* The risk of a no-deal Brexit was heightened after U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May warned that a draft treaty on Britain's departure from the EU was a "nonstarter," the Financial Times reported. Weekend talks between the U.K.'s Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab and EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier on a post-Brexit partnership ended without progress.
* Central banks will find it increasingly difficult to stick to their policies of giving clear forward guidance on monetary policy, as markets become more volatile, according to Société Générale Chairman Lorenzo Bini Smaghi.
UK AND IRELAND
* The Bank of England is set to tell banks and insurers to identify a senior executive to take responsibility for managing climate change risks, who would face consequences if he or she failed to do so, the Financial Times wrote.
* U.S.-based Goldman Sachs and the U.K.'s Standard Chartered PLC are increasing the number of personnel who will be relocated to Frankfurt by April 2019 in the wake of Brexit, insiders told Bloomberg News.
* Lloyds Banking Group PLC and unit Scottish Widows Group Ltd. picked U.S.-based BlackRock to manage £30 billion of assets in index strategies. The assets are part of the £109 billion investment portfolio put up for grabs after Lloyds decided to terminate the contract of its current manager, Standard Life Aberdeen PLC.
* The U.K. Serious Fraud Office is considering carrying out a new investigation into the alleged fraud case at the Reading branch of Lloyds unit HBOS PLC, The Times reported. The scam, which affected hundreds of business customers, has already led to the conviction of six individuals including two former HBOS bankers.
* The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority wrote to the CEOs of payday lenders directing them to assess their lending activities to determine whether creditworthiness assessments are compliant.
* Cincinnati Financial Corp. signed a definitive agreement to acquire London-based MSP Underwriting Ltd. from Munich Re Co., in an all-cash transaction for £102 million, based on MSP Underwriting's projected net asset value at closing.
* Barry Rodrigues, CEO of Barclays PLC unit Barclaycard International, told the Financial Times the bank is planning to create a current account for its U.S. online bank that could help boost its $13.6 billion of U.S. retail deposits. The move could put it in competition with Goldman Sachs's customers.
* The Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice approved CME Group Inc.'s potential acquisition of U.K. trading firm NEX Group PLC.
* Virgin Money Holdings (UK) PLC said the High Court of Justice in England and Wales sanctioned its proposed takeover by CYBG PLC, through a scheme of arrangement.
* Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters told Reuters the British lender is "actively working" on finding a solution for its stake in Indonesia-based PT Bank Permata Tbk, which it jointly owns with conglomerate PT Astra International Tbk. Winters also said StanChart is adding more people and investing more strengthening the infrastructure of its Asian wealth management division.
GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA
* German regulators found online lender N26 Bank GmbH to be in breach of regulations, saying the process the firm uses to authenticate client IDs is not compliant with existing rules and can be gamed, Handelsblatt reported.
* The bidding for state-owned Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale continued with a shortlist of fewer than 10 investors, according to a Reuters report carried by Handelsblatt.
* Frankfurt-based insurer DFV Deutsche Familienversicherung AG plans to launch an initial public offering on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in the fourth quarter with an aim to generate proceeds of €100 million. The money will be used to fund expansion and for other purposes.
* UBS Group AG could become the first foreign bank in China to hold majority ownership of its investment banking joint venture in the country after two business partners put their stakes on sale, Reuters reported.
* UBS unit UBS Europe SE completed its acquisition of Nordea Bank Abp's private banking business in Luxembourg for an undisclosed sum.
* Aareal Bank AG CEO Hermann Merkens confirmed the company's 2018 targets of €7 billion to €8 billion new business volume, and consolidated annual group profit of between €312 million and €352 million, Handelsblatt reported, citing Euro am Sonntag.
* ERGO Group AG is in negotiations with Moscow-based Otkritie about the sale of the former's Russian life insurance unit Ergo Zhizn, Handelsblatt reported, citing Russian business daily Vedomosti.
FRANCE AND BENELUX
* Chinese conglomerate Anbang has hired Deutsche Bank AG to help it sell its Belgian insurance subsidiary FIDEA NV, Het Financieele Dagblad reported.
* Dutch lender ABN AMRO Group NV disclosed that its third-quarter results will include a restructuring provision of €27 million related to its corporate and institutional banking division, as well as an additional gain of €12 million in private banking from the sale of ABN Amro Bank (Luxembourg) to BNP Paribas SA.
* ABN AMRO has taken its mortgage unit Stater off the market after its €225 million price tag failed to attract a buyer, Het Financieele Dagblad reported, citing sources.
SPAIN AND PORTUGAL
* Moody's upgraded Portugal's ratings and revised its outlook to stable from positive, citing the sustainable downward trend in the country's general government debt and increased economic resilience.
* Portuguese bank Millennium BCP called a shareholder meeting for Nov. 5 to vote on an amendment to the bank's statutes that would allow it to resume dividend payments in 2019 after an eight-year hiatus by carrying out an €876 million capital reduction, Jornal de Negócios and Dinheiro Vivo reported.
* Portugal's Caixa Geral de Depósitos SA is moving ahead with a Brussels-endorsed plan to merge six units belonging to the group into the parent company as a way to reduce costs at the state-run bank, Jornal de Negócios reported.
* Portugal's competition authorities have given Banco CTT SA the green light to buy vehicle finance and insurance broker 321 Crédito, Jornal de Negócios reported.
* Spanish lender Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA has closed 138 branches in Spain since December, meeting 80% of its target closures for the year, wrote Expansión. The bank said it would close 179 branches in Spain in 2018, leaving a total of around 2,840 offices.
ITALY AND GREECE
* Italy's Banca Carige SpA CEO Fabio Innocenzi received the board of directors' mandate to formalize an agreement to dispose of an unlikely-to-pay loans portfolio with U.S.-based Bain Capital Credit LP, la Repubblica wrote.
* Italian insurer Generali aims to grow further in real estate asset management from the €30 billion expected for this year with the launch of new funds that will help attract institutional investors, the firm's head of real estate told Milano Finanza.
* Greek lender Piraeus Bank SA has informed the ECB it may miss its target to raise capital by the end of the year due to unfavorable conditions in the financial markets, insiders told Reuters.
NORDIC COUNTRIES
* Moody's lowered several ratings of Danske Bank A/S, including its long-term deposit and senior unsecured debt ratings to A2 from A1, with a negative outlook. Danske Bank has begun shutting down parts of its Estonian business, which is at the center of an ongoing €200 billion money laundering scandal that has been dogging the Danish lender in recent months.
* The Estonian finance ministry is planning an independent investigation into the alleged money laundering that took place in the country between 2007 and 2015, Reuters reported, citing a spokeswoman for the ministry.
* Norwegian lender DNB ASA is developing a new range of digital and cloud technology-based service solutions to both retain SMEs and attract new business in this domain, amid growing competition from niche online banks, wrote Dagens Næringsliv.
EASTERN EUROPE
* S&P Global Ratings raised Poland's sovereign credit ratings, citing the country's strong economic growth and budgetary outcomes that exceeded expectations.
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* AO Gazprombank became an indirect owner of a 10% stake in Russian pension fund NPF Gazfond PN, Kommersant said, noting that the fund's majority shareholder Anatoly Gavrilenko now controls 55% of the fund. The value of the transaction was not disclosed, but it could amount to anything between 264 million Russian rubles and 5 billion rubles, the newspaper noted.
* The Russian central bank revoked the license of small local lender PIR Bank llc, pointing, among other things, to the lender's noncompliance with Russian legislation on countering money laundering transactions.
* The Slovak competition regulator approved the takeover of Czech financial advisory services provider Fincentrum a.s., which also operates in Slovakia, by Swiss Life Select International Holding, Slovak daily Sme reported.
IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD
Asia-Pacific: CBA appoints CFO; KKR eyes Indian portfolios; ANZ to expand again in Asia
Middle East & Africa: Saudi stocks slump after US threat; StanChart to launch digital bank in Ghana
Latin America: Uruguay central bank chief steps down; Peru holds key rate
North America: JPMorgan, PNC Q3 earnings up YOY; Fidelity again sued over 401(k) plan
Global Insurance: Michael cost near $8B; US insurer buys Munich Re Lloyd's biz; NatGen cat losses
NOW FEATURED ON S&P GLOBAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE
UK set to review regulators' powers after Brexit, says minister: John Glen, economic secretary to the Treasury, said the U.K. has created a "functioning framework" ahead of its departure from the EU, while the Financial Conduct Authority has laid out its plans to protect the country's financial sector.
Cyber insurance-linked securities have arrived, but market still in infancy: A few small cyber ILS deals have already been done, but some remain unconvinced that the capital markets are yet ready to take on the growing, ever-changing risk.
Ben Meggeson, Arno Maierbrugger, Danielle Rossingh, Gerard O'Dwyer, Beata Fojcik, Yael Schrage, Stephanie Salti, Sophie Davies and Helen Popper 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, a separately managed division of S&P Global. Descriptions in this news article were not prepared by S&P Global Ratings. The original S&P Global Ratings documents referred to in this news brief can be found here.