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Deutsche Bank FY'17 loss narrows; Danske Bank launches 10B kroner buyback

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Deutsche Bank FY'17 loss narrows; Danske Bank launches 10B kroner buyback

* The EU is set to map out membership to six Balkan states — Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina — by 2025, the Financial Times reported. Serbia and Montenegro, which have already begun accession talks with the EU, are viewed as the two most likely Balkan countries to make the indicative 2025 deadline.

* The EU could use tax blacklists and penalties against Britain to ensure a "level playing field" if the U.K. reduces taxes or eases regulation after Brexit, according to a leaked strategy document seen by the Financial Times. Separately, British and European officials are worried that they may fail to finalize a Brexit transition deal by late March, one year before the U.K. is slated to officially exit the EU, insiders told Bloomberg News.

* Economic losses from global natural catastrophe events in 2017 are estimated to be in excess of $300 billion, with insured losses in excess of $140 billion, according to a report by Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group Plc's reinsurance brokerage unit, JLT Re.

UK AND IRELAND

* The U.K. High Court is set to hear objections about Barclays Plc's decision to use its non-ring-fenced bank as the sponsoring entity for its £35 billion defined pension benefit scheme, the Financial Times reported. The lender has so far received 88 complaints from pension scheme members who expressed concern that the scheme would be dependent on the future solvency of the non-ring-fenced bank.

* Provident Financial Plc appointed interim Executive Chairman Malcolm Le ?May as its new permanent CEO and Stuart Sinclair as interim chairman, as the board looks for a new external chairman.

* Wells Fargo & Co. completed the sale of Wells Fargo Shareowner Services to Equiniti Group Plc.

* A group of investors led by Bermuda-based Armour Group Ltd. acquired Gibraltar-based Elite Insurance Co. Ltd. and its affiliate Elite Business Development Ltd.

* Hargreaves Lansdown Plc named Deanna Oppenheimer nonexecutive chair, effective Feb. 7, replacing Mike Evans, who will retire from the board.

* Ulster Bank Ireland DAC CFO Paul Stanley has indicated that 200 of the lender's employees working on resolving the Irish tracker-mortgage scandal face the risk of redundancy, once examination of the issue is complete, The Irish Times reported.

GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA

* Deutsche Bank AG reported a full-year 2017 net loss of €497 million, compared to a loss of €1.36 billion a year earlier, on the back of a noncash charge of approximately €1.4 billion arising from new U.S. tax laws. The bank reported its first pretax income in three years of €1.29 billion, compared to a year-ago pretax loss of €810 million. CEO John Cryan said the bank expects to carry out the partial IPO of its asset management division, now called DWS, "in the earliest available window."

* The U.S. CFTC ordered Deutsche Bank unit Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. to pay a $70 million civil monetary penalty for attempted manipulation of the ISDAFIX benchmark.

* Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale will sell a majority stake in unit Nord/LB Asset Management AG to M.M.Warburg & CO (AG & Co.) KGaA. Nord/LB Asset Management and M.M.Warburg's Warburg Invest KAG mbH will be brought under a new holding company that will be 75.1%-owned and managed by M.M.Warburg.

* Former German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble allegedly concealed the true extent of the damage of the dividend-stripping scandal, currently estimated to be about €2 billion, Handelsblatt reported. Schäuble told a Bundestag committee of inquiry in February 2017 that the tax losses could not seriously be assessed, although the Federal Ministry of Finance had already estimated the total tax losses at the time to be €3 billion from 196 suspected cases.

* Grenke AG Chairman Wolfgang Grenke will leave the board, effective Feb. 28, and will be replaced by Antje Leminsky, effective March 1.

* The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority banned AO Gazprombank unit Gazprombank (Schweiz) AG from accepting new private clients until further notice after identifying serious shortcomings in its anti-money laundering processes. The regulator also charged PKB Privatbank SA of breaching money-laundering regulations by failing to carry out background checks into transactions linked with the corruption scandal involving Brazilian oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA.

FRANCE AND BENELUX

* The Belgian government will discuss the IPO of Belfius Banque SA and the compensation agreement for Arco cooperatives in parliament for the first time, De Tijd reported.

* French banking regulator AMF fined BNP Paribas SA about €340,000 for failing to report suspicious transactions regarding possible insider trading activities that occurred in 2014, L'Agefi reported.

* Barbaros Uygun was named CEO of ING Groep NV in Austria, effective March 1.

SPAIN AND PORTUGAL

* CaixaBank SA reported profit attributable to the group of €196 million for the fourth quarter of 2017, up from €77 million in the year-ago period. Banco de Sabadell SA reported fourth-quarter 2017 group attributable net profit of €147.7 million, up from €63.5 million a year ago.

ITALY AND GREECE

* Spaxs, a company set up by a pair of long-time Italian bankers, has formed a short list of five small Italian lenders to acquire and turn into a small-business-focused online bank, Reuters reported. The company raised €600 million in an IPO that saw it listed yesterday on the Milan exchange's alternative investment segment. Former Barclays CEO Bob Diamond is expected to join Spaxs' board once the acquisition is completed, the Financial Times reported.

* Intesa Sanpaolo SpA has begun negotiations with CEFC China on the sale of between €10 billion and €12 billion in nonperforming loans and a stake in its Capital Light Bank business, Il Sole 24 Ore wrote.

* Leonardo & Co. is evaluating the launch of a closed fund to acquire some 1,000 unlikely-to-pay positions of two Veneto banks now being wound down after the loans are transferred to Italian state-controlled bad loan manager SGA, according to MF.

NORDIC COUNTRIES

* Danske Bank A/S booked full-year 2017 net profit attributable to shareholders of 20.11 billion Danish kroner, compared to 19.20 billion kroner earned in 2016. The lender's board of directors approved a share buyback program for 10 billion kroner, with a maximum of 85 million shares, running from Feb. 5, 2018, to Feb. 1, 2019, at the latest.

* The Norwegian Consumer Authority warned that it may fine some consumer loan banks for violating regulations on marketing practices, according to E24.

EASTERN EUROPE

* The Russian central bank wants to introduce higher provisions for banks on loans issued to companies to finance M&A deals, Vedomosti reported, citing the regulator's head Elvira Nabiullina. Separately, the central bank plans to initiate legislative steps that would give it the right to veto changes of controlling shareholders in systemically important financial organizations, mainly banks and insurance companies, according to Kommersant.

* JSC Alfa-Bank co-owner Mikhail Fridman said the lender is not considering acquiring fellow Russian lender Vozrozhdenie Bank, according to Reuters.

* The Czech central bank raised its two-week repo rate by 25 basis points to 0.75% and the Lombard rate by 50 basis points to 1.50%. It maintained its discount rate at 0.05%.

* Polish debt collector GetBack SA signed an agreement with a Spanish bank regarding the purchase of a nonperforming loan portfolio with a nominal value of €246 million, PAP reported.

IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

Asia-Pacific: India to merge, list 3 insurers; Alibaba to buy 33% stake in Ant Financial

Middle East & Africa: IDB to sell Banque Zitouna stake; Standard Bank gets new CEO in Malawi

Latin America: Scotiabank in deal with Citi Colombia; Bradesco's Q4 profit jumps 10.9%

North America: Blackstone eyeing NZ-based finance firm; fintech firm Moven to buy bank in US

North America Insurance: Insurers bump up insurtech investments; Cigna and Radian report earnings

NOW FEATURED ON S&P GLOBAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE

Rogue banking: Inside FBME's haywire compliance department: A trove of confidential documents from regulators, auditors and other sources close to FBME Bank, a defunct Cypriot lender that collapsed under allegations of fraud and money laundering, details the near-total degradation of compliance procedures.

ECB clarifies guidance on toxic loans after backlash: Banks will not be required to meet a particular bad-loan ratio, said a high-ranking ECB official, but they will have to present well-developed strategies for reducing their bad debt stocks by March.

BBVA expects Mexican unit to grow net interest income: The Spanish lender also expects "slight loan growth" in its home market, its CFO Jaime Sáenz de Tejada told analysts during an earnings call.

DNB upbeat on SMEs, but oil exposures continue to pose challenge: DNB CEO Rune Bjerke is bullish on the outlook for lending to small and medium-sized enterprises thanks to a buoyant Norwegian economy. But oil-related exposures will continue to be a challenge for the bank through 2018 and 2019.

Leo Magno, Ed Meza, Meike Wijers, Esben Svendsen, Beata Fojcik, Heather O'Brian, Stephanie Salti, Praxilla Trabattoni and Mariana Aldano contributed to this report.

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