* Slovakia's Maroš Šefcovic opened a bid to succeed European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and said he would bolster the European Union's position in international trade, Reuters and Politico reported.
* The ECB has joined a network of central banks designed to help increase the role of green financing in the global economy, according to the French central bank.
* More than a quarter of large equity funds offered to European investors have not provided required benchmark information in fund documents, potentially breaching EU market rules, according to investor rights campaign group Better Finance, the Financial Times wrote.
* Meanwhile, the number of bilateral transactions involving private equity groups increased by 71% in 2017, compared to a year earlier, research from Investec showed, according to the Financial Times. The bank, which analyzed 587 deals involving British firms, said the value of the transactions increased to £7.98 billion in 2017 from £1.06 billion in 2016, representing 19% of all deals.
UK AND IRELAND
* The U.K. Treasury raised proceeds of £2.51 billion from yesterday's sale of roughly 7.7% of Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC's total equity. UK Government Investments, the vehicle that holds the Treasury's stakes in private-sector companies, sold 925 million RBS shares at 271 pence per share, compared to the 502 pence per share that the government paid to nationalize the bank in 2008. The transaction will reduce the Treasury's stake in the bank to 62.4% from 70.1%.
* Goldman Sachs Group Inc. unit Goldman Sachs Asset Management is bidding for the £109 billion investment management mandate of Lloyds Banking Group PLC after the latter ended its contract with Standard Life Aberdeen PLC, Sky News reported.
* The U.K. Attorney General's office named Lisa Osofsky director of the Serious Fraud Office for a term of five years, effective Sept. 3.
* Former U.K. Financial Conduct Authority board member Mick McAteer has called on the regulator to investigate a series of IT failures, including those involving TSB Banking Group PLC and Aviva PLC, the FT wrote.
* Revolut CEO Nikolay Storonsky told Reuters the London-based financial technology company is planning to apply for a banking license in the U.S. by the end of 2018.
GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA
* Deutsche Bank AG is looking to wind-up its advisory, corporate broking and sponsor services businesses in South Africa over a period of up to six months, as part of its plans to return to profitability under CEO Christian Sewing, Reuters reported.
* SIX Group AG CEO Jos Dijsselhof told Finews.ch-TV that the company will spend part of the CHF338 million proceeds from the sale of a majority stake in its payments arm to France's Worldline SA into experiments with new technologies like cryptocurrencies and blockchain.
* Swiss authorities working with Lithuanian prosecutors have frozen an additional CHF 7 million held at Bank Julius Bär & Co. AG as part of a deepening scandal involving Lithuania's troubled Snoras Bank, Tages-Anzeiger reported. The money was held by Raimondas Baranauskas, Snoras second-biggest investor and former president.
* Germany's Axa Versicherungen AG has canceled the accidental insurance policies of 17,500 customers due to increasing costs, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported. Axa attributed the rising costs of the insurance, which was often used by customers as a substitute for disability insurance, to increasing medical prices and low interest rates.
* German mobile bank N26 is planning to expand its operations to the U.K. and the U.S. later this year.
FRANCE AND BENELUX
* Société Générale SA agreed to pay a total of $1.34 billion in criminal and regulatory penalties for bribing Libyan officials and manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The fine comprises $585 million for Libya-related bribes and $275 million for London Interbank Offered Rate manipulation to criminal authorities, along with a further $475 million to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission in connection with the LIBOR scheme.
* Renewed speculation that SocGen might merge with UniCredit SpA owes much to a feeling that SocGen CEO Frédéric Oudéa lacks strategic vision and cannot inspire high-quality managers to stay at the bank, while UniCredit CEO Jean-Pierre Mustier, who quit SocGen in disgrace as a result of the Kerviel affair in 2008, still commands a following, Les Echos wrote. Mustier started pushing for a merger with UniCredit when he was head of investment banking at SocGen in 2007, Les Echos noted.
* Dutch payment solutions provider Adyen BV set the price range for its IPO between €220 per share and €240 per share, representing a market value of about €6.5 billion to €7.1 billion for the company.
* Crowdfunding platform Lendix SA raised €32 million for European expansion projects in a third round of fundraising, with Allianz France and Idinvest Partners entering into its capital, Les Echos reported. Allianz is also entering into a commercial partnership with the firm.
SPAIN AND PORTUGAL
* Chilean bank Banco de Credito e Inversiones SA said it has received all the necessary approvals for its $528 million purchase of U.S.-based TotalBank from Spanish lender Banco Santander SA and plans to close the deal in the coming days.
* Cecabank SA's board of directors has appointed Manuel Azuaga president, following the resignation of Antonio Massanell last December, Europa Press wrote. Azuaga is executive chairman of Unicaja Banco SA.
* Brazilian Justice seized more than €200 million in assets of failed Portuguese lender Banco Espírito Santo SA in the country. The move was made at the request of the Portuguese Public Prosecutor, Economia Online reported.
ITALY AND GREECE
* UniCredit SpA is working on the establishment of a bancassurance partnership with Generali for central and eastern Europe, which could be extended to include a German bank like Allianz, MF said.
* Hedge fund Caius Capital said it would be "untenable" for UniCredit SpA to undertake any major transaction before issues Caius has raised regarding regulatory treatment of the bank's core capital are resolved, Reuters reported.
NORDIC COUNTRIES
* Denmark-based Nets A/S plans to merge with Germany-based Concardis GmbH in a deal that would create a combined payment services business with annual net revenue of €1.3 billion.
* Several Danish political parties want five of the country's largest municipalities to sell their shares in Danske Bank A/S, Finans reported. The politicians said the municipalities should not own Danske Bank shares due to the money laundering scandal in the bank's branch in Estonia.
* Swedish central bank Governor Stefan Ingves said the regulator needs to retain its role in the payment system as there is a rapid decrease in cash usage in the country and transactions become increasingly digitalized, while the market is "completely dominated by private players with no public alternative."
* The Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority has recommended that the government approve the merger of DNB's Vipps mobile payment company, payment technology firm BankAxept and digital ID solution BankID, Dagens Næringsliv reported. The FSA said the merger appears rational due to expected competition in the mobile payment market.
EASTERN EUROPE
* Russian Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev said the planned capital injection of 5 billion rubles from the budget into PAO Promsvyazbank should be sufficient in 2018, Reuters reported, citing RIA news agency.
* Fearing sanctions, a number of Swiss banks blocked funds worth CHF 1 billion on personal accounts of Russian businessman Viktor Vekselberg, who was placed on the U.S. list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons in April, Forbes Russia reported after Schweiz am Wochenende. Vekselberg's lawyers are preparing lawsuits against the banks and their employees.
* The National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan trimmed its base rate to 9% with a corridor of plus or minus 1%.
* Some Czech lenders expect that the local central bank will further tighten conditions for potential mortgage borrowers next week by introducing stricter income requirements, Hospodarske Noviny said.
* Zagrebacka Banka d.d. absorbed wholly owned housing savings unit Prva stambena štedionica d.d., SEENews reported.
IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD
Asia-Pacific: Japan's Daido Life in Australian M&A; Fitch downgrades Punjab National Bank
Middle East & Africa: Cerberus bids for Abraaj's PE unit; Deutsche Bank to scale back in South Africa
Latin America: BBVA Francés Q1 profit up 178%; Barbados seeks debt restructuring
North America: JPMorgan gets immunity on alleged cartel conduct; Wells mulls 2 post-Brexit hubs
North America Insurance: Icahn looks to establish fair AmTrust price; Manulife raising $2B for fund
NOW FEATURED ON S&P GLOBAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE
SocGen-UniCredit deal could be first step in banking union, but savings limited: A merger between SocGen and Unicredit would be a stepping stone in integrating Europe's fragmented banking market, but the cost savings and benefits are difficult to see, analysts say.
S&P: Dutch insurer numbers to fall as firms merge or close in tough market: A search for synergies and economies of scale is pushing Dutch insurers to consolidate amid heavy competition and low prospects for organic growth, the rating agency said.
Sheryl Obejera, Ed Meza, Danielle Rossingh, Esben Svendsen, Beata Fojcik, Heather O'Brian, Brian McCulloch, Sophie Davies and Mariana Aldano contributed to this report.
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