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FINMA raps JPMorgan unit; BPCE gets new finance chief; BPI sells card biz

* European banks' post-crisis litigation bill could exceed $100 billion globally, with some lenders, including Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and UBS Group AG, still facing investigations that could potentially lead to hefty settlements, Bloomberg News reported. The banks have so far spent at least $81 billion in the past decade to resolve investigations, including market rigging, mortgage-backed securities mis-selling, and sanctions violations that have contributed to the global financial crisis.

* The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority urged EU insurers to take "sufficient and timely" steps to ensure that their services will not be disrupted in the event that the U.K. leaves the bloc in March 2019 without a trade deal. The regulator said contingency plans "should be realistic and consider all eventualities," including the possibility of no political agreement.

UK AND IRELAND

* Clydesdale Bank Plc and former parent National Australia Bank Ltd. are facing a lawsuit from hundreds of small business in the U.K. who were allegedly missold interest rate hedging products known as "tailored business loans." While some customers have been compensated, the case argues that the businesses may be entitled to further damages. The claim could potentially be worth multimillion pounds, according to The Daily Telegraph.

* Permanent TSB Group Holdings Plc said its 2018 common equity Tier 1 requirement and total capital ratio were set at 9.83% and 13.33%, respectively, on a transitional basis under the supervisory review and evaluation process of the ECB. The group's transitional CET1 ratio and total capital ratio stood at 17.5% and 18.7%, respectively, as of Sept. 30. Permanent TSB said the SREP decision prohibited it from making dividend payments to shareholders.

* Park Group Plc Finance Director Martin Stewart will resign from the company and step down from its board, effective Aug. 4, 2018.

* Euromoney Institutional Investor Plc appointed Wendy Pallot CFO and a board member, succeeding Finance Director Colin Jones, who will retire by the summer of next year.

* European Wealth Group Ltd. COO Simon Ray resigned from his post, effective Dec. 31.

* Allied Irish Banks Plc will provide a group of 500 staff a pay award of €317,500 for relocating to new office in Leopardstown in south Dublin from its Ballsbridge center, the Irish Independent reported. More employees are set to be transferred in the new office, which can accommodate around 1,500 staff.

* Japanese brokerage firm Nomura Holdings Inc. suspended Shaun Barlow, the head of high-yield bond trading at its London office, and Jeremy Gosling, a trader who reports to Barlow, insiders told Bloomberg News. The company reportedly notified its London traders of potential mispricing of some of the team's junk-bond positions.

GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA

* Swiss financial regulator FINMA concluded enforcement proceedings against JPMorgan Chase & Co. unit JPMorgan (Switzerland) Ltd. into the bank's role in a scandal revolving around Malaysian state investment fund 1MDB and found that the company seriously breached anti-money laundering regulations. As a result, FINMA appointed an inspector for an onsite review of the bank's respective controls and for an ongoing monitoring.

* Separately, FINMA discontinued enforcement proceedings against former banking and insurance executive Pierin Vincenz, saying they became redundant following his decision to resign from executive management positions at Swiss financial institutions. While its investigation into the former Raiffeisen Gruppe Switzerland CEO had been discontinued, FINMA said concurrent enforcement proceedings against the company over corporate governance issues will continue.

* Swiss Confederation President Doris Leuthard criticized the not yet formally announced EU decision to limit Swiss stock market access to other EU markets to just one year, calling it on behalf of the Federal Assembly "a clear discrimination" of Switzerland based on an "irrelevant and inacceptable" rationale.

* Finews noted that the limited access to EU stock markets would put Swiss stock exchange operator SIX Group AG under serious pressure since a significant share of Swiss stock trading volume originates from the EU, while the Swiss financial market as a whole would clearly suffer a loss in competitiveness.

* Liechtensteinische Landesbank AG acquired 100% of Vienna-based Semper Constantia Privatbank AG for €185 million in cash and shares.

* Dirk Klee, UBS Group AG's COO for wealth management, told Reuters that the bank is weighing plans to roll out its online investment platform SmartWealth in more countries after its successful launch in the U.K.

* Germany's trade union ver.di opposes the proposal of the Social Democratic Party of Germany to introduce a mandatory state health insurance for all citizens, warning that this could lead to substantial job losses in the private insurance industry, Handelsblatt wrote.

* Michael Diederich, country chairman Germany of UniCredit S.p.A and spokesman of the management Board of UniCredit Bank AG, or HypoVereinsbank, has been named president of Bayerischer Bankenverband e.V., Bavaria's banking association after previous president and HypoVereinsbank CEO Theodor Weimer moved on to become CEO of Deutsche Börse AG, Börsen-Zeitung noted.

* Austria's Financial Market Authority said it has no objections to a majority takeover of Vienna-based investment firm C-Quadrat Investment AG by China's HNA Group, Reuters reported.

* South Korea's Financial Services Commission suspended its review of Hana Financial Group Inc.'s proposed acquisition of UBS Group's 51% stake in their asset management joint venture, UBS Hana Asset Management Co. Ltd. The Financial Services Commission said it will resume the review process once an investigation into Hana Financial's alleged violation of a banking law is resolved.

FRANCE AND BENELUX

* Groupe BPCE appointed François Riahi CEO in charge of finance, strategy and legal affairs, effective Jan. 1. Riahi, who currently serves as co-head of Natixis' corporate and investment banking business, will replace Marguerite Bérard-Andrieu, who decided to pursue a new professional opportunity outside the group.

* KBC Group NV said the ECB decided to maintain the group's pillar 2 requirement at 1.75% CET1 and pillar 2 guidance at 1.0% CET1, leading to a combined overall fully loaded CET1 requirement, under the Danish compromise, of 10.6%. Its fully loaded CET1 ratio stood at 15.9% at the end of the third quarter.

* The Dutch government has exchanged 6.4% of ABN AMRO Group NV shares for depositary receipts, Het Financieele Dagblad reported.

SPAIN AND PORTUGAL

* Separatists in Catalonia appear to have maintained their majority in the new regional parliament, CNN reported. With more than 99% of the vote counted, three pro-independence parties together gained 70 seats in the 135-member legislative body, but no single party gained an outright majority. The party of Carles Puigdemont, the leader of Catalonia who was ousted after an illegal independence referendum earlier this year, won 34 seats.

* Banco BPI SA sold its debit and credit card business for €113 million to Comercia, and CaixaBank-owned CB Payments, Economia Online reported.

* The Portuguese government authorized Caixa Geral de Depósitos SA to sell its units in South Africa, Spain and Brazil, Jornal de Negócios wrote. The bank may sell all or parts of the financial institutions directly to one or more investors, a move that is part of its strategic plan, Jornal de Negócios wrote.

ITALY AND GREECE

* Crédit Agricole Group unit Crédit Agricole Cariparma SpA completed its acquisition of a 95.3% stake in equity of Italian savings banks Cassa di Risparmio di Rimini SpA, Cassa di Risparmio di Cesena SpA and Cassa di Risparmio di San Miniato SpA. Separately, doBank SpA agreed to act as special servicer for the management of an approximately €1 billion nonperforming loan portfolio as part of the bailout deal for the three banks.

* Intesa Sanpaolo SpA's board approved the incorporation of Banco di Napoli SpA, a wholly owned unit with a nearly 500 year history, a move that is seen taking place between November 2018 and February 2019, Il Messaggero said. Intesa acquired a 10.74% stake in Cassa dei Risparmi di Forlì e della Romagna SpA for just over €46 million, bringing its holding to 95%, and now plans to incorporate the unit, Reuters said.

* Banca Mediolanum SpA has set up an investment banking division led by Diego Selva, the former head of investment banking for Bank of America Merrill Lynch Italia, MF said.

* Mediobanca - Banca di Credito Finanziario SpA's MBCredit Solutions unit bought a portfolio of nonperforming loans with a nominal value of about €250 million from the UniCredit Leasing business of UniCredit SpA, Reuters said.

* Credito Valtellinese SpA said it approved the merger by incorporation of its 98.55% controlled company Credito Siciliano SpA, Reuters noted.

* Poste Italiane SpA inked a deal with Anima Holding SpA to strengthen their existing partnership in the asset management business. The agreement foresees a partial spinoff of delegated portfolio management activities underlying traditional life insurance products belonging to Banco Posta Fondi in favor of Anima.

* New Seres Apennines, a company controlled by China CEFC Energy Co. Ltd., acquired Farbanca, a bank 70%-owned by Banca Popolare di Vicenza SpA, for about €70 million, MF said.

* The Bank of Greece called for clarification on whether the country will continue to receive international economic support after the August 2018 completion date of its €86 billion bailout program in order to "consolidate confidence over the medium term."

NORDIC COUNTRIES

* Major Swedish banks' minimum common equity Tier 1 capital requirements are expected to increase when the coming floor for the banks' risk-weighted assets is fully introduced, according to Sweden's central bank. The regulator stressed, however, that the new minimum CET1 requirement is lower than the total CET1 capital that major Swedish banks need to meet currently, and that the size of the lenders' total capital requirements will continue to be determined by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority.

* Danske Bank A/S was fined 12.5 million Danish kroner by the Danish Public Prosecutor for Serious Economic and International Crime for breaching the country's anti-money laundering rules. The penalty concludes a probe launched into the bank by Danish Financial Supervisory Authority in 2015.

* Luxembourg's financial regulator has imposed an unspecified fine on Nordea Bank AB (publ) in connection with the Panama Papers leak in 2016, Dagens Industri reported.

* Meanwhile, Nordea will sell a 45% shareholding in Denmark-based Nordea Liv & Pension A/S to Foreningen Norliv for €472 million, Dagens Industri wrote. The transaction will increase Norliv's ownership in NLP to 70%.

EASTERN EUROPE

* The central bank of the Czech Republic decided to maintain its two-week repo rate at 0.50%, the discount rate at 0.05% and the Lombard rate at 1%. The decision is a break from the Ceská národní banka's policy tightening which saw two rate hikes since August.

* Russian Standard Ltd, controlled by Russian businessman Roustam Tariko, is negotiating the repurchase of its $451 million bonds from their holders, Vedomosti reported. The company, which failed to pay a coupon on the 2022 bond in October, reportedly wants to repurchase the securities at a significant discount.

* Belarusian state-controlled lender OJSC Paritetbank asked the Ukrainian central bank for clearance to purchase PAO Sberbank of Russia unit PJSC Sberbank, Vedomosti said.

* The Russian central bank's deputy head Ksenia Yudaeva was named chair of the board of directors of Otkritie Financial Corp. Bank, Vedomosti reported. The lender's newly appointed board also includes Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev and the central bank head's adviser Alexey Simanovskiy.

* The Russian central bank intends to sell bailed-out banks in the future to market investors, Reuters said, citing President Vladimir Putin.

* The Russian central bank revoked the license of LLC CB Preodolenie because of the lender's failure to comply with legislation countering money laundering and financing of terrorism, as well as its involvement in dubious transactions, Banki.ru reported.

* Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service allowed OOO Finservice to acquire insurer Uralsib Strakhovanie from JSC Financial Corp. URALSIB and gain control over life insurer Uralsib Zhizn, news agency TASS reported.

* The Lithuanian central bank announced the introduction of a countercyclical capital buffer for local lenders amounting to 0.5% of risk adjusted private loans from the end of 2018, Reuters said. Central bank governor Vitas Vasiliauskas said the buffer could be increased further to 1% or even 2.5% later on.

* Slovenia wants to initiate an IPO for a majority stake in Nova Ljubljanska banka d.d. in 2018 and complete the deal in 2019, Reuters reported, citing Slovenian Finance Minister Mateja Vranicar Erman. The official also said that the state wants to sell a 100% holding in Abanka d.d. to a strategic investor in 2019.

* PKO Bank Polski SA's management board vice president and CFO, Bartosz Drabikowski, was dismissed from the post, with Rafal Kozlowski, who serves as CEO of PKO's mortgage unit PKO Bank Hipoteczny SA, to replace the executive as of January, Rzeczpospolita reported.

* A New York jury concluded the second day of its deliberations without a verdict in the trial of Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a deputy general manager at Turkish state-run lender Türkiye Halk Bankasi AS who is accused of conspiring to commit bank fraud and violating U.S. sanctions against Iran, Reuters reported.

IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

Asia-Pacific: NAB faces UK lawsuit; Taiwan central bank holds rates

Middle East & Africa: Sanlam details Steinhoff exposure; SARB rebuffs nationalization demands

Latin America: Santander Brasil, HDI Seguros sign insurance deal; Peru president faces vote

North America: Wells Fargo, Fifth Third to hike worker pay; 2 California banks merging

North America Insurance: Voya to up repurchases after annuities deal; tax cut to benefit US P&C carriers

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Data Dispatch EMEA: Euronext deal set to bring Irish Stock Exchange Brexit benefit: The takeover by Euronext will help the Irish Stock Exchange bolster its debt and fund listings business, analysts believe.

Sheryl Obejera, Arno Maierbrugger, Meike Wijers, Gerard O'Dwyer, Beata Fojcik, Heather O'Brian, Brian McCulloch, Praxilla Trabattoni and Mariana Aldano contributed to this report.

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Please note that the Daily Dose Europe will not be published Dec. 25 and Dec. 26 on account of the holidays. The Daily Dose Europe will return Dec. 27.