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Deutsche Börse offices raided; RBS suffers another IT glitch; all eyes on Italy

The Daily Dose LIVE returns to the City of London on Tuesday, Oct. 1! Join us for a timely panel discussion over breakfast on the vulnerabilities facing the banking sector and other parts of corporate Europe in a period of deep political, policy and economic uncertainty. Register today to secure your place at this popular breakfast event.

* Deutsche Bank AG has informed a U.S. appeals court that it is in possession of copies of tax returns related to U.S. President Donald Trump and his family that are being sought under a congressional subpoena issued by the House Intelligence and Financial Services committees in April, The Wall Street Journal reported.

* The Portuguese government nominated its central bank deputy Governor Elisa Ferreira for a role at the European Commission, Reuters wrote, citing a spokesman for Prime Minister António Costa.

* Danish Financial Supervisory Authority Director General Jesper Berg told Bloomberg News that the banking industry is nearing a tipping point after years of negative interest rates and that European lenders will need to revise their business models or reduce their size to cope. Meanwhile, Erste Group Bank AG CEO Andreas Treichl said he believes that the low interest rate phase in Europe, which has lasted for almost 10 years, will continue for another 10 to 15 years, Der Standard wrote.

UK AND IRELAND

* A group of international banks, including Barclays PLC, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley, were offered $1 billion tickets in a $13.5 billion bridge loan that will support London Stock Exchange Group PLC's $27 billion acquisition of financial data analytics platform Refinitiv, insiders told Reuters.

* Lloyds Banking Group PLC will launch a specialist customer support service to provide financial assistance and guidance to clients that are suffering from financial, economic and domestic abuse.

* HSBC Holdings PLC said it will reduce fees and offer six-month interest rate rebates on loans to small- and medium-sized firms based in Hong Kong in an attempt to help boost the country's economy, which has been weighed down by the U.S.-China trade war, Reuters reported.

* The online websites of Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and unit NatWest Markets PLC faced technical problems yesterday morning that lasted for several hours, The Guardian reported. The issues, which follow a week after RBS clients were unable to access credit card information through mobile banking, were resolved later in the day.

GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA

* The offices of Deutsche Börse AG's Luxembourg-based unit Clearstream Banking SA were searched as part of long-running German investigations into a dividend-stripping technique known as cum-ex deals.

* Deutsche Bank restructured its treasury function by combining its market-facing and investment activities into an integrated treasury markets and investments team, to be led by François Jourdain. The German lender's group treasurer, Dixit Joshi, told the Financial Times that the firm has €246 billion in liquidity reserves and an additional €30 billion that can be used to invest in longer dated assets and to retire expensive liabilities.

* German fintech firm Raisin GmbH acquired retirement and pension savings company Fairr.de GmbH in a cash and stock deal. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

* FinLeap GmbH plans to expand its activities beyond the business-to-business segment and will launch a comparison platform for insurance and banking products for consumers this year, Börsen-Zeitung wrote.

* Vienna Insurance Group AG reported second quarter net result after noncontrolling interests of €67.5 million, up from €61.1 million a year ago.

* Hypo Vorarlberg Bank AG lost its appeal at Austria's federal administrative court against financial market supervisory authority FMA's claim that the bank had neglected its due diligence obligations to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing after it appeared in the Panama Papers and required it to pay a €414,000 penalty, Die Presse reported.

* Bâloise Holding AG booked first-half profit attributable to shareholders of CHF395.0 million, up from CHF269.7 million in the same period in 2018. The Swiss insurer attributed the increase to a CHF128 million one-off accounting effect related to tax.

* Swiss blockchain service provider Cryptix completed the acquisition of Liechtenstein-based digital asset exchange platform Blocktrade for an undisclosed sum, finews.com wrote. The deal will allow Cryptix to apply for a license as an investment firm in line with the second Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, or MiFID II, regulations.

FRANCE AND BENELUX

* French digital health insurance start-up Alan will expand into Spain and Belgium in 2020, and has a target of covering 100,000 people, up from 37,000 currently, Les Echos wrote.

*France is unlikely to see retail banks impose negative interest rates on clients as is proposed in Germany because the ratio of lending to deposits is around 110%, compared to 90% in Germany, meaning French banks have to keep customers in order to borrow cheaply, according to Les Echos.

* ING Groep NV is set to offer sustainable loans to SMEs in collaboration with the European Investment Bank, Het Financieele Dagblad reported. They have €400 million available for the loans.

SPAIN AND PORTUGAL

* Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA said it aims to launch an offer of contingent convertible securities into ordinary shares of the Spanish lender, excluding shareholders' pre-emption rights.

ITALY AND GREECE

* Italy's ruling 5-Star Movement and the center-left Democratic Party, or PD, have made progress towards a new government coalition deal, according to Reuters. A PD source told the news agency that talks were still at risk of failure over 5-Star leader Luigi Di Maio's insistence that he should retain the role of deputy prime minister in a new coalition despite PD's opposition.

NORDIC COUNTRIES

* Norway should shift some of its $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund from European stock markets and invest more in the U.S. and other North American markets, the Norwegian central bank said.

* Swedish insurance company Hedvig AB has raised 100 million kronor in fresh capital, Realtid reported. The recent funding round values the company at 342 million kronor.

* Denmark's Sydbank A/S reported second quarter group profit of 184 million kroner, down from 237 million kroner a year earlier. For 2019, Sydbank said it expects to book profit after tax at the lower part of its range of between 800 million kroner and 1.10 billion kroner.

EASTERN EUROPE

* Top managers of Russian sanctions-hit JSCB Evrofinance-Mosnarbank Bank JSC are interested in acquiring the stakes of VTB Bank PJSC and AO Gazprombank in the lender, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev said, adding that other lenders have also expressed interest in purchasing the stakes while noting that transferring the shares to PAO Promsvyazbank is also an option.

* Public Stock Co. Orient Express Bank's shareholder Finvision pledged to provide a 2.2 billion Russian ruble financial support for the lender by purchasing some of its assets, RBC reported.

* Moody's upgraded Armenia's long-term local- and foreign-currency issuer ratings to Ba3 from B1, and revised the outlook on the ratings to stable from positive.

* As expected, the Hungarian central bank decided to keep its base rate and overnight deposit rate at 0.9% and negative 0.05%, respectively.

IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

Asia-Pacific: JPMorgan, Citi expand Japan desk; S&P cuts AMP; Shinsei Bank share sale

Middle East & Africa: Global sukuk issuance set to rise; Bank Leumi names CEO; Hapoalim CFO to resign

Latin America: Banco de Bogotá Q2 profit rises; BTG denies advising clients on money laundering

North America: 2 Iowa banks in deal; Moody's warns on Volcker rule; SEC's Jackson extends stay

Global Insurance: Slowing US life premiums; Dorian could become hurricane; China insurer results

NOW FEATURED ON S&P GLOBAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE

European banks brace for 'lower for longer' interest rates: Banks across Europe are under pressure from the low interest rate environment, which is set to continue for longer than expected after the ECB signaled that a further rate cut could be on the horizon.

Deadline in Britain's biggest financial scandal nears with claim surge expected: The regulator expects consumers to file last-minute claims as the long-running payment insurance mis-selling debacle finally draws to a close for U.K. banks, which have already paid out £36 billion in compensation.

Bank of Cyprus 'well placed' to support economic rebound, says outgoing CEO: The lender is returning to strength and is "well placed" to support a rebound in the Cypriot economy, outgoing CEO John Patrick Hourican told analysts during a first-half earnings call.

Deza Mones, Arno Maierbrugger, Meike Wijers, Esben Svendsen, Beata Fojcik, Heather O'Brian, Brian McCulloch, Praxilla Trabattoni and Mariana Aldano contributed to this report.

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This S&P Global Market Intelligence news article may contain information about credit ratings issued by S&P Global Ratings. Descriptions in this news article were not prepared by S&P Global Ratings.