* Assets in the riskiest part of the world's nonbank financial system grew by 7.6% in 2016 to $45.2 trillion, equivalent to 13% of the global financial system, the Financial Stability Board said. The increase, detailed in FSB's Global Shadow Banking Monitoring report, represents an expansion in the "narrow measure" of shadow banking.
* The European Commission is set to propose as early as this week a range of measures, including a proposal for a licensing system for crowdfunding platforms across the EU and the establishment of common blockchain technology standards, as part of efforts to boost the European financial technology sector, Reuters reported.
* Deutsche Bundesbank Executive Board member Andreas Dombret said that in the face of political movements to establish greater sovereignty, such as Brexit, the U.S. and the EU should implement the updated Basel accord "in its entirety," including rules addressing trading books.
* The EU cap on bankers' bonuses, which limits payouts to 100% of salary or 200% with explicit shareholder approval, may remain in place after Britain exits the bloc, according to The Times.
* The Alternative Reference Rates Committee of the U.S. Federal Reserve said that around $200 trillion in derivatives, loans floating rate debt and securitizations are based on the London Interbank Offered Rate, 25% higher than previous estimates. "The vast scale and broad scope of this activity underscores the necessity of promoting robust alternatives to LIBOR," the committee noted.
UK AND IRELAND
* As expected, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority yesterday fined former Deutsche Bank AG trader Guillaume Adolph £180,000 and banned him from carrying out any regulated financial activity in the country, in connection with his role in the manipulation of benchmark interest rates.
* Bank of Ireland Group Plc announced several management changes, including the decision of group COO Lewis Love to leave the bank and the appointment of Gavin Kelly as CEO of retail in Ireland.
* Arshadur Rahman, manager in the Bank of England's sterling markets division, said the central bank intends to offer a Shariah-compliant liquidity tool to a wider range of financial institutions in a bid to increase demand for the facility, Reuters wrote.
* London Capital Group Holdings Plc and wholly owned subsidiary Tradex entered a conditional agreement to sell 91.5% of unit London Capital Group Ltd.'s entire issued share capital and 100% of the issued share capital of subsidiaries held by LCG Holdings and/or Tradex to SLCG International.
GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA
* The new coalition agreement reached between Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union and Social Democratic Party retained the previous goal of implementing a financial transactions tax, City A.M. reported.
* Major HSH Nordbank AG bondholders of €1 billion principal of Tier 1 and upper Tier 2 notes have expressed concern about the proposed plan by the bank's majority owners, the German states of Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg, to sell their stakes in the lender to U.S. private equity investors, Thomson Reuters' IFR reported.
* Allianz Group unit Allianz Deutschland AG is aiming to simplify various insurances in an effort to improve business, board member Joachim Müller told Börsen-Zeitung.
* Switzerland's central bank has joined the Federal Council and the Swiss parliament in opposing an initiative calling for the introduction of a sovereign money system in the country. The proposal will be put to a vote in a June 10 national referendum.
* Addressing the criminal investigation of former Raiffeisen Schweiz Genossenschaft CEO Pierin Vincenz, Chairman Johannes Rüegg-Stürm dismissed the notion that he exercised lax oversight, Finews.com reported, citing NZZ am Sonntag. "You do not have the complete picture if you receive false or incomplete information," Rüegg-Stürm said, conceding that hiring Vincenz's wife as head of the bank's legal department was an "unfortunate combination" given the potential conflicts of interest.
FRANCE AND BENELUX
* BNP Paribas SA appointed Francisco Hernandez Lozano as country head for Mexico. The French lender also appointed long-standing executive Fabrice Segui CEO for Portugal, replacing Jean-Marc Pasquet, who will join mobile payment solution company Lyf Pay, in which BNP Paribas is a major shareholder, Jornal de Negócios reported.
* Société Générale SA's corporate and investment banking unit appointed Yves Jacob global head of coverage for public sector entities and Laurent Morel global head of financial sponsor coverage, both within its financial institutions group.
* Catastrophe data insurance provider Perils AG put its fourth and final loss estimate for the property insurance market due to extratropical cyclone Zeus, which hit France in March 2017, at €272 million, down from its third loss estimate of €284 million.
* Belgian insurer Integrale will officially launch today a capital increase of around €165 million to pass its stress tests, L'Echo wrote.
SPAIN AND PORTUGAL
* António Tomás Correia, president of the mutual association that wholly controls Portugal's Caixa Económica Montepio Geral caixa económica bancária SA, is seeking smaller investments from social and charitable organizations as an alternative to a possible plan by Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa to buy a 10% stake in the savings bank, Jornal de Negócios reported.
ITALY AND GREECE
* Former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said his center-left Democratic Party will not engage in talks with anti-establishment parties to form a coalition government, Reuters reported, after Italy's March 4 elections resulted in a hung parliament. Italian President Sergio Mattarella is set to open formal coalition talks in April. Italian stocks and government bonds fell yesterday after the populist Five-Star Movement came first in Italian elections.
* Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA is working on identifying further costs in its general structure that can be eliminated or reduced, Corriere della Sera wrote.
* UniCredit SpA unit FinecoBank Banca Fineco SpA is focusing on the creation of an Ireland-based savings management company in a bid to recoup efficiency that will then translate in greater profitability and lower costs for clients, CEO Alessandro Foti told Il Sole 24 Ore.
* The last day of trading of UniCredit savings shares will be March 9, with the mandatory conversion of such shares into ordinary ones taking effect March 12, Reuters noted.
* Poste Italiane SpA is sounding out interest from Generali and Unipol Gruppo SpA for possible partnerships in the nonlife insurance sector, Il Sole 24 Ore wrote.
* The Asset Management Association of China accepted Azimut Holding SpA to operate in China as a fund manager, MF reported.
NORDIC COUNTRIES
* The Danish Financial Supervisory Authority informed the U.K. FCA that Alpha Insurance A/S, which operates in the U.K. on a freedom of services basis, has been placed into solvent liquidation and that it instructed the company to cease writing new business effective immediately. Alpha Insurance attributed the situation as a direct consequence of New Zealand-based CBL Insurance Ltd., one of its largest reinsurers, being placed into interim liquidation.
EASTERN EUROPE
* Businessman Valery Khoroshkovsky withdrew from negotiations to purchase PAO Sberbank of Russia Ukrainian unit PJSC Sberbank after his lawyers warned on possible risks associated with the violation of EU sanctions in the event of a direct or indirect purchase of the lender, Delo.ua reported.
* The Russian Agency for Housing Mortgage Lending said it has changed its corporate name to JSC DOM.RF Russia Housing & Urban Development Corp. All of the DOM.RF units, including Bank Rossiysky Capital PJSC, will be renamed and integrated into the single brand once all the required procedures are completed in the first half of 2018.
* Citing JSC Russian Regional Development Bank's annual report, Reuters wrote that 80% of 165 billion Russian rubles worth of loans issued by JSCB for Charity and Spiritual Development of Fatherland Peresvet could potentially not be repaid and may have to be written off.
* Hélène Goessaert was appointed new management board member and chief risk officer at KBC Group NV unit Ceskoslovenská obchodní banka a.s.
* Centrum Finansowe Banku BPS Spólka Akcyjna named Piotr Szynalski CEO, Reuters reported.
IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD
Asia-Pacific: Indian central bank fines 2 lenders; Mega Financial posts FY'17 net income
Middle East & Africa: Boursa Kuwait may launch IPO this year; Tunisia raises key rate
Latin America: Santander Brasil-HDI JV approved; Mexico gives nod to Swiss Re local ops
North America: Senate to vote this week on bipartisan bill to ease Dodd-Frank rules on banks
North America Insurance: XL Group to be acquired by Axa; AIG to sell travel insurance on Expedia site
NOW FEATURED ON S&P GLOBAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE
Radical shift in Italian poll raises doubts about banks: "Italy is far from having sorted its long-standing problems, and now it will have new ones. Be prepared for long and complex negotiations," said Lorenzo Codogno, professor of finance at the London School of Economics and ex-Italian Treasury official.
XL boss says need for scale drove $15B deal, but investors punish Axa: Mike McGavick said size matters more and more in global insurance because of the cost of capital and expense of international infrastructure. Axa executives said the XL takeover was a "strategic move," but the French insurer's shares plunged.
Axa boss defends $15B XL acquisition as shares crash by almost 10%: Thomas Buberl said Axa's preferred option is to avoid share buybacks if there are opportunities available, but he didn't rule out the prospect of future repurchases.
Sheryl Obejera, Ed Meza, Meike Wijers, Gerard O'Dwyer, Beata Fojcik, Yael Schrage, Stephanie Salti, Praxilla Trabattoni and Helen Popper contributed to this report.
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