractiveness of Afterpay to customers.
Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) acquisition
Santos announced a large acquisition this week, it's spending US$1.39 billion on the northern Australian assets of ConocoPhillips.
It will get operating interests in Darwin LNG, Bayu-Undan, Barossa and Poseidon. It's expected to add 16% to earnings per share (EPS) in 2020.
Management said these gas assets were low cost and strategic LNG infrastructure consistent with Santos' core asset growth strategy.
BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) lower production
The resources giant gave its operational review for the September 2019 quarter.
Over the quarter, petroleum production was down 1%, copper production was down 3%, iron ore production was down 3%, metallurgical coal production was down 21%, energy coal production was down 24% and nickel production was down 25%.
Although these numbers were down, they are still quite high at pretty good resource prices, so it will help create a good profit for FY20 if repeated for the rest of the financial year.
ACCC inquiry into big four ASX banks
The ACCC is going to look into the banking industry, it's going to consider home loan pricing since the start of the year.
The federal government is unimpressed that the big banks like Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA), Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC), Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX: ANZ) and National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) didn't pass on the full rate cut.
We'll see if this actually does something or if it's just for appearances.
