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Italy in fresh turmoil; Swiss Re ends investment talks with SoftBank

* European Union ministers agreed to reform banking capital rules in a move aimed at boosting financial stability across the trading bloc following the financial crisis. The measures, which relate to bank capital requirements and the recovery and resolution of banks in difficulty, need final approval from the European Parliament in June.

* The 32 largest global asset managers have a collective market share of only 50%, making the industry ripe for consolidation, the Financial Times reported, citing research from JPMorgan.

* The EU's new General Data Protection Regulation will force fund companies to be far more transparent about how exposed they are to data breaches and cyber criminals, consultancy KPMG told the Financial Times.

UK AND IRELAND

* CYBG PLC is expected to sweeten its takeover offer for rival Virgin Money Holdings (UK) PLC after a nearly 8% decline in CYBG's shares knocked about £125 million off the value of its initial all-share proposal, analysts and insiders told the Financial Times. CYBG's share price fell following a disappointing half-year update.

* British dealmaker Amanda Staveley is considering a private criminal prosecution against Barclays PLC after a crown court dismissed the U.K. Serious Fraud Office's charges against the bank relating to its £12 billion emergency fundraising from Qatar during the 2008 financial crisis, The Times reported.

* The U.K. Treasury has told Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC to wait until after the bank's annual general meeting this week to publicly disclose Oliver Holbourn as its new chief of strategy to avoid a potential conflict of interest, Sky News reported. Holbourn previously was CEO of UK Financial Investments Ltd. and spent the last two years managing the U.K. taxpayers' 71% stake in RBS.

* Old Mutual PLC shareholders have approved the company's three-step plan to finalize its planned managed breakup.

* Venture capital firm Draper Esprit PLC grossed £115 million through the placement of 20,238,095 new ordinary shares and subscription of 7,142,857 new ordinary shares at 420 pence apiece.

* U.K.-based ClearBank Ltd. has held talks with the Irish central bank over regulatory approval to expand its operations in Ireland, according to The Times. The lender recently registered a subsidiary in Dublin, ClearBank Europe.

* Customers of TSB Banking Group PLC are still facing problems from the bank's botched IT upgrade in April, with fraudsters exploiting the confusion to access clients' money, Sky News reported.

* The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority is probing 24 unauthorized businesses that deal with cryptocurrencies to determine whether they were carrying out activities that require the regulator's approval, the Financial Times wrote.

GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA

* Swiss Re AG agreed to end negotiations with Japan's SoftBank Group Corp. regarding a potential minority investment by the Japanese company in the Swiss reinsurer.

* Deutsche Bank AG has cut 600 bankers positions since Christian Sewing took over as CEO in April, Reuters wrote. It is cutting a team of 10 investment bankers led by Philipp von Danwitz in London focused on deals in emerging markets, an insider said. In Australia, It laid off a handful of corporate finance specialists, including head of metals and mining Richard Gannon and head of infrastructure and utilities Andrew Martin, according to another source.

* Meanwhile, in its first foray into the Irish commercial real estate market, Deutsche Bank has acquired Westend Retail Park in Dublin for €148 million, according to the Irish Times.

* Swiss private equity firm Partners Group Holding AG is leading a consortium of investors to acquire German energy services provider Techem GmbH in a deal valued at €4.6 billion.

* While a small group of cooperative German volksbanken have continued to serve clients doing business in Iran, most of the country's state landesbanken have ceased operations related to the country, Handelsblatt wrote. Bayerische Landesbank AöR and HSH Nordbank AG halted such transactions some time ago, while Landesbank Baden-Württemberg has also stopped its engagement with the country in the face of possible U.S. sanctions.

FRANCE AND BENELUX

* Dutch lender ABN Amro has appointed Tom de Swaan as the new chairman of its supervisory board, Het Financieele Dagblad reported. De Swaan was previously Zurich Insurance Group AG's chairman.

* Anaylsts at ING Groep NV are forecasting that KBC Group NV will have a 75% dividend distribution ratio in 2019 and 2020, L'Echo reported.

* The French government's reform of derivative trading laws to match the requirements of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association should be ready in June or July, opening the way for ISDA post-Brexit contracts to come under Irish or French law, Les Echos reported.

* Neuflize OBC said it will continue to diversify its activities by doing more merger and acquisition business, Les Echos reported.

SPAIN AND PORTUGAL

* Banco de Sabadell SA is the hardest-hit among Spanish banks by new IFRS 9 accounting rules, according to a report from DBRS cited by Expansión. The bank suffered a loss of 78 basis points to its fully loaded common equity Tier 1 capital ratio, which remained at 12% as at March 31.

* Cape Verde's central bank has given approval for Bahrain-based IIBG Holdings to buy a 90% stake in Banco Internacional de Cabo Verde SA from Portgual's state-rescued Novo Banco SA, news website Macauhub and the Expresso Das Ilhas newspaper reported.

* Portuguese insurer Seguradoras Unidas SA is among the companies being investigated for cartel behavior by Portuguese antitrust authorities, but does not expect to receive any fine as a result of the probe, Jornal de Negócios reported. Both the company and authorities declined to comment on the exact nature of the ongoing probe.

ITALY AND GREECE

* Italy's Prime Minister-designate Giuseppe Conte gave up on efforts to form a government yesterday, after President Sergio Mattarella rejected his pick for finance minister, the eurosceptic Paolo Savona, The Guardian reported, potentially paving the way for new elections. Mattarella, who may ask a former IMF executive director to head an interim government, is now facing impeachment calls, BBC News reported.

* On Friday, Moody's placed Italy's sovereign credit rating on review for a possible downgrade amid political concerns.

* Generali renewed its outstanding revolving credit facilities, increasing to €4 billion in total.

* Loan collector doBank SpA is looking to partner with banks seeking to outsource their NPL platforms, then expand into the unlikely-to-pay sector and grow internationally, namely in Greece, Milano Finanza wrote.

* DBRS raised Cyprus' long-term foreign- and local-currency issuer ratings to BB from BB (low), while maintaining a positive trend, citing the country's improved fiscal performance and strong growth and a decline in local banks' nonperforming loans.

EASTERN EUROPE

* VTB Bank (PJSC) agreed to sell 100% of VTB Insurance Ltd. to JSC Sogaz, in a deal that would create the largest insurer in Russia. On top of an undisclosed cash consideration, the Russian government-controlled bank will get a 10% stake in the merged entity, which will operate under Sogaz's brand. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter following necessary regulatory approvals.

* Latvia's Financial and Capital Market Commission imposed a €456,000 fine on AS Meridian Trade Bank, which services mainly clients in Russia and other former Soviet states, for noncompliance with money laundering regulations, Reuters reported. Meridian agreed to pay the fine and promised to invest up to €1 million to improve its anti-money laundering controls.

* Estonia's police revealed that over $13 billion was laundered through local banks between 2012 and 2016, of which €7.3 billion was processed by financial institutions through nonresident bank accounts, Reuters reported.

* Surging inflation and the fast depreciation of the Turkish lira have deteriorated the operating environment for domestic banks and made their funding and asset quality more vulnerable to future macro pressures, according to S&P Global Ratings.

IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

Middle East & Africa: Kenyan watchdog probes central bank officials; S&P affirms South Africa

Latin America: Supervielle agrees to buy stockbroker; Q1 profits rise for Galicia, Caixa

North America: Goldman Sachs, Blackstone settle bond dispute; 2 New Jersey banks to merge

North America Insurance: Cyber claims soar as GDPR nears; reinsurance renewals to slump

NOW FEATURED ON S&P GLOBAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE

Tackling new EU data rules could cost insurers more than Solvency II: Insurers have large amounts of customer data on disparate systems, which means they could be working on the General Data Protection Regulation long after the May 25 deadline.

European governments agree on new capital rules, bank resolution measures: But the U.K.'s finance minister Philip Hammond warned that a departure from global standards to favor big banks in the eurozone could heighten risk.

S&P: Turkish banks face macro risks to funding, asset quality: Rising inflation and the long-term depreciation and volatility of the lira have deteriorated the operating environment of Turkish banks and made them more vulnerable to future internal and external macro risks, S&P Global Ratings said.

UK, US central bank chiefs urge markets to end reliance on Libor: Mark Carney and Bill Dudley made a joint call for swift action to embrace safer alternatives to the benchmark rate, which they described as flawed and fragile.

Ben Meggeson, Ed Meza, Danielle Rossingh, Gerard O'Dwyer, Beata Fojcik, Yael Schrage, Brian McCulloch, Praxilla Trabattoni and Helen Popper contributed to this report.

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