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Swiss voters reject banking reform; UK FCA goes ahead with disputed listing rule

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Swiss voters reject banking reform; UK FCA goes ahead with disputed listing rule

* Elke Koenig, chairwoman of the EU's Single Resolution Board, said a backstop for the bloc's bank rescue fund is due to be decided on by EU member states by the end of June, Reuters reported, citing an interview with German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Koenig said she expects the backstop, which will increase the stability of the EU's Single Resolution Fund, to reach €60 billion.

* German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz has suggested London's euro-clearing business be moved to Frankfurt, the Financial Times reported. Meanwhile, Scholz also proposed the creation of a Europe-wide insurance system to strengthen the financial stability of the eurozone, Reuters reported, citing an interview with German magazine Der Spiegel.

UK AND IRELAND

* The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority is pressing ahead with plans to create a new category within its premium listing regime that exempts state-controlled companies from certain requirements, seen as a controversial move to help attract Saudi Arabian Oil Co.'s planned IPO to London.

* Neil Barry stepped down as Standard Chartered PLC's head of compliance, Reuters reported. Barry's departure comes after the bank's staff made allegations of misconduct against him, which instigated an internal probe.

* Old Mutual PLC set the price range of the offer of up to 9.6% of Quilter plc's ordinary shares at between 125 pence to 155 pence apiece.

* British conglomerate Virgin Group is expected to greenlight CYBG PLC's proposal to use the Virgin brand as part of the bank's acquisition of Virgin Money Holdings (UK) PLC, The Sunday Times reported.

* The U.K. government is mulling keeping Northern Ireland aligned with the EU's single market rules to avoid a hard border on the region, an insider told Bloomberg News.

* Lloyd's of London insurer Neon Underwriting Ltd. is aiming to more than triple its annual gross written premium to £750 million by 2021, its CEO Martin Reith said.

* Legal & General Group PLC unit Legal & General Investment Management will begin its search for CEO Mark Zinkula's replacement at the end of the summer, with Sarah Aitken, head of distribution for Europe, the Middle East and Africa and Emma Douglas, head of defined contribution solutions, seen as the strongest internal candidates, insiders told the Financial Times.

* Meanwhile, the Legal & General Group PLC unit demanded the removal of the chairs of China Construction Bank, Dominion Energy, Japan Post Holdings, Occidental Petroleum, Rosneft Oil, Subaru, Loblaw Companies and Sysco Corpa and said it would sell any shares of the companies held in its Future World Funds index funds range over the firms' failure to address threats from climate change, Reuters reported.

* Cryptocurrency mining firm Argo, which recently got approval from the U.K. Listing Authority, is eyeing an IPO on the London Stock Exchange, the Financial Times reported.

GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA

* Deutsche Bank AG's large shareholders are said to be skeptical about a possible merger of the lender with Commerzbank AG. While one anchor shareholder is opposing it outright, others would only agree in an "absolute emergency situation," Handelsblatt said.

* Swiss voters rejected in a national referendum a sweeping overhaul of the country's banking system that would only allow the Swiss central bank to increase the country's money supply.

* Meanwhile, Switzerland warned that it could halt European stock exchanges from trading shares of Swiss firms as part of a contingency plan in case equivalence arrangements between EU and Swiss equities traders, which lasts 12 months from January, are not extended further, the FT reported.

* EFG International AG will combine its two Switzerland business units as part of a shake-up of its management structure. The changes are effective July 1.

* Credit Suisse Group AG Chairman Urs Rohner told Handelszeitung in an interview that the bank will achieve CHF4.2 billion in cost savings this year as a result of its three-year restructuring program, which started in 2015.

* Meanwhile, Switzerland's federal administrative court ruled that Credit Suisse must provide data of its foreign exchange-trading revenue to the country's competition commission which suspects the bank of manipulating forex trade, Neue Zürcher Zeitung cited a report by Swiss news agency SDA.

* Provinzial Rheinland Konzern and Provinzial NordWest Konzern announced that preparations for their planned merger are making good progress and that it will eventually take place by Jan. 1, 2019, Börsen-Zeitung reported.

* Volksbank Vorarlberg e. Gen., Volksbank Tirol AG and Volksbank Salzburg eG — as part of Austria's Volksbanken-Verbund — are vetoing a planned close cooperation of Volksbank Wien AG with Österreichische Post AG, and rather prefer a sale to BAWAG PSK, Der Standard wrote.

FRANCE AND BENELUX

* Bank of France Governor Franc¸ois Villeroy de Galhau suggested that the central bank could take a more flexible solution regarding the implementation of a common deposit guarantee in the context of the EU single resolution mechanism, one of the pillars of the EU banking union, according to Les Echos. This risk sharing-scheme is highly criticized in Germany and in the Netherlands.

* BNP Paribas SA is targeting revenues of €2 billion by 2020 in Germany, or 8% of annual revenue growth per year, Les Echos reported. In 2017, the country only generated around 5 % of the bank's European revenues.

SPAIN AND PORTUGAL

* CaixaBank SA has agreed a deal with U.S. private investment company TPG to repurchase 51% of real estate management company Servihabitat for €176.5 million, Expansión reported. The transaction would give CaixaBank full control of its real estate subsidiary.

* Portugal's Caixa Geral de Depósitos SA may have to return to the capital markets next year after completing a planned €430 million issuance by September 2018 as part of the state-run lender's ongoing recapitalization, Jornal de Negócios reported, citing financial manager José de Brito.

* Meanwhile, Caixa expects to conclude the sale of Spanish arm Banco Caixa Geral Espanha next month, according to Caixa board member Francisco Cary, Jornal de Negócios reported. The sale, which received seven nonbinding proposals, was ordered as part of the recapitalization.

* Portugal's Novo Banco SA has transferred the management of its real estate portfolio to a company belonging to Lone Star, the U.S. private equity company that bought a 75% stake in the state-rescued bank last year, Jornal de Negócios reported.

ITALY AND GREECE

* A reform of Italy's fiscal system is needed but has to be well-thought and priorities have to be set straight, Bank of Italy Governor Ignazio Visco told La Repubblica.

* Cooperative credit banks in Italy are in talks with the ECB on the type of supervision they will be subject to under the regulator in a bid to have more flexible parameters than ordinary lenders, Il Sole 24 Ore reported.

* The Bank of Italy and market watchdog Consob reached an agreement for greater cooperation including joint inspections, with their scope extended also to intermediaries and investors as well as crypto-currencies, Corriere della Sera reported. Milano Finanza also covered.

* U.S.-based asset management firm BlackRock is in talks with Italian fund manager Eurizon about purchasing a 10% stake in the company, the FT reported.

* With the purchase of shares by Chairman Pietro Giuliani, the management of Azimut Holding SpA sealed their control over the asset manager, thanks also to the involvement of private equity group Peninsula Capital, which has a 10% share in the Timone trust that recently upped its stake in the company to 24.2% from 16.4%, Affari & Finanza wrote.

* National Bank of Greece SA said it received one binding offer from Chinese investment firm Gongbao for insurance unit National Insurance, Reuters reported.

NORDIC COUNTRIES

* The Danish Financial Supervisory Authority approved the merger between Nordjyske Bank A/S and Ringkjøbing Landbobank A/S and the latter's new share buyback program of up to 300 million Danish kroner.

* Jyske Bank is paying its shareholders an extraordinary dividend of 5.89 Danish kroner per share, Berlingske Business reported. In addition, the bank is annulling 4.2 million own shares, for a total value of 1.5 billion kroner.

* Lars Ljungälv, Swedbank AB (publ)'s head for client coverage, will leave the bank for an operative role outside the banking industry. Elisabeth Beskow, co-head of large corporates and institutions, will take over Ljungälv's responsibilities.

EASTERN EUROPE

* PAO Sberbank of Russia CEO Herman Gref proposed Russian authorities to consider the sale of stakes in state-controlled banks, including Sberbank, as an alternative to raising taxes to finance the implementation of President Vladimir Putin's economic goals announced in May, Vedomosti reported.

* Otkritie Financial Corp. Bank plans to put up for sale a 20% stake in 2021, Reuters reported. The newswire also noted that the lender will strive to post a net profit of 68 billion Russian rubles in 2020.

* Polish investment fund ALTUS Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych S.A. signed an agreement to explore a potential merger with Esaliens TFI. As part of the merger, the entire assets of Esaliens TFI would be transferred to Altus TFI, which in turn would issue new shares to be offered to Esaliens TFI shareholders. The asset managers hope to finalize the merger in October or November.

* The trustee of Polish bankrupt lender SK Bank launched a tender for the sale of the bank, with a starting price set at 200 million Polish zlotys, Puls Biznesu reported.

IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

Asia-Pacific: Dai-ichi Life top contender for Suncorp life ops; ICICI Bank faces US scrutiny

Middle East & Africa: Commercial Bank ends United Arab Bank stake sale talks; Moody's downgrades Gabon

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Sheryl Obejera, Arno Maierbrugger, Meike Wijers, Esben Svendsen, Beata Fojcik, Yael Schrage, Stephanie Salti, Sophie Davies, and Helen Popper contributed to this report.

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