* The European Securities and Markets Authority published three consultation papers on draft technical standards for implementing the securitization regulation, which establishes a general framework for securitization as well as a specific framework for simple, transparent and standardized securitization. The consultation period will run until March 19, 2018.
* The European Commission is set to unveil proposals that will require investment banks in the U.K. to stick closely to EU regulations on certain issues such as bonus caps post-Brexit, the Financial Times reported. The draft EU legislation is aimed at introducing a tougher and more intrusive approach to vetting equivalence for investment banks and brokerages outside the bloc.
* The Bank of England is set to announce today plans that will allow European banks to continue operating in the U.K. as normal after Brexit, even in a "no deal scenario," BBC News reported. Such a move would mean that European banks can continue operating through their branches without having to go through the expensive process of setting up subsidiaries.
* The European Court of Auditors said the EU's Single Resolution Board, which was established to help prevent another financial crisis, is still "very much a work in progress" and has been required to take on considerable responsibilities in a short span of time. The auditors also outlined shortcomings in the SRB's contingency plans for bank resolution and made a number of recommendations to the agency's rules, guidance and preparation on resolving failing banks.
UK AND IRELAND
* Lloyd's of London will no longer place strategic emphasis on pursuing new international licenses, and that its 2018-2020 strategy has been updated to address the key challenges the market now faces, including making it easier for business to come to Lloyd's and reducing costs, CEO Inga Beale and Chairman Bruce Carnegie-Brown said in their joint end-of-year statement. They added that Lloyd's underwriters had paid out almost $2 billion in claims for hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, and as a result, backers of Lloyd's syndicates had pumped in £3 billion to restore capital levels to where they were before the third-quarter catastrophes.
* London Stock Exchange Group Plc said 79.07% of its shareholders voted in favor of keeping Chairman Donald Brydon in his post, while 20.93% voted to remove him with immediate effect. Activist shareholder TCI Fund Management Ltd. demanded the immediate removal of Brydon from his post, as it did not approve of how he handled former LSE CEO Xavier Rolet's departure from the company.
* The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority gave Barclays Plc, HSBC Holdings Plc, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Santander UK Group Holdings Plc and Bank of Ireland Group Plc more time to comply with so-called "open banking" rules designed to make it easier for bank customers to switch banks, The Daily Telegraph reported. The delays range from a few weeks to up to a year. The other four lenders required to comply with the rules — Lloyds Banking Group Plc, Nationwide Building Society, Allied Irish Banks Plc and Danske Bank A/S — will be ready by the initial Jan. 13. 2018 deadline.
* Former Barclays trader Jay Merchant, who was convicted of rigging the London Interbank Offered Rate, was ordered to pay nearly £300,000 in profits and legal fees deemed to be proceeds from the crime, Bloomberg News reported.
* Travelers Europe will apply to the Central Bank of Ireland for authorization of a new, wholly owned insurance subsidiary in Dublin.
GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA
* EU member states will today vote on a proposal to recognize the shares trading on the SIX Swiss Exchange and BX Swiss as equivalent to exchanges based in the EU, which will grant the Swiss stock exchanges temporary access to the bloc's internal market for a year, Reuters reported. The move is aimed at preventing market disruption after the new Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, or MiFID II, takes effect Jan. 3, 2018. Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis, meanwhile, rejected the one-year limit, saying his country "expects financial equivalence to be guaranteed the day the Swiss stock exchange opens," swissinfo.ch wrote.
* Wüstenrot & Württembergische AG created a third unit called W&W brandpool GmbH, which will focus on product innovation and digital services. Daniel Welzer, previously CEO of the CRM Solutions unit of Arvato AG, has been appointed CEO of W&W brandpool.
* Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE made several changes to its management board, including naming Bettina Dietsche COO. Dietsche, currently head of group operations at parent Allianz Group, will join the specialist corporate insurer April 1, 2018, to succeed COO Sinéad Browne, who will move over to a new board-level role from July 1, 2018.
* Fabrizio Petrillo, currently head of nonlife insurance at AXA Versicherungen AG, has been appointed CEO of the Swiss unit of the insurer, effective Jan. 1, 2018. He replaces Antimo Perretta, who joined the executive board of parent company Axa.
* John Häfelfinger, CEO of Basellandschaftliche Kantonalbank, told Finanz & Wirtschaft that the bank plans closer collaborations with insurances and digital financial service providers in 2018 in addition to existing partnerships with fintechs Advanon AG und True Wealth AG.
* Crypto Finance AG said it successfully concluded a funding round at a volume of CHF16 million and will use the proceeds as regulatory capital to obtain a Swiss banking license.
* Provinzial Rheinland Konzern appointed Patric Fedlmeier, currently deputy CEO responsible for sales and IT, new CEO of the group, effective Jan. 1, 2018. He is replacing CEO Walter Tesarczyk, who is retiring.
* German payment solutions provider Concardis GmbH is acquiring Mannheim-based PCS PayCard Service GmbH and Berlin-based Simplepay GmbH in a move to expand its presence in the small and medium enterprise segment.
* PayPal Holdings Inc. acquired a stake in Berlin-based fintech Raisin GmbH, known under its brand name Weltsparen, the latter's founder and CEO Tamaz Georgadze told FInanz-Szene.de, without giving more details.
* Melanie Gstöhl, head of finance, risk and controlling at Bank Frick & Co. Aktiengesellschaft, has been appointed the bank's CFO, effective Jan. 1, 2018.
* Federal prosecutors in Brazil charged David Muino Suarez, a relationship manager of Zurich-based BSI, with laundering $21.7 million in bribe money for Brazilian clients linked to the country's largest corruption scandal, dubbed Operation Car Wash, Reuters reported.
FRANCE AND BENELUX
* BNP Paribas SA
* La Poste, the parent of La Banque Postale SA, revised downward the objectives in its strategic plan to 2020, lowering the operating profit target to €1.2 billion from €2 billion, Les Echos reported. The firm cited the low interest rate environment, which has hit La Banque Postale.
* The French financial markets regulator fined Kepler Cheuvreux SA €900,000 for not meeting professional requirements, Les Echos reported.
* The Amsterdam Court of Appeal has ruled that ABN AMRO Group NV charged customers too much interest for variable mortgages, Het Financieele Dagblad reported. The consumer interest group Stop the Banks sued ABN Amro in 2012, demanding that the bank repay about €45 million.
SPAIN AND PORTUGAL
* The Catalan crisis could hold back the Spanish banking sector consolidation process, with the result of this week's vote expected to impact merger plans, according to Citigroup, Expansión reported. The U.S. banking group had indicated Spain as one of the European markets with most room for mergers, with 2018 potentially seeing new acquisitions as a result of the drive for profit and low interests trend. Liberbank SA and Unicaja Banco SA were singled out as two potential target institutions of interest.
* The Portuguese Authority for Insurance and Pension Funds approved the absorption of the insurers of Banco Popular Portugal SA by Banco Santander Totta SA. The transfer still needs the endorsement from Portugal's central bank, Dinheiro Vivo reported.
ITALY AND GREECE
* Italian central bank Governor Ignazio Visco defended the regulator's supervision of banks, saying the collapse of various Italian lenders in recent years was due to the "inevitable consequence of the deep, double-dip recession" that struck Italy's economy, instead of negligent supervision from the central bank. His statement follows criticism of the central bank by Italian Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan, who said the regulator's supervision of the country's banks had been lacking.
* Credito Valtellinese SpA's shareholders approved a plan to increase its share capital by up to €700 million by issuing new ordinary shares. The capital raising will be launched early next year with a view to completion before the March 4, 2018, Italian general elections, Reuters noted. Separately, Creval said it had closed a further 27 branches, bringing the total of branch closures to 84 for 2017, and that a further 73 employees have left the company.
* Banco BPM SpA's board of directors greenlighted the sale without recourse of two unsecured bad loan portfolios with a total gross value of approximately €1.8 billion. The sales will be finalized by the end of the year.
* Enrico Chiapparoli has been named country manager for Barclays Italia, MF said.
NORDIC COUNTRIES
* Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg told Reuters that the country's tougher mortgage regulations are working as planned and that there is no need to repeal them. Solberg said the decline in house prices since it hit an all-time high early this year is a normal adjustment of the housing market following years of rising prices.
* Danske Bank A/S
* Denmark's Ministry of Industry is set to assign Spar Nord Bank A/S a systemically important financial institutions status, Berlingske Tidende said.
* The Swedish Pensions Agency has suspended the operation of nine pension funds managed by Solidar AB pending an investigation, Sydsvenskan reported. The SPA, which administers and reimburses national retirement pensions in Sweden, will examine the activities of the funds to determine if they comply with the agency's full code-of-conduct and procedures.
* Nordea Bank AB (publ)'s plan to relocate its group headquarters to Helsinki will require Finland's FSA to recruit additional supervisory manpower and bolster its depth in expertise, Ilta-Sanomat reported. The Finnish FSA is expected to hire an additional 30 staff in 2018 to cope with the increase in supervisory work linked to Nordea's arrival.
EASTERN EUROPE
* Hungary's central bank decided to keep its base rate at 0.90% and the overnight deposit rate at negative 0.15%, amid rising inflation and a global trend toward monetary tightening.
* DBRS withdrew Turkey's ratings, including its long-term foreign- and local-currency issuer ratings of BB (high) and BBB (low), respectively, saying the decision was made at the rating agency's discretion.
* Vnesheconombank is planning to transfer Globex Commercial Bank JSC to the Russian state federal property agency after failing to sell the unit, Reuters reported. Vedomosti reported after news agency Interfax that Globex could become a bank specializing in servicing the country's weapon makers, in which case its current clients would be transferred to Interregional Bank for Settlements of the Telecommunications & Postal Services, also a unit of VEB.
* Meanwhile, Globex turned out to be the victim of a Dec. 15 hacker attack during which funds were stolen from the lender via the SWIFT system and transferred abroad, Vedomosti said. The hackers reportedly stole the equivalent of $1 million from the lender.
* JSC VTB Bank expects to save around 15 billion Russian rubles on its upcoming merger with retail unit Bank VTB 24, Vedomosti said. The integration process of the banks' retail networks is expected to be completed by the end of the third quarter of 2018.
* The main shareholders of PJSC Asian-Pacific Bank reduced their holdings in the lender to 10%, in line with the requirement of the Russian central bank, Kommersant reported. However, the ownership structure changes seem to be just formal and are unlikely to satisfy the regulator, the newspaper noted.
* GE Investment Poland, DRB Holding and other former shareholders of Bank BPH SA agreed to pay Alior Bank SA 94.3 million Polish zlotys to settle certain claims, costs and payments related to the purchase by Alior of part of Bank BPH's business in 2016, news agency PAP said. The settlement will have no significant impact on Alior's financial result.
* The Polish Financial Supervision Authority asked Bank Handlowy w Warszawie SA to add 1.80 percentage points to its capital buffer to mitigate potential adverse macroeconomic conditions based on results of stress tests, news agency PAP reported.
* The FSA also asked Bank Millennium SA and Bank Zachodni WBK SA to maintain additional, group-level capital buffers of 5.41 percentage points and of 0.44 percentage points, respectively, on their forex mortgage exposures, and to keep stress test buffers of 3.47 percentage points and 0.71 percentage point, respectively, news agency PAP said. Both banks reportedly meet the capital requirements.
* Serbian insurer Dunav Insurance Co. A.D.O. expects its 2017 pretax profit to reach 1.25 billion Serbian dinars, up by 20% year over year, SEENews reported, citing the company's president, Mirko Petrovic.
* Bosnian insurer Bosna sunce osiguranje d.d asked the Competition Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina to approve the purchase of a majority holding in local insurance company Zovko Osiguranje, SEENews reported.
* The Ukrainian Parliament could vote Dec. 21 on the appointment of the central bank's acting head, Yakiv Smoliy, to the post of governor on a permanent basis, Reuters reported, citing a government official.
IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD
Asia-Pacific: Industrial Bank of Korea eyes M&A in Indonesia; Chinese lender gets HK license
Middle East & Africa: Takaful Emarat buying Al Hilal Takaful; Qatar launches currency-rigging probe
Latin America: Bladex names new CEO, CFO; Brazil court approves bank compensation deal
North America: Wells Fargo seen as tax bill's top winner; Gulf Coast B&T buys SBA lender
North America Insurance: MetLife under probe over unpaid pensions; Validus' cat bond grows to $400M
NOW FEATURED ON S&P GLOBAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE
Data Dispatch EMEA: Swedish banks steel themselves for end of decades-long housing boom: The end of a decades-long housing boom is unlikely to translate into a worst-case scenario of mass defaults for Swedish banks. But it will mean they will no longer be able to lean on mortgages as a steady, predictable driver of income.
Banks should be prepared for 'intense regulation' post-Basel III: The recent finalization of Basel III rules will not be the final regulatory challenge for banks, with several issues still looming, industry experts said.
Sheryl Obejera, Arno Maierbrugger, Meike Wijers, Gerard O'Dwyer, Beata Fojcik, Heather O'Brian, Brian McCulloch, Praxilla Trabattoni and Mariana Aldano contributed to this report.
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