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EU allows derivatives trading in US; Deutsche rebrands asset management unit

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EU allows derivatives trading in US; Deutsche rebrands asset management unit

* The European Commission said banks and other firms in the EU can continue trading derivatives in some U.S. platforms once the revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, or MiFID II, comes into effect in January 2018. Meanwhile, the EC said 17 of the 28 EU states have not yet fully adopted MiFID II into national legislation, Reuters wrote.

* The Council of the EU adopted a blacklist of tax havens, including 17 countries and territories deemed uncooperative on tax matters. Meanwhile, a second "grey" list of 47 jurisdictions, which were considered not currently compliant with EU standards but had committed to changing their tax rules, included Switzerland, Turkey and Hong Kong, Reuters noted.

* The ECB added Barclays Bank Plc's Frankfurt branch to its updated list of supervised significant credit institutions and banking groups, citing an increase in its size. Meanwhile, Raiffeisen-Holding Niederösterreich-Wien reg. GmbH, SEB AG, Banco BPI SA, Banco Popular Español SA, Veneto Banca SpA, Banca Popolare di Vicenza SpA, and Agence Française de Développement were removed, bringing the list down to 119 firms from 125 at the beginning of 2017.

UK AND IRELAND

* U.K. motor insurer Sabre Insurance Group plc priced its offering of 125 million ordinary shares, or 50% of its issued share capital on admission, at 230 pence apiece. Based on the offer price, the market capitalization of the company will be £575 million.

* Legal & General Group Plc agreed to sell its Mature Savings business to the ReAssure division of Swiss Re AG for £650 million. The formal transfer of the business is expected to be completed in mid-2019.

* Minutes of the Bank of England's financial policy committee meetings of Nov. 22 and Nov. 27 showed that the central bank has warned the High Court to warn of a potential influx of applications from insurers looking to resolve issues related to Britain's exit from the EU. The BoE had also considered raising the countercyclical buffer even higher than the 1% it announced Nov. 28, but decided not to because the likelihood of a combination of a severe global recession plus a disorderly Brexit was remote.

* The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority opted not to publish in full a controversial report into Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc's small business restructuring unit after it received legal advice that it could be sued by the bank, The Times of London reported, citing minutes of an FCA board meeting. The regulator's board also feared that publishing the document in full may raise expectations among smaller banking customers that they may receive significant compensation.

* U.K. Chancellor Philip Hammond said his country will need to develop a "new paradigm" for its future trading relationship with the EU in financial services. Hammond said "no existing trade agreement, nor third-country access arrangement, could support the scale and complexity of reciprocal trade in financial services that exists between the U.K. and the EU."

* Megan Butler, the U.K. FCA's director of supervision for investment, wholesale and specialists, said British banks are still under-reporting cyberattacks despite an increase in reported incidences to 49 this year from five in 2014.

GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA

* Jay Sekulow, one of U.S. President Donald Trump's personal lawyers, dismissed reports that Deutsche Bank AG received a subpoena from U.S. special prosecutor Robert Mueller in connection with his investigation into Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Reuters reported.

* Meanwhile, Deutsche Bank unit Deutsche Asset Management said it will introduce DWS as its new global umbrella brand and that it plans to operate within a GmbH & Co. KGaA legal structure, effective in the first quarter of next year.

* Landesbank Baden-Württemberg shed its last remaining assets from the financial crisis with the sale of a securities bundle previously owned by Landesbank Sachsen to international investors, Handelsblatt wrote. The sale of the securities portfolio, once worth €17.3 billion but most recently valued at some €4.2 billion, comes 10 years after LBBW took over SachsenLB.

* Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale placed credit risks on a €10.1 billion portfolio of some 4,300 loans with institutional investors, reducing its risk-weighted assets by €3.7 billion.

FRANCE AND BENELUX

* Law enforcement authorities raided the head offices of Belfius Banque SA and Dexia SA in Brussels in connection with the Panama Papers scandal, De Tijd wrote.

* Intertrust NV nominated Stephanie Miller to replace David de Buck as CEO, Het Financieele Dagblad reported.

SPAIN AND PORTUGAL

* Bankinter SA formalized an agreement to transfer a €434 million portfolio of unproductive loans to Norwegian debt management firm Axactor, according to Europa Press.

* Banco Santander SA agreed to reduce the number of job cuts related to the integration of Banco Popular Español by 30% to a total of 1,100, Europa Press reported.

* Banco Santander Totta SA said it is not in accordance with the sale of SIBS – the company that manages electronic multibank payment systems in Portugal – which has declared intentions of finding a strategic international partner, Economia Online wrote.

ITALY AND GREECE

* Poste Italiane SpA is preparing to enter the car insurance market and has asked national insurance companies association Ania for access to data regarding car accidents in the country, an insider told Reuters.

* The Milan prosecutors office asked to drop charges against Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA's former Chairman Alessandro Profumo and former CEO Fabrizio Viola for obstructing the work of regulators looking into two derivatives deals at the bank, MF wrote. A trial on market manipulation and false accounting charges is set to go ahead in February.

* Banca Popolare di Bari SCpA and unit Cassa di Risparmio di Orvieto SpA disposed of €319.8 million in gross nonperforming loans, Reuters wrote. Meanwhile, Credito Valtellinese SpA sold NPLs with a gross book value of €24 million to Hoist Finance, according to MF.

NORDIC COUNTRIES

* Tryg A/S placed 27.4 million new shares at an offer price of 147 Danish kroner per share, raising gross proceeds of 4.0 billion kroner, which will be used to fund the company's acquisition of fellow Danish insurer Alka Forsikrings AS.

* Nordea Bank AB (publ) CEO Casper von Koskull strongly criticized bitcoin, saying the digital currency is surrounded by pure speculation, while voicing his support for blockchain technology, DI Digital reported. Von Koskull also urged the financial industry to rethink how much bankers are being paid in preparation for the future technological shift, Bloomberg News wrote.

* Nordea said it joined we.trade, a consortium of banks including Banco Santander, Deutsche Bank and HSBC Holdings Plc, that aims to develop a blockchain-based trade finance platform. The commercialization of the platform is expected in the second quarter of 2018.

EASTERN EUROPE

* Otkritie Investments Cyprus Ltd. purchased class B shares in QIWI plc, increasing its stake to 21.73%, as its parent, Otkritie Holding JSC, looks for assets to replace Otkritie Financial Corp. Bank, which now operates under the provisional administration of the Russian central bank's special fund, Vedomosti wrote.

* The Russian central bank wants to tighten supervision over local credit consumer cooperatives after discovering in 2016 a large-scale fraud scheme, the damage from which exceeded 7.5 billion Russian rubles, Kommersant reported.

* Kazakhstan-based Bank of Astana JSC plans to carry out a secondary public offering and list the shares on the Moscow Exchange to attract foreign capital, according to Kursiv.kz.

* UniCredit SpA unit UniCredit Bulbank AD sold a nonperforming loan portfolio with a legal claim value of around €11.85 million to the Bulgarian unit of Polish debt collector GetBack SA, SEENews reported.

* The Slovakian Supreme Court upheld the decision of the country's competition watchdog to impose a €3.18 million fine on Ceskoslovenská obchodná banka a.s. over its participation in a cartel targeting Czech foreign-currency trader Akcenta CZ, E15 wrote.

* The Czech central bank could increase its main interest rate by 0.25 percentage point every six months, Reuters reported, citing the regulator's head Jirí Rusnok. The newswire also cited the Czech central bank's deputy head Mojmir Hampl as saying the regulator could raise the counter-cyclical capital buffer for banks later in December.

IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

Asia-Pacific: CTBC Financial penalized over bail money; Sonali Bank seeks to recover funds

Middle East & Africa: Global sukuk market seen to grow; Access Bank Ghana to raise capital

Latin America: BBVA accepts Scotiabank offer; Indusval to develop digital platform

North America: BBVA accepts Scotiabank offer for BBVA Chile; BMO fiscal Q4 profit slips

North America Insurance: CVS-Aetna deal would form health conglomerate; Irma claims top $6B in Florida

NOW FEATURED ON S&P GLOBAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE

We will miss UK expertise after Brexit, European regulators say: The U.K.'s departure from the EU will leave a gap in banking expertise in the bloc, European banking regulators said at the U.K. Finance International Banking Conference in London.

High hopes for UK insurer Sabre's IPO despite tough market: An underwriting performance ahead of peers in the U.K. insurance market and a reliance on the core business of insurance, rather than income from fees and add-ons, have left analysts favorable on Sabre Insurance's prospects ahead of a London listing.

Leo Magno, Ed Meza, Danielle Rossingh, Esben Svendsen, Beata Fojcik,Heather O'Brian, Stephanie Salti, Sophie Davies and Mariana Aldano contributed to this report.

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