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RBS names Rose CEO; SNB, Norges Bank rate moves; low demand for cheap ECB loans

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RBS names Rose CEO; SNB, Norges Bank rate moves; low demand for cheap ECB loans

* European lenders showed little interest in the ECB's new round of targeted long-term refinancing operation with only 28 banks taking up a total of just €3.4 billion of loans, compared to predictions of between €20 billion to €100 billion, media outlets including Reuters and Bloomberg News reported. The three-year loans were offered at rates starting at zero and could fall as low as the ECB's minus 0.5% deposit rate.

* Dawn Stump, a commissioner at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has called on the EU to give clarity on when it decides to intervene with foreign clearing houses and to put more trust in their respective national regulators to avoid potentially hampering cross-border coordination between supervisors, Reuters reported. Under new EU rules, the European Securities and Markets Authority will have the power to directly oversee foreign clearing houses on their home turf in certain instances.

UK AND IRELAND

* Alison Rose will become the new CEO of Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC on Nov. 1, making her the first woman to lead a major U.K. bank. Rose, the group's CEO for commercial and private banking and deputy CEO of NatWest Holdings Ltd., replaces Ross McEwan, who will leave RBS on Oct. 31.

* The Bank of England kept interest rates unchanged at 0.75% and warned that entrenched Brexit uncertainties and slower global growth continue to weigh on the economy. The central bank added that, in the event of a no-deal Brexit, monetary policy response "would not be automatic and could be in either direction."

* No breakthrough was achieved on Brexit discussions between U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the Northern Irish party yesterday, as Johnson failed to present credible proposals on an alternative to the Irish border backstop, Reuters cited Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney as saying. He added that there is still a huge gap between what Britain wants and what the EU may be willing to accept. Meanwhile, Johnson is mulling giving Northern Ireland a "special economic zone" status, according to British officials, the Financial Times wrote.

* The U.K. must ensure it avoids regulations that may allow arbitrage opportunities in euro-denominated swaps trading post-Brexit, Reuters cited Robert Ophele, head of France's markets regulator AMF, as saying.

* The introduction of the EU's revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive has resulted in asset managers reducing their research budgets but has not significantly cut coverage of smaller firms, according to the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority. The MiFID II research unbundling rules are "working well" for investors, as most asset managers have opted to pay for research using their own revenues instead of clients' funds, resulting in U.K.-managed equity portfolios saving roughly £70 million in the first half of 2018, the regulator added.

* London Stock Exchange Group PLC Group CEO David Schwimmer expects the EU to grant a "technical extension" to the temporary EU permission, or equivalence, for European customers to trade on the exchange's derivatives clearing house beyond March 2020 in the event of a no-deal Brexit, Reuters reported.

GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA

* The Swiss National Bank left the policy rate and the rate on sight deposits unchanged at negative 0.75% and increased the threshold for bank deposits exempt from negative rates while cutting its growth outlook amid the ongoing global economic slowdown.

* Deutsche Bank AG could shift more problematic assets worth billions of euros into its newly created capital release unit if it is able to sell positions it already holds in the "bad bank," according to Reuters. In other news, Deutsche Bank has reportedly auctioned off its portfolio of equities derivatives to Barclays PLC for the European assets, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. for the Asian assets and Morgan Stanley for the U.S. assets, insiders told Bloomberg.

* Credit Suisse Group AG plans to also charge for Swiss franc deposits after imposing a 0.4% fee on euro accounts of more than €1 million, a source told Bloomberg. UBS Group AG already confirmed it will introduce a fee for clients holding more than CHF2 million.

* Arab Bank (Switzerland) Ltd. is building a crypto business unit to provide digital asset management solutions for clients in partnership Geneva-based Taurus Group, a company specializing in blockchain infrastructure, Finews wrote.

FRANCE AND BENELUX

* BNP Paribas SA sold a 39% stake in its Tunisian subsidiary Union Bancaire pour le Commerce et l'Industrie SA for roughly €58 million to CARTE group, according to Les Echos. The French bank will retain an 11% stake in UBCI.

* Société Générale SA unions expect a new round of layoffs five months after the bank announced targeted cost savings of €500 million and 1,600 job cuts, Les Echos wrote. The bank is meeting with unions today to update them about the current transformation of its retail banking unit.

* French insurer CNP Assurances SA closed a partnership agreement with Brazil's Caixa Seguridade Participações SA that will grant Caixa Econômica Federal exclusive distribution of insurance products throughout its branch network.

* Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations and insurer Groupama Group will become shareholders, with stakes of 22% and 18 %, respectively, of Predica Energies Durables, a unit of Crédit Agricole Assurances SA dedicated to wind and solar energy, L'Agefi wrote.

SPAIN AND PORTUGAL

* Banco Santander SA is closing 176 offices on Friday as part of a redundancy round, which involves the closure of 1,150 branches in total, according to Europa Press.

* A Portuguese court rejected an appeal by Venezuela's state energy company PDVSA that sought to unlock some €400 million euros frozen by Novo Banco SA in February at the height of a political crisis in the oil-exporting country, Jornal de Negócios reported.

* Portugal's Montepio Crédito, a financing unit of Caixa Económica Montepio Geral caixa económica bancária SA, is preparing to issue between €180 million and €200 million in car loan securities in early 2020 as a way to tap alternative financing, the company's CEO Pedro Gouveia Alves told Jornal Económico. The asset-backed securities normally mature in between three to five years.

ITALY AND GREECE

* Andrea Enria, chair of the ECB's supervisory board, had a long conversation with the Malacalza family ahead of today's shareholders' meeting of Banca Carige SpA set to approve the capital strengthening plan in a bid to persuade it to vote in favor of the rescue plan, MF reported.

* Shareholders from the Bergamo area and banking foundations established a new shareholder pact combining some 17.7% of share capital of Unione di Banche Italiane SpA, surpassing the pact established by the lender’s shareholders from the Brescia area, MF wrote, noting that the objective is to intervene in the governance and strategy of the lender. Il Sole 24 Ore also covered this.

NORDIC COUNTRIES

* The Norwegian central bank raised its policy rate for the third time this year, by 0.25 percentage points to 1.50%, as underlying inflation moved close to the target, with analysts penciling in another rate hike in 2020.

EASTERN EUROPE

* Slovenia-based Nova Ljubljanska banka d.d. submitted the highest nonbinding bid in a tender to acquire an 83.23% holding in Serbia's Komercijalna banka a.d. Beograd, offering €450 million for the stake, SEENews reported, citing Serbian daily Danas. AIK Banka a.d. Beograd and Raiffeisen Bank International AG also submitted nonbinding bids, amounting to €430 million and €390 million respectively,

* The Czech government and the representatives of Československá obchodní banka a.s., Komerční banka a. s., Česká spořitelna a.s. and UniCredit Bank Czech Republic and Slovakia a.s. signed a cooperation memorandum to set up a national development fund, which will finance investment projects supporting the Czech Republic's social and economic development, E15 wrote, citing news agency ČTK. The lenders will invest 7 billion Czech koruny into the fund, whose launch is planned for mid-2020.

* Turkish lenders are mulling the creation of an asset management company that will hold their higher-quality nonperforming loans in a bid to help solve the country's bad-debt problem, insiders told Reuters.

* The Latvian Financial and Capital Market Commission fined local lender AS PrivatBank €1 million for lacking adequate money laundering control systems.

IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

Asia-Pacific: MUFG to cut HK, Singapore staff in half; key rate decisions across Asia

Middle East & Africa: Qatar cuts rate; Lebanese bank self-liquidates; Attijariwafa Bank H1 profit up

Latin America: Brazil cuts key rate; Argentina raises floor of benchmark rate

North America: 'Spoofing' probe to expand; Cboe withdraws bitcoin ETF; SEC OKs Volcker 2.0

Global Insurance: Lloyd's underwriting profit; Charles Taylor PE takeover; who insures Purdue?

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Deza Mones, Arno Maierbrugger, Meike Wijers, Gerard O'Dwyer, Beata Fojcik, Yael Schrage, Stephanie Salti, Sophie Davies and Helen Popper contributed to this report.

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