TOP NEWS IN EUROPEAN FINANCIALS
* French insurer AXA SA said Antoine Gosset-Grainville will succeed Denis Duverne as chairman of its board of directors when the latter retires from the role in April 2022.
* Deutsche Bank AG said it expects 2021 revenues to be lower than the 2020 level, but that growth would likely resume in 2022. The German lender also said CEO Christian Sewing's pay for 2020 increased by about 46% year over year to €7.4 million after the bank posted its first annual profit in six years.
* U.S. private equity firm Apollo Global Management Inc. has ended deal discussions with Greensill Capital (UK) Ltd. regarding its possible $60 million acquisition of Greensill's operating assets through Apollo's insurance unit, Athene Holding Ltd., following an investment by U.S. bank JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Greensill's American technology partner Taulia Inc., sources told Reuters.
➤ Renewables insurer unfazed by Texas freeze but extreme weather risks set to rise
Wind turbines are likely to have weathered the Texas storm with minimal direct damage, according to an insurer with 10 GW of assets under coverage in the state. However, extreme weather events in the region pose increasing risk to operators.
➤ European PE healthcare deal value rises sharply after onset of COVID-19
Activity recovered from a second-quarter trough and year-end total deal value was the second-highest in five years, Preqin data shows.
BANKING
* Andrea Orcel will receive €7.5 million in annual pay as new CEO of Italian lender UniCredit SpA, comprising a fixed salary of €2.5 million and variable remuneration worth up to twice that amount in shares, Reuters reported.
* Swiss bank UBS Group AG is looking to raise its stake in its securities joint venture in China to 67% after two Chinese partners put their shares up for auction, Reuters reported.
* Cassa Centrale Banca Credito Cooperativo Italiano SpA's board is expected to decide in a meeting today not to exercise a call option to acquire a further 80% stake in Italian peer Banca Carige SpA, in which it currently owns 8.3%, from interbank deposit fund FITD, according to Il Sole 24 Ore.
* Billions of dollars of suspicious funds were transferred through Danske Bank A/S' Estonian branch, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project said, citing a 2014 audit report. The report explores shady practices that the Denmark-based bank's foreign clients used to move money through the Estonian branch, with Danske allegedly turning a blind eye to those practices. The report pointed out 47 specific breaches of money laundering rules at the branch, Berlingske Business reported.
* The Danish Financial Supervisory Authority has ordered Nordea Kredit Realkredit A/S to strengthen its compliance function after the regulator found it had significant shortcomings in several areas, FinansWatch wrote.
* Swiss private bank Julius Bär Gruppe AG is looking at the potential acquisition of Irish stockbroker J & E Davy and in particular the book of some very wealthy clients at Davy, finews.ch reported, citing The Currency. The stockbroker is up for sale following a trading scandal involving government bonds.
* Germany's Aareal Bank AG said the absence of management board Chairman Hermann Merkens will be longer than previously expected due to ill health, adding that its supervisory board has expedited a search for Merkens' successor as a precautionary measure.
* Denmark-based Jyske Bank A/S is entering the insurance market with a new unit, to be called Jyske Forsikring, Børsen reported. It will be a white label solution, selling insurance products from Købstædernes Forsikring.
* Crédit Mutuel Arkéa SACC Chairman Jean-Pierre Denis, who has tried for years to detach Arkéa from Crédit Mutuel Group, is leaving the company, Les Echos wrote, citing newspaper Le Télégramme. According to the Breton daily, Denis will not seek the renewal of his mandate at the end of March.
* Germany's banks and savings banks are merging their three online payment services — Paydirekt, Giropay and Kiwtt — under the Giropay brand, Handelsblatt reported.
* Russia-based National Bank Trust PJSC filed a 107.4 billion ruble lawsuit against its former owner Otkritie Holding JSC and several banking executives, claiming that their actions resulted in the central bank having to bail out the lender in 2018, according to RBC.
* Internet company Yandex is negotiating the purchase of Russia-based CB Acropol JSC, with an acquisition agreement expected to be signed shortly, The Bell reported.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
* French insurer Axa intends to drop RWE AG as a client over concerns related to the German energy giant's coal operations and its slow-moving measures to shrink its carbon footprint, insiders told Bloomberg News.
* France-based insurer Groupama Group posted a full-year 2020 net income of €177 million, down from €345 million a year ago.
* Steel magnate Sanjeev Gupta said his British conglomerate, GFG Alliance Ltd., is in discussions with administrators of its former financier, Greensill Capital (UK) Ltd., over a so-called standstill deal that would allow GFG to pause debt payments to the troubled company for a set period of time, Reuters reported.
* Meanwhile, the U.K. government is exposed to over £1 billion of loans to the business group of steel magnate Sanjeev Gupta and collapsed financier Greensill Capital extended through three state lending schemes, according to the Financial Times.
* Gordon Marr plans to retire as CEO of U.K.-based insurer Hansard Global PLC by 2021-end.
POLICY AND REGULATION
* Belarus' central bank scrapped its interest rate-setting schedule for the rest of 2021 after maintaining its main rate at 7.75%, Reuters wrote.
* The Russian central bank revoked the licenses of JSC ForeBank and Modern Standards of Business Commercial Bank LLC over breaching banking regulations and anti-money-laundering legislation. The regulator also canceled the license of Aljba Alliance Commercial Bank Ltd. at the request of the lender itself.
* Poland's Financial Supervision Authority approved the upcoming merger of local cooperative lenders Bank Spoldzielczy W Jedrzejowie and Bank Spoldzielczy W Sedziszowie, Parkiet reported.
* The European Securities and Markets Authority picked Natasha Cazenave as its new executive director, succeeding Verena Ross, who is set to step down from the role in May after serving the maximum allowable term.
Erin Tanchico, Daniel Stephens, Meike Wijers, Esben Svendsen, Beata Fojcik, Heather O'Brian, Stéphanie Salti, Sophie Davies and Mariana Aldano contributed to this report.
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