Backed by China's Alibaba Group, Akulaku offers digital banking and other services such as Buy Now Pay Later. Akulaku had received a $100 million investment from Thailand's Siam Commercial Bank Pcl in February.

"Indonesia is particularly important" for MUFG's expansion in Asia given the country's economic size and a high growth potential among Southeast Asian peers, the company said in a statement.

The announcement follows MUFG's purchase of the Philippines and Indonesian units of Dutch consumer finance company Home Credit last month for about 596 million euros ($632 million). MUFG made Jakarta-based Bank Danamon its consolidated subsidiary in April 2019.

MUFG is also planning to acquire a Japanese Buy Now Pay Later company Kanmu Inc for nearly 20 billion yen ($150.56 million), the Nikkei newspaper reported on Monday.

MUFG Bank said in a statement that it was considering the acquisition of shares in Kanmu, adding nothing had been decided yet, following the Nikkei report.

($1 = 132.8400 yen)

($1 = 0.9418 euros)

(Reporting by Kantaro Komiya; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)