BPER Banca, Nexi strike deal; EU hits Russian banks with Swift sanctions

S&P Global Market Intelligence offers our top picks of banking news stories and more published throughout the week.

Italy's BPER Banca SpA and unit Banco di Sardegna SpA struck a deal with Nexi SpA under which the banks' merchant acquiring and point-of-sale management businesses will be transferred to the payments group. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2022.

Italy-based Nexi will pay as much as €384 million for the businesses, including a deferred component of up to €66 million subject to certain targets being hit. The group will also fully acquire Numera Sistemi e Informatica SpA from Banco di Sardegna, subject to the prior carve‐out from some of Numera's of business activities not related to POS management and support.

Meanwhile, the Italian antitrust authority approved BPER Banca's acquisition of an 80% stake in Banca Carige SpA for a symbolic €1. This is on condition of BPER selling 48 Carige branches in the regions of Sardinia, Liguria, Tuscany, Emilia Romagna and Lazio, Il Sole 24 Ore reported. Banco di Desio e della Brianza SpA is in pole position to buy the branches, the daily noted.

BPER booked an attributable net profit of €113 million in the first quarter of 2022, down from the €400 million a year ago. It also booked total assets of €135.82 billion. Combining BPER and Carige would create Italy's fourth-largest bank by assets, with total assets of more than €150 billion, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data.

BPER Banca is set to present its 2022-2025 business plan on June 10.

Deals and no-deals

* U.K.-based NatWest Group PLC said unit Ulster Bank Ireland DAC will sell a roughly €6 billion performing tracker and linked mortgage portfolio to Allied Irish Banks PLC, a subsidiary of AIB Group PLC. The sale is part of NatWest's phased withdrawal from Ireland and is expected to be finalized in the second quarter of 2023.

* Czech lender Moneta Money Bank a.s. and PPF Group NV have terminated an existing 25.9 billion koruny agreement to merge their banking and financial assets.

* Sberbank of Russia is negotiating a potential sale of its unit in Kazakhstan to Baiterek National Managing Holding JSC, sources told Reuters.

Russia-Ukraine war

* The EU adopted a sixth package of sanctions against Russia over its war on Ukraine. This included disconnecting Sberbank of Russia, Credit Bank of Moscow PJSC and JSC Russian Agricultural Bank from the Swift international financial messaging system.

* Russia's central bank is implementing limits on the local subsidiaries of Italian banks UniCredit SpA and Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, including barring Italian account holders from withdrawing funds from the Russian units without management permission, sources told Bloomberg News. The restrictions will be in place for a year, beginning May 25.

* Swiss financial regulator FINMA is extending the duration of its measures to protect the creditors of Sberbank (Switzerland) AG until Aug. 2, citing heightened international sanctions and the continuing risks for the Sberbank of Russia unit's liquidity situation. The measures, imposed March 4, had already been extended until May 31.

* Ukraine's central bank raised its key policy rate to 25% from 10%, resuming policy tools to stem inflation and ease the pressure on the foreign exchange market amid Russia's invasion.

In other news

* The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision announced a decision to treat cross-border exposures of banks within the European Banking Union as domestic ones on the methodology for global systemically important banks. The change, which will benefit large European banks, including French lender BNP Paribas SA, is a step toward harmonizing banking regulations across the region and will make cross-border mergers between EU banks easier, the Financial Times noted.

* Deutsche Bank AG said Asoka Woehrmann will step down as CEO of asset management unit DWS Group GmbH & Co. KGaA on June 9 "in agreement with the company." Woehrmann will be replaced by Stefan Hoops, who will also take responsibility for asset management at group level.

* Credit Suisse Group AG is looking at potentially selling shares to some of the Swiss banking group's major existing investors and selling a business as among the options to strengthen its capital, sources told Reuters. The size of the increase could reportedly exceed CHF1 billion, which would help the group recover from a string of losses and legal issues. Credit Suisse said in a statement that it was not currently considering raising additional equity capital, the news wire noted.

Featured during the week on S&P Capital IQ Pro:

Inflation, indirect blows from war to hit European banks' 2022 provisioning: Of the 25 largest European banks, 20 booked higher provisions for the first quarter of 2022 than they did a year earlier, S&P Global Market Intelligence data showed.

SocGen's new CEO could target big-ticket M&A to boost profitability: Frédéric Oudéa's successor will have limited options to boost returns at the giant French lender, which has regularly lagged behind its domestic peers in recent years.

Yael Schrage contributed to this report.