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Profits rise for RBI, ABN AMRO; Hannover Re ups 2017 net income target

* Bank for International Settlements General Manager Agustín Carstens urged authorities, particularly central banks, to be prepared to act against the "invasive spread" of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, which he dubbed "a combination of a bubble, a Ponzi scheme and an environmental disaster."

UK AND IRELAND

* Investec Group CEO Stephen Koseff and Managing Director Bernard Kantor will step down Oct. 1 as part of an overhaul of its top management. Koseff and Kantor will remain executive directors until March 31, 2019, and become nonexecutive directors the next day. Fani Titi and Hendrik du Toit were named CEO-designates, effective April 1, and will become joint CEOs on Oct. 1, among other changes.

* British lawmaker Clive Lewis accused Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc of misleading a parliamentary committee over the extent to which its scandal-hit Global Restructuring Group division mistreated struggling small businesses, The Guardian reported. Lewis said he had seen a full copy of a report into the activities of the restructuring division which he claimed showed that RBS' behavior was "systemic and widespread." He described the summary of the report that the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority had published as a "sanitized version." In response, RBS said it would "strongly deny" misleading politicians, BBC News noted.

* Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc said it will keep open ten of the 62 branches it was planning to close, BBC News wrote. The bank said the ten branches will be open at least until the end of the year while an independent review determines whether there is a "sustained and viable increase" in the level of transactions and new income at each branch.

* Santander UK Group Holdings Plc provided further details of Santander UK Plc's and Abbey National Treasury Services Plc's proposed ring-fencing transfer scheme. Santander UK Plc, which will become the group's main ring-fenced bank, will also broadly continue to hold and serve Santander's corporate banking business in the U.K., while Abbey National Treasury Services will transfer all of its business to either Santander UK Plc or Banco Santander SA's London branch, save for a small portfolio of specific assets.

* Standard Chartered Plc is aiming to boost revenues by increasing lending to top clients and key industrial sectors in its main markets of Asia, Africa and the Middle East, a move that could see it cut about a dozen investment banking staff, insiders told Reuters. Some of those positions will likely be transferred across StanChart's main corporate banking unit.

* The Bank of England signed up to a new global code of conduct on foreign exchanges aimed at avoiding more currency rigging scandals, Reuters wrote.

* Permanent TSB Group Holdings Plc is accused of impeding redress and compensation for thousands of customers impacted by the tracker mortgage issue across the Irish banking industry by challenging a 2012 High Court ruling, The Irish Times wrote. In response, CEO Jeremy Masding said the bank withdrew its appeal when the full extent of the tracker mortgage scandal became clear.

* Hargreaves Lansdown Plc said "operational issues on a competitor platform" led to an increase in its client numbers, which helped boost its half-year profit. The rival is understood to be Barclays Plc's Stockbroker service, which was hit with technical issues during the period, The Daily Telegraph noted.

* Konstantin Sajonia-Coburgo, Barclays Plc's country manager for Spain, left the bank in early January, insiders told Financial News.

GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA

* Hannover Re said it now expects to make full-year 2017 group net income of around €950 million, up from the roughly €800 million it previously projected. Group net income for 2018, meanwhile, is expected to exceed €1 billion.

* In its preliminary results, Raiffeisen Bank International AG said consolidated profit more than doubled in 2017 to €1.12 billion from a pro-forma consolidated profit of €520 million in 2016.

* Singaporean authorities accused Commerzbank AG of failing to conduct thorough background checks of new clients under "Know Your Customer" rules intended to prevent financial crime, Handelsblatt Global reported. The news follows a similar complaint by the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority in December last year over Commerzbank's insufficient customer checks.

* Switzerland-based Frankfurter Bankgesellschaft (Schweiz) AG is expanding its operations in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Börsen-Zeitung reported. The bank is setting up a new branch in Dusseldorf this year.

* Credit Suisse Group AG said a sharp decline in the VelocityShares Daily Inverse VIX Short-Term ETN product, in which it has a 32% stake, will have no material impact on the bank, Reuters wrote.

FRANCE AND BENELUX

* ABN AMRO Group NV reported fourth-quarter 2017 consolidated profit attributable to owners of the company of €520 million, up 61% from €323 million in the year-ago period. Its full-year 2017 attributable profit rose 54% year over year to €2.72 billion from €1.76 billion.

* BNP Paribas SA CEO Jean-Laurent Bonnafé said the lender is not interested in acquiring another large bank and would prefer to focus on becoming a digital bank. Bonnafé said BNP would prefer to focus on organic growth, but he did not rule out targeted deals.

* French insurance broker SFAM announced the purchase of over 11% of the capital of Fnac Darty for €335 million, according to l’Agefi.

SPAIN AND PORTUGAL

* Caixa Geral de Depósitos SA reported full-year 2017 consolidated net income of €51.9 million, compared to a year-ago loss of €1.86 billion. The Portuguese lender attributed the result to the successful implementation of its strategic plan that improved efficiency and profitability. CGD noted that the result was also impacted by nonrecurring costs of €609 million.

* The governor of Portugal's central bank, Carlos Costa, said large technology companies such as Google, Facebook and Apple could pose a threat to traditional banks because of their ability to use large volumes of consumer data to create personalized banking products, the Lusa news agency reported. Speaking at a banking event in Lisbon, Costa said the advance of digital banking services would likely lead to further branch closures, Lusa wrote.

* A Portuguese court has ordered Novo Banco SA to pay more than €700,000 in compensation to two former employees who were fired in 2016 when they were in line for early retirement, the Lusa news agency reported.

* Mapfre SA signed a nonbinding agreement of intent with Banco do Brasil SA to increase its stake in certain businesses of their joint venture in Brazil, Europa Press reports. MAPFRE plans to increase its participation in the JV's non-life insurance business to 100% from 50%.

* Liberbank SA's board has approved a merger by absorption of Banco de Castilla-La Mancha into Liberbank, marking the end of a process that began in November 2009, Expansión reports, citing a regulatory filing.

* Banco Santander SA appointed Mariano Belinky as the new head of its Santander Asset Management unit, replacing Juan Manuel San Román, who left the position due to personal reasons, Europa Press writes.

* Liberbank SA reported a full-year 2017 attributable net loss of €259 million, compared to attributable net income of €129 million a year earlier. For fourth-quarter 2017, attributable net income came in at €11 million, down from the year-ago €29 million.

ITALY AND GREECE

* Intesa Sanpaolo SpA yesterday unveiled plans to reduce its nonperforming loans by nearly half to €26.4 billion in 2021, gross of adjustments, from €52.1 billion in 2017. The bank is also targeting €6 billion of net income in 2021, as well as return on equity of 12.4%.

* Greece is temporarily holding off on its plans to sell its first bonds since summer 2017 as financial markets turn sharply lower, insiders told the Financial Times. The country has mandated five banks to work on a deal, and was expected to begin book building for the seven-year debt with a targeted yield of 3.33% to 3.4% on Feb. 6.

* UniCredit SpA said it completed the second and final phase of Project Fino, under which it sold a large portfolio of nonperforming loans, Reuters wrote. Following completion of the project, the bank said it reduced its exposure to the bad loan portfolio to below 20%.

NORDIC COUNTRIES

* Svenska Handelsbanken AB (publ) posted fourth-quarter 2017 profit attributable to shareholders of 3.76 billion Swedish kronor, up 9% from the year-ago 3.44 billion kronor. For full-year 2017, attributable profit came in at 16.10 billion kronor, compared to 16.24 billion kroner a year earlier.

* Storebrand ASA's fourth-quarter 2017 profit attributable to shareholders came in at 473 million Norwegian kroner, down from 673 million kroner a year earlier. Full-year 2017 attributable profit, meanwhile, ticked up year over year to 2.38 billion kroner from 2.12 billion kroner.

* Nordea Bank AB (publ) named Christopher Rees group CFO and head of group finance and treasury, effective March 1. Rees, who is deputy head of wholesale banking and head of Nordea Markets, will replace Heikki Ilkka, who is leaving the Swedish group to rejoin Ernst & Young as a partner.

* Swedbank AB (publ) does not view the prospect of interest rate hikes as a factor that will negatively affect its earnings or future growth within Sweden's retail banking sector, Sydsvenskan reported. CEO Birgitte Bonnesen projects stable growth in lending in 2018.

* Sampo Oyj reported full-year 2017 profit attributable to owners of the parent of €2.12 billion, up from the year-ago €1.76 billion.

EASTERN EUROPE

* Russian state-controlled lender JSC VTB Bank posted a net profit of over 100 billion Russian rubles for 2017, Reuters reported, citing CEO Andrey Kostin. The executive also said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that the bank was in discussions with potential foreign investors about a project to build logistical hubs for online retail.

* Bulgarian investment fund River Styxx Capital failed to secure the consent of the Serbian central bank to purchase an 85% stake in Telenor banka a.d. Beograd due to problems with documentation submitted as part of the regulatory approval process, SEENews reported.

* The Polish Financial Supervision Authority approved a merger between credit and saving unions SKOK Kozienice and SKOK Bogdanka, with the merger to become effective June 30, Puls Biznesu reported.

IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

Middle East & Africa: Saudi Arabia's NCB posts YOY rise in Q4'17 profit; Kenya eyes 1st green bond

Latin America: Itaú, Banco ABC Q4'17 earnings up; Bradesco names new CEO

NOW FEATURED ON S&P GLOBAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE

BNP Paribas expects to beat 2020 profit target if economic conditions persist: BNP Paribas will comfortably beat a key profitability target in 2020 if positive economic conditions, rising interest rates and lower tax rates persist, the bank's CFO said.

Intesa CEO wants EU rules tightened on hard-to-value financial instruments: Carlo Messina, CEO of Italy's second-biggest lender, said that, although bad loans are a problem in Italy, it is "unacceptable" that there is no way to properly value some hard-to-value assets, many of which are held by German and French banks.

Munich Re CFO defends 19% growth at Jan. 1 renewals: Munich Re CFO Jörg Schneider insisted that his company had not lowered its profitability standards after new business volumes jumped.

Swedbank to sharpen focus on digitization, data analysis: Digitization, automation and data analytics are the major priorities on Swedbank's investment agenda for 2018, CEO Birgitte Bonnesen told analysts.

Atif Hussein, Ed Meza, Meike Wijers, Gerard O'Dwyer, Beata Fojcik, Yael Schrage, Stephanie Salti, Praxilla Trabattoni and Helen Popper contributed to this report.

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