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Barclays sees up to £1.6B PPI hit; Dexia H1 loss widens; Portugal fines banks

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Barclays sees up to £1.6B PPI hit; Dexia H1 loss widens; Portugal fines banks

* U.K. lawmakers again rejected Prime Minister Boris Johnson's call for snap general elections, with only 293 members of Parliament voting in favor of his second bid, as opposed to the 434 of the 650 votes needed for the approval, the Financial Times reported. Parliament is temporarily suspended from today, delaying the possibility of an election by five weeks. Johnson, however, vowed to get a modified Brexit deal at the EU Summit in mid-October while preparing to leave the bloc without an agreement, Reuters wrote.

* The U.K.'s separation from the EU is expected to result in a reduction in the bloc's footprint in capital markets to 14% of global activity from 21%, City A.M. wrote, citing a report by think tank New Financial.

* The gap between economic losses from catastrophes and the amount the insurance industry pays is "potentially a reputational risk for the whole industry," according to new Hannover Re CEO Jean-Jacques Henchoz. He added that narrowing the so-called protection gap "should remain a big imperative for the whole industry — primary insurance and reinsurance."

UK AND IRELAND

* Barclays PLC expects to increase its provision for missold payment protection insurance claims by £1.2 billion to £1.6 billion in its third-quarter results. The bank said yesterday that it had received a significantly higher than expected number of PPI-related claims, inquiries and information requests in the run-up to an Aug. 29 deadline.

* Alex Brazier, executive director for financial stability, strategy and risk at the Bank of England, expressed confidence that Governor Mark Carney's successor next year will be objective and not derail the central bank, The Times reported. Carney's imminent departure has raised concerns that a pro-Brexit BoE governor could shift the regulator's policy to a more political one.

* British banks are now averse to taking risks and are committed to implementing the senior managers and certification regime, which makes it easier for authorities to assign blame when things go awry, Reuters wrote, citing a report by UK Finance, a trade association for the banking and financial services industry in Britain.

* U.K.-based Sage Group PLC said it is weighing potential options for payment processing unit Sage Pay, including a potential sale, Reuters wrote.

* Carlyle Group LP's Irish team intends to leave the private equity giant at the end of 2019 to launch an investment and buyout fund focused on medium-sized businesses in Ireland, The Irish Times reported. The team has been running a €290 million private equity fund with Dublin-based Cardinal Capital Group since 2014.

* A British court ordered Ellias Nimoh Preko, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. investment banker convicted of laundering funds plundered by a former state governor of Nigeria, to pay roughly £7.3 million or serve a further 10 years in jail, according to the U.K. National Crime Agency.

* Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC said it will conduct a strategic review of its asset management businesses as part of efforts to strengthen its business-to-business information services offerings.

* Lazard Ltd. named Cyrus Kapadia CEO of Lazard Investment Banking in the U.K., replacing William Rucker, who has been named new chairman, effective immediately. Kapadia told the FT that interest is growing among overseas companies to either invest in or acquire U.K.-listed firms amid the volatility in the sterling.

GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA

* Deutsche Bank AG CFO James von Moltke slightly lowered the lender's 2022 revenue target, saying it is now expected to make between €24 billion and €25 billion rather than the €25 billion originally forecast, Handelsblatt reported. Von Moltke said the bank was well on its way to achieving its targets for balance sheet reduction this year. The negative impact of restructuring on the investment banking business was lower than originally calculated, he added. Von Moltke also described business from private and corporate customers and transaction banking, which the bank is now focusing on, as good, noting that Deutsche Bank would further increase third-quarter earnings in these areas.

* Deutsche Börse AG is making another attempt to lure customers to move their euro interest rate swaps to Frankfurt from the U.K., saying it will scrap booking fees until year-end for those who wish to make the switch, the FT reported.

* Credit Suisse Group AG has completed the transfer of its third-party investment fund platform to Allfunds Group. The Swiss bank said the sale of the platform includes the move of Credit Suisse InvestLab AG, related employees and service agreements, with the transfer of related distribution agreements due to be completed in the first quarter of 2020.

* Sparda-Bank Baden-Württemberg eG has stopped its collaboration with insurer DEVK Deutsche Eisenbahn Versicherung Sach- und HUK-Versicherungsverein AG and will instead work with R+V Versicherung AG in distributing its pension products, Handelsblatt reported. Sparda-Bank Baden-Württemberg decided on a different business model that included the establishment of its own insurance broker, while DEVK continued its own exclusive distribution, leading to the breakup. Germany's 10 other Sparda banks will continue to work with DEVK.

FRANCE AND BENELUX

* French reinsurer Scor SE is planning to set up an external balance sheet backed by investors as it looks to expand the capacity it provides to insurers. This is part of a wider initiative to use more alternative capital — money provided by capital markets investors rather than traditional insurers and reinsurers — as it looks to satisfy increasing demand for reinsurance.

* Belgium-based Dexia SA reported first-half net loss group share of €546 million, compared with a net loss of €419 million in the same period in 2018. The lender said it will convene an extraordinary shareholders' meeting on Sept. 16 to decide whether or not to withdraw its shares from the Euronext Brussels regulated market.

* A technical glitch at Euronext, the Dutch organization behind the Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam stock exchanges, resulted in trading in single stock options to come to a halt at the exchanges yesterday, Financial News reported.

SPAIN AND PORTUGAL

* Portugal's competition authority imposed €225 million in fines on 14 banks accused of having exchanged information about internal commercial practices, such as consumer, housing and company credit, Jornal de Negócios reported. Caixa Geral de Depósitos SA and Millennium BCP received the biggest penalties of €80 million and €60 million, respectively. The fined banks will appeal the decision in court, Economia Online said.

* Portuguese insurer Fidelidade - Companhia de Seguros SA is selling five properties in Lisbon and Porto for an estimated price of €130 million. The transaction includes the company's headquarters, as a new unit concentrating all of the departments is expected to be built, Economia Online said.

* Abanca has received the green light from the ECB for the conclusion of the sales process of Banco Caixa Geral, the Spanish subsidary of Portuguese Caixa Geral de Depósitos SA. The deal is estimated to increase CDG's profits in the first semester by at least €135 million, Economia Online wrote.

* Kutxabank SA said it had €727 million mortgages indexed to the Mortgage Loan Reference Index, the Spanish alternative to the Euribor. In such respect, the entity noted that it could not predict the impact of a preliminary ruling from the EU Justice Court on whether a number of Spanish lenders had charged too much through the Mortgage Loan Reference Index for their mortgages, Expansión reported.

ITALY AND GREECE

* Banca Popolare di Bari SCpA's board could decide the timetable later this month for the bank's turnaround, which is expected to involve a sale of up to €1 billion in nonperforming and unlikely-to-pay loans followed by a merger with a local bank, MF said.

* Intesa Sanpaolo SpA received authorization from the ECB to calculate its consolidated capital ratios by applying the so-called Danish compromise method, under which insurance investments are risk weighted instead of being deducted from capital.

NORDIC COUNTRIES

* Danske Bank A/S' shares increased by roughly 9% yesterday after Bloomberg Intelligence analysts said the market is overly pessimistic about the outcome of a money laundering scandal involving the Danish lender, Berlingske Business reported. The analysts expect fines of between $2 billion and $3 billion, lower than the market consensus is Denmark of around $9 billion.

* The Danish government is threatening to make a legal intervention against payment solutions company Nets A/S over the company's fees, Finans reported. The Department of Business said it will present a model to ensure that companies, organizations and consumers do not pay "unreasonably high fees" when using payment services. Nets has been strongly criticized by aid organizations lately, over the fees charged on gifts.

* Sweden-based niche bank Avida Finans AB (publ) is planning a listing on the Stockholm stock exchange in the first half of 2020, Realtid reported. In connection with the IPO, Avida plans to make a share issue of 200 million Swedish kronor to 300 million kronor, to finance continued growth.

EASTERN EUROPE

* Russian lender VTB Bank PJSC denied holding talks with two Chinese state-owned companies allegedly interested in its 21.68% stake in En+ Group, according to Vedomosti.

* The Russian central bank stated that a debt burden steadily rising over the next three years will not challenge the country's financial stability, Banki.ru wrote.

IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

Asia-Pacific: Home Credit HK IPO may list this month; Suncorp CEO denies sales plan

Middle East & Africa: Kenya's Equity targets Congo lender; Standard Bank Namibia takes Mobipay stake

Latin America: DBRS upgrades Argentina; Banco do Brasil, UBS said to be finalizing i-bank JV

North America: Ohio banks in deal; JPMorgan nears key IPO role; banks shun small-dollar loans

Global Insurance: Reinsurance takes center stage; BGC hiring; Markel ILS fund manager

NOW FEATURED ON S&P GLOBAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE

UK derivatives firms face break with EU customers in no-deal, Treasury warned: London's huge clearing houses must give their EU customers three months notice in December that an agreement allowing them to continue doing business together is set to end in March with no guarantee that alternative arrangements will emerge.

German finance minister: Without market integration, EU will lag US banks: Completion of the EU banking and capital markets union projects is "urgent" because without integration the bloc's banks have no fighting chance against U.S. peers, Olaf Scholz said at a conference.

Hiring spree to continue at London insurance broker's startup aviation business: London-based insurance broker BGC Insurance Group is planning to double the number of hires it has already made for its new aviation division by the end of 2019, according to CEO Steve Hearn.

Sheryl Obejera, Ed Meza, Danielle Rossingh, Esben Svendsen, Heather O'Brian, Brian McCulloch, Praxilla Trabattoni and Mariana Aldano contributed to this report.

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This S&P Global Market Intelligence news article may contain information about credit ratings issued by S&P Global Ratings. Descriptions in this news article were not prepared by S&P Global Ratings.