TOP NEWS IN EUROPEAN FINANCIALS
* Klarna Bank AB (publ) raised $800 million in fresh funding at a valuation of $6.7 billion, down 85% from its peak $45.6-billion valuation a year ago. The Swedish payments firm, which noted that it "has not been immune to the significant downdrafts of fintech stock in public markets," said it will use the funds to expand its market position in the U.S. Klarna's new investors included the United Arab Emirates' Mubadala Investment Co. PJSC and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
* DNB Bank ASA posted a second-quarter profit attributable to shareholders of 6.28 billion Norwegian kroner, up from 4.22 billion kroner a year earlier, as net interest income rose 28% to 8.89 billion kroner driven by interest rate hikes. The bank's attributable profit for the first half also rose on a yearly basis to 10.82 billion kroner from 8.99 billion kroner.
➤ Rate hikes boost attractiveness of European bank stocks after rocky H1
Owning bank stocks will pay off, with European interest rate hikes on the cards and banks' balance sheets strong enough to withstand a new downturn, investment managers and analysts say.
➤ Indian banks' conspicuous absence from green finance to impede climate goals
Indian banks have shied away from issuing green bonds, something that could slow the South Asian nation's climate goals.
READ MORE about the market reaction and industry impact of the evolving situation in Russia and Ukraine in our new Issue in Focus.
BANKING
* French investment bank Natixis SA is seeking to add 20 to 30 bankers to its roughly 300 staff in London by 2024 to cater to more clients in the U.K., Simon Eedle, its senior country manager in the U.K., told Bloomberg News.
* Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA and Allianz SE are negotiating a bancassurance alliance in Mexico, Expansión reported. The Spanish bank and German insurer are partners in Spain in the non-life segment.
* The ongoing sale of Sberbank of Russia's Czech assets has failed to attract buyers, Hospodarske Noviny reported. Several financial institutions including Ceská sporitelna a. s., Ceskoslovenská obchodní banka a.s. and PPF Group NV showed initial interest in acquiring the assets but did not file bids. The Czech central bank revoked the license of Sberbank CZ a.s. after it recorded deposit outflows following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
* Poland-based Bank Polska Kasa Opieki SA will earn significantly less in 2022 than the 4 billion zlotys forecast by market analysts due to growing deposit interest rates and various support measures planned for borrowers, CEO Leszek Skiba told Business Insider. The financial impact stemming from a mortgage repayment deferral scheme that Polish authorities plan to introduce in the country could amount to 2 billion zlotys for Bank Pekao, to be fully booked by the lender in the third quarter, Skiba added.
* The Danish Financial Supervisory Authority issued a number of directives to Handelsbanken Danmark A/S following an audit in March, which found shortcomings in the bank's anti-money laundering detection and reporting systems. The bank responded by strengthening the areas in question and implementing IT upgrades to improve transaction monitoring and suspicious activity detection, according to Børsen and Finanswatch.dk.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
* U.K.-based goHenry Ltd., a financial platform for children, has acquired France's Pixpay, which offers a similar service. Both companies will continue to operate under their own brands with no changes to staff numbers and leadership. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
POLICY AND REGULATION
* The Financial Stability Board — the Switzerland-based international body of regulators, government officials and central bankers — plans to submit in October proposals for global regulation and supervision of stablecoins and other crypto-assets. Meanwhile, the European Central Bank said that while financial stability risks from stablecoins are still limited, urgent regulation of stablecoins is necessary before they become a risk to financial stability and disrupt payment systems.
INDUSTRY NEWS
* Eurozone finance ministers postponed to September a decision to appoint a new head of the European Stability Mechanism, the bloc's bailout fund, after one of the three candidates quit the race, Reuters wrote. Italy's Marco Buti exited before the July 11 poll while neither of the two remaining candidates, Luxembourg's Pierre Gramegna and Portugal's João Leão, received enough votes to be appointed as successor to Klaus Regling, who will retire in October.
* Fitch Ratings downgraded Turkey's long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating to B from B+ with a negative outlook, saying the government's "increasingly interventionist" and "unpredictable" macroprudential policies are contributing to spiraling inflation and discourages capital inflows.
Deza Mones, Arno Maierbrugger, Meike Wijers, Gerard O'Dwyer, Beata Fojcik, Heather O'Brian, Stéphanie Salti, Praxilla Trabattoni and Mariana Aldano contributed to this report.
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