TOP NEWS IN EUROPEAN FINANCIALS
* Sweden-based Hoist Finance AB (publ) agreed to acquire a nonperforming loan portfolio from Greece's Alpha Bank SA, a unit of Alpha Services and Holdings SA. The portfolio consists of unsecured consumer loans and a minor part small enterprise loans and secured loans with a total outstanding balance of roughly €2.1 billion. Hoist said the total investment is €108 million.
* Italy's Banca Ifis SpA said transfer of the registered office of its controlling shareholder, La Scogliera, to Switzerland will complete in January. The lender's shares rose as much as 6% as the relocation is expected to add 4.5 percentage points to its core capital, Reuters reported.
➤ Lack of nonfungible token insurance coverage 'inexcusable' as market expands
"Underwriters will need to see consistent values and at a higher level in order to contemplate a viable insurance solution," said Mary Pontillo, senior vice president and national fine art practice leader at Risk Strategies.
BANKING
* Moody's changed the outlook on the Baa3 long-term deposit rating and Ba3 long-term issuer rating of BPER Banca SpA to positive from stable and placed the ratings of Banca Carige SpA - Cassa di Risparmio di Genova e Imperia on review for upgrade. The actions came after news of acquisition talks between the Italian lenders. The agency believes BPER Banca, as a stand-alone entity, will continue to improve its asset quality and the potential acquisition of Banca Carige could strengthen the bank's franchise.
* Meanwhile, BPER Banca said it has signed an agreement with trade unions for workforce optimization. Under the agreement, the Italian lender will hire 550 resources with specific professional skills. The agreement also allows for the temporary-to-permanent stabilization of 300 employment contracts.
* Petrus Advisers has found perceived errors in procedures concerning the appointment of members to Aareal Bank AG's supervisory board on Dec. 9 and has proposed to Germany's Wiesbaden District Court that three candidates named by Petrus be appointed, Handelsblatt reported. Petrus asserts that the votes of hedge fund Teleios, which pursues similar goals to Petrus Advisers regarding management and strategy for the bank, were not taken into account at the annual general meeting and would have resulted in the appointment of its proposed board candidates. The Teleios votes were submitted late, and the bank is therefore refusing Petrus' demands, the publication said.
* Finnish regulator has approved Evli Bank PLC's proposed demerger and the listing prospectus of Evli PLC's class B shares. The company had announced that it would demerge into two companies — an asset management company and a banking company.
* Sberbank of Russia will launch long-term stock option programs for its employees.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
* Illimity SGR, the asset management unit of Italy-based Illimity Bank SpA, has contributed €80 million to Illimity Credit & Corporate Turnaround, the fund dedicated to investments in unlikely-to-pay loans to small and medium-sized enterprises, MF and Il Sole 24 Ore reported. The fund's overall inflows are now over €280 million.
* Hargreaves Lansdown PLC is urging the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority to review the definitions of financial advice and guidance to allow the company to use big data to target customers with personalized messages, the Financial Times reported.
* Financial technology company founders have accused Starling Bank Ltd. CEO Anne Boden of "trying to thwart the future of innovation in financial services," given Boden's comments related to open banking at a U.K. Treasury select committee hearing, The Times reported.
POLICY AND REGULATION
* Deputies of Russia's State Duma submitted a bill aimed at limiting the maximum length of unsecured consumer loans to five years, RBC reported. If the bill is passed, its entry into force will be delayed by 180 days so financial market participants could bring their activities in line with the new rules.
* In a joint report published yesterday, French financial regulators Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution and Autorité des Marchés Financiers have welcomed the growing number of climate commitments made by financial institutions but call for greater transparency and more precise timetables, Les Echos wrote.
Sheryl Obejera, Daniel Stephens, Meike Wijers, Gerard O'Dwyer, Beata Fojcik, Yael Schrage, Stéphanie Salti, Praxilla Trabattoni, and Nelson Siqueira contributed to this report.
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