* The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is set to announce millions of dollars in fines for UBS Group AG, HSBC Holdings Plc and Deutsche Bank AG for spoofing trades and manipulating the U.S. futures market, insiders told Reuters. UBS and Deutsche Bank are expected to pay fines upward of $10 million, while HSBC will reportedly pay a slightly lower amount.
UK AND IRELAND
* A former executive is suing Provident Financial Plc for unfair dismissal after he was replaced as managing director of the subprime lender's home credit business during a turbulent week in late August 2017 that saw the company's share price plummet, The Times of London wrote. Three other executives have also brought claims.
* Lloyd's of London CEO Inga Beale told Bloomberg Television that the insurance market is seeing 100% year-over-year growth in some of its Asian markets.
GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA
* Deutsche Bank is increasing annual bonus payments to more than €1 billion despite not being strongly profitable, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung reported. While good news for its bankers, shareholders remain frustrated by Deutsche's slow recovery. "The bank must send positive signals in 2018, otherwise there will be a problem," said Ingo Speich, a fund manager at Union Asset Management.
* Deutsche Börse AG's Eurex will discontinue the operational trading activities of its Swiss unit, Eurex Zürich AG, by March 31. The company will also no longer pursue the establishment of separate units in Singapore and will instead extend its trading hours to include the Asian time zone.
FRANCE AND BENELUX
* BNP Paribas SA unit BNP Paribas USA Inc. pleaded guilty to colluding to rig the foreign exchange market and agreed to pay a $90 million criminal fine. BNP Paribas said the settlement will be covered by existing provisions and completes investigations into the French bank's forex business conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice, the New York State Department of Financial Services and the Federal Reserve.
* ING Groep NV will acquire a 75% stake in payments services provider Payvision, which it said has a total value of €360 million. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter.
* The receivers of the bankrupt Belgian bank Optima have sued the former executive team of the bank as well as the Belgian central bank and the EY supervisory director, De Tijd reported. Optima was declared bankrupt in 2016 after irregularities and lost its banking license. They are focusing on the ties between Optima and developer Land Invest Group.
* There is a lot of interest for the debt of Belgian state-owned bank Belfius Banque SA, De Tijd reported. The bank easily raised €500 million by selling debt securities to institutional investors. The bank aims to strengthen its capital buffers before the expected IPO in a few months time.
SPAIN AND PORTUGAL
* Bankia SA reported a fourth-quarter 2017 loss attributable to the group of €235 million, compared to a profit of €73 million in the year-ago period, on the back of €312 million in net costs arising from the integration of Banco Mare Nostrum SA. Excluding BMN, Bankia's fourth-quarter 2017 profit amounted to €77 million.
* Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA will close 179 branches in Spain in 2018, El Periódico reported.
* Unicaja Banco SA and unit EspañaDuero have completed a merger by absorption, which will create synergies, Europa Press reported.
ITALY AND GREECE
* Veteran Italian banker and former industry minister Corrado Passera raised €600 million from investors for a special purpose acquisition company that will be used to acquire a small bank, Reuters reported.
* Sweden-based debt collector Intrum Justitia is eyeing the acquisition of a 51% stake in Intesa Sanpaolo SpA's bad loan business and €10 billion to €12 billion in bad debts, two sources told Reuters.
* Intesa Sanpaolo said it was dismayed at the possibility that it could be brought into judicial proceedings against Veneto Banca SpA, which it acquired last year, Reuters reported.
* Banca Carige SpA CEO Paolo Fiorentino told Milano Finanza that, following its capital increase, it wants to relaunch its traditional business as a regional commercial bank, lending to small businesses and households. Carige aims to cut unlikely-to-pay loans to €1.1 billion by 2020 from €3.4 billion now.
* Alpha Bank AE sold a €360 million nonperforming loan portfolio in Romania to funds advised by Czech Republic-based APS Investments and Deutsche Bank, and funds advised by AnaCap Financial Partners, according to SEENews.
NORDIC COUNTRIES
* Nordea Bank AB (publ)'s market share of lending to private customers in Sweden fell 10% in the fourth quarter, Finanswatch reported, citing Berlingske Business. The main reason is the bank's decision to move its headquarters from Stockholm to Helsinki, analysts said.
* Payment services provider Nets A/S has struck a new agreement with the financial sector in Hungary, Finanswatch reported. The company will supply infrastructure enabling Hungarian banks to make real-time payments using a Nets solution.
* Sauli Niinistö secured a second term as Finland's president after winning 62.7% of the votes in the first round of elections, surpassing the 50% of votes necessary to avoid a second round, according to Bloomberg News.
EASTERN EUROPE
* The European Commission opened an in-depth investigation to assess whether new measures proposed by Slovenian authorities regarding the restructuring of Nova Ljubljanska banka d.d. sufficiently compensate for delaying the bank's sale beyond the end of 2017. Slovenia requested in May 2017 a gradual sale of its shares in NLB in two tranches, but failed to complete the sale of the first tranche last year.
* Getin Noble Bank SA plans to increase its charter capital by 190 million Polish zlotys via the issuance of 69.6 million new shares, news agency PAP reported. The shares will be offered in a private placement to entities affiliated with the lender's main shareholder Leszek Czarnecki.
* Otkritie Investments Cyprus Ltd., controlled by Otkritie Holding JSC, reduced its stake in payments firm Qiwi plc to 0.32% from 21.73%, news agency Prime reported.
* The Russian central bank and the finance ministry published separate bills on regulating crowdfunding, with the ministry proposing to limit investments into crowdfunding projects to 1.4 million Russian rubles per year for individual investors, and the central bank setting the limit at 500,000 rubles per year, Kommersant reported.
* Czech President Miloš Zeman won a second term in a runoff election during the weekend with 51.4% of the votes, NPR reported. Zeman, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, defeated Jirí Drahoš, who had campaigned for closer relations with the Czech Republic's co-members in the EU, Bloomberg News wrote.
* Fitch Ratings upgraded Belarus' long-term issuer default ratings to B from B- and affirmed the short-term ratings at B, citing a decline in near-term external financing risks, among other factors.
IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD
Asia-Pacific: China fines 12 banks for illegal bill trading; CBA names new CEO
Middle East & Africa: Abu Dhabi bank posts YOY rise in Q4'17 profit; Moody's changes Zambia outlook
NOW FEATURED ON S&P GLOBAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE
Alternative capital stabilizing reinsurance prices, Fitch says: Catastrophe bonds and other alternative forms of reinsurance are acting as both a competitor and a cushion against big losses for the traditional market, according to Fitch Ratings director Graham Coutts.
ECB likely to go ahead with new bad-loan rules despite criticism, report says: Despite recent criticism from the European Parliament, the ECB is likely to press on with the introduction of new rules aimed at addressing the nearly €800 billion of nonperforming loans on European banks' balance sheets, according to DBRS.
Ben Meggeson, 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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