After more than six months of merger negotiations, Australian Settlements Limited (ASL) and Indue have reached an impasse.  Earlier this year, in May, ASL announced that it had agreed to explore a merger with Indue.  "Following an extensive process of due diligence that has now completed, the Boards of ASL and Indue have not been able to reach agreement to merge the two organisations and the process has now concluded," ASL said this week. At various times in recent months Banking Day has heard talk that a successful deal was not only likely, but imminent. There is little clarity on what ultimately proved the insurmountable hurdles to getting this merger over the line – a merger believed to be widely supported by many among their complementary customer bases. For now, ASL, especially, faces the same old challenges, given the recent attrition in its customer base, with the likes of Bank of us and The Mutual Bank shifting to Indue.