TOP NEWS IN EUROPEAN FINANCIALS
* Swedbank AB (publ)'s board of directors proposed a dividend of 4.35 Swedish kronor per share for 2019, to be paid Feb. 22. The dividend proposal has been made in consultation with the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority. Dagens Industri covered.
* U.K.-based specialty lines insurer and reinsurer Canopius Group Ltd. has reached out to investment banks to explore an IPO on the London Stock Exchange, insiders told Sky News. An IPO valuing the company at more than £2 billion could reportedly take place in the coming months.
* Delphine d'Amarzit, a deputy CEO at French lender Orange Bank SA, will become CEO of Euronext Paris SA and a member of the managing board of Netherlands-based Euronext NV, effective from March 15, Les Echos wrote.
➤ Up to 50% of Danish retail deposits hit by negative rates, with more to come
Paying a negative interest rate on your deposit account is becoming a reality for Mr. and Mrs. Denmark, as the average Danes are called in Danish.
➤ Wall Street critic, former CFTC chairman Gary Gensler named to lead SEC
President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Gary Gensler to lead the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a sign of the administration's plans to take an aggressive stance on Wall Street.
BANKING
* Italy's UniCredit SpA is poised to reduce its list of CEO candidates to just a handful in the coming days, with former UBS Group AG investment banking head Andrea Orcel and former Cassa depositi e prestiti SpA CEO Fabio Gallia considered strong contenders to replace outgoing CEO Jean Pierre Mustier, insiders told Reuters.
* HSBC Holdings PLC Chairman Mark Tucker said the U.K.-based banking group plans to accelerate its expansion plans across Asia as part of a strategy update, Bloomberg News reported. The update is expected to be disclosed Feb. 23 alongside the bank's full-year results.
* Cassa Centrale Banca Credito Cooperativo Italiano SpA is seeking to revise the terms of its option to acquire a further 80% in Banca Carige SpA from Italian interbank deposit fund FITD, while FITD has given a mandate to KPMG to carry out due diligence to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the bank's accounts, MF reported. Cassa Centrale Banca currently owns 8.3% of Banca Carige.
* U.K. digital bank Monese Ltd. is in discussions with investors over a £40 million fundraising round, expected to take place toward the end of 2021, insiders told The Telegraph.
* Funding Circle Holdings PLC expects to report an adjusted EBITDA of at least £15 million in the second half, higher than previous expectations. The U.K. peer-to-peer lender's initial AEBITDA expectation was breakeven, the Financial Times noted.
* U.K.-based Perenna plans to issue its first 30-year fixed-rate mortgages in the third quarter, The Times reported. The company, which is seeking a banking license from the Prudential Regulation Authority, aims to achieve a lending target of £100 million a month.
* Nadezhda Ermakova, a former head of the Belarusian central bank, was appointed chair of the management board at Belarus-based Belgazprombank.
* Swiss lender EFG International AG placed $400 million of inaugural perpetual additional Tier 1 notes. The order book exceeded $4.7 billion.
* Poland-based Bank Pekao SA does not plan further acquisitions and will focus on technological improvements to attract more clients and ensure assets growth, Parkiet wrote, citing acting CEO Leszek Skiba.
* Arion banki hf. raised its profit expectations for the fourth quarter, Realtid reported. The Iceland-based bank now expects a preliminary net profit of 6 billion kronur, well above analysts' expectations, as well as the results for the previous quarter.
* Filip Dierckx, a former top executive at BNP Paribas Fortis SA, has sued the Belgian bank for €440,000 for damaging his reputation and false accusations of a conflict of interest, De Tijd reported. The former banker worked left the bank after he was considered to be the chairman of Belfius Banque SA.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
* RSA Insurance Group PLC shareholders approved the proposed £7.2 billion takeover of the U.K.-based insurer by Canada-based Intact Financial Corp. and Danish insurer Tryg A/S. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter.
* London Stock Exchange Group PLC is seeking to shorten the process for an IPO, which takes five weeks, insiders told Bloomberg News. The U.K. government is conducting a review of the exchange's listing rules, with the results expected early this year.
* U.K.-based payments services company Equiniti Group PLC is in negotiations to sell a portion of its Equiniti Financial Services Ltd. unit to unnamed potential buyers.
* Investment company Eurazeo SE made an offer last week for Aviva France SA, with a view to making the Aviva PLC unit a fully fledged branch of its asset management business, Les Echos reported.
* George Mallinckrodt, a former executive chairman of U.K.-based asset manager Schroders PLC, has died after a long illness.
* Poland's Office of Competition and Consumer Protection imposed a fine of more than 4 million zlotys on consumer lending company Profi Credit Polska SA for pursuing business practices that violated consumers' collective interests.
* Czech financial advisory services provider Partners plans to open its own bank and will offer its managers and employees the opportunity to purchase shares in a company that will hold a majority stake in the new financial institution, Hospodarske Noviny reported.
POLICY AND REGULATION
* The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority stopped authorization applications from 343 financial services firms and individuals during the first 10 months of 2020 as part of efforts to protect consumers from investment harm. The regulator also called on financial services firms to "use or lose" their regulatory permissions to reduce the risk of harm to consumers.
* Croatia's central bank temporarily banned lenders operating in the country from distributing dividends and repurchasing own shares in order to boost their resilience and maintain the financial system's stability during the COVID-19 pandemic, SEENews reported. The restrictions will be in place until the end of 2021.
MARKETS
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Erin Tanchico, Daniel Stephens, Meike Wijers, Esben Svendsen, Beata Fojcik, Heather O'Brian, Stéphanie Salti, Praxilla Trabattoni and Mariana Aldano contributed to this report.
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