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Barclays said to be mulling StanChart merger; Julius Bär AUM passes CHF400B

UK AND IRELAND

* Barclays PLC is exploring a potential merger with rival banks including Standard Chartered PLC as part of contingency plans being assessed in response to pressure from activist investor Edward Bramson, insiders told the Financial Times. Barclays Chairman John McFarlane is said to be, at least theoretically, keen on the prospect of combining the bank with StanChart, and was backed by Gerry Grimstone, chairman of unit Barclays International.

* Bank of England Governor Mark Carney pushed back against calls for the regulator to publish a more explicit interest rate forecast, saying he's not convinced that such an approach would be an improvement, Bloomberg News reported. Meanwhile, BoE monetary policy committee member Gertjan Vlieghe said he expects interest rates to rise by 25 basis points to 50 basis points per year over the next three years, assuming uncertainty around Brexit fades over the coming years.

* Megan Butler, executive director of supervision for investment, wholesale and specialist firms at the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority, urged banks to use innovative technology to combat financial crime, noting that banks spend roughly £5 billion a year to tackle financial crime, and many employ thousands of investigators to manually review high-risk transactions and accounts instead of using new technology to detect and disrupt criminal activity.

* TSB Banking Group PLC had offered its business banking clients roughly 1,500 Android phones free of charge ahead of its botched IT upgrade, City A.M. wrote. The phones were meant to replace card readers, which allowed bank staff to access customers' accounts and process payments on TSB's old IT system.

* St. James's Place PLC said Sarah Bates is retiring as chair and a director of the company. Iain Cornish will take over as chair while Roger Yates will become senior independent director.

GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA

* Julius Bär Gruppe AG said its AUM crossed the CHF400 billion mark for the first time and reached CHF401 billion at April-end, a year-to-date increase of CHF13 billion or 3%.

* U.K. asset manager Hermes Investment Management Ltd. has joined smaller investors in Deutsche Bank AG in demanding that the lender remove Chairman Paul Achleitner.

* Separately, Deutsche Bank aims to cushion the negative impact on earnings caused by the integration of subsidiary Deutsche Postbank AG by selling real estate assets, Börsen-Zeitung wrote.

* German prosecutors charged six individuals, including three former London-based investment bankers at UniCredit SpA unit HypoVereinsbank, for their alleged participation in a scheme to gain improper refunds on taxes on dividends, Bloomberg reported.

FRANCE AND BENELUX

* Crédit Agricole SA announced that the French court of Versailles has ruled in its favor in a tax case relating to the deductibility of a €2.3 billion charge contested by the country's tax authorities in 2012, Les Echos and L'Agefi reported. The bank incurred the charge when it sold Greek bank Emporiki in 2012 to Alpha Bank AE for a symbolic €1.

* Lloyd's of London received the go-ahead to open a subsidiary in Belgium, the FT wrote. The Brussels base, which will be headed by Lloyd's chief commercial officer Vincent Vandendael, is expected to start doing business by January 2019.

* The introduction of European payment services directive PSD2 is delayed in the Netherlands, causing financial technology companies to be unable to obtain licenses and allowing banks to not share their customers' data, Het Financieele Dagblad wrote. Fintech companies have complained of an uneven playing field due to the delays.

SPAIN AND PORTUGAL

* The sale of Banco Efisa SA has been once again delayed, Jornal de Negócios said. Three companies are competing for acquisition of the Portuguese bank, for which the submission of binding proposals can be made until June 8.

ITALY AND GREECE

* BPER Banca SpA CEO Alessandro Vandelli told Il Sole 24 Ore that the bank's new industrial plan, to be presented in September, will focus on reducing bad loans and boosting revenue through wealth management, bancassurance and corporate finance. Vandelli said a securitization deal for about €1 billion in bad loans owned by unit Banco di Sardegna SpA is in a "very advanced stage," while progress is also being made on BPER's planned securitization of a €2 billion bad loan portfolio.

* Credito Valtellinese SpA has approved plans to incorporate 98.5%-owned subsidiary Credito Siciliano SpA, MF said.

NORDIC COUNTRIES

* Danske Bank A/S pensions unit Danica is cooperating with pension fund PKA to compete more aggressively against PFA in the Danish market, Børsen wrote.

EASTERN EUROPE

* The European Commission is set to say that Bulgaria does not currently meet all criteria to adopt the euro, Reuters reported. In its assessment set to be formally approved today, the commission will say that the country falls short of the exchange rate stability criterion and that its law on the central bank does not meet the requirements for central bank independence and monetary financing prohibition.

* The Turkish government's push for economic growth could lead to an increase in bad loans and undermine profits at the country's banks, Bloomberg wrote. Analysts said banks are facing growing pressure to keep extending loans amid an increase in government spending, while the weakness in the lira and the central bank's rate increases could eventually erode banks' asset quality.

* Russia's former First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov has been selected to become the new head of state-owned development lender Vnesheconombank, insiders told Reuters. Shuvalov is set to replace Sergei Gorkov.

* PAO Sberbank of Russia CEO Herman Gref said the Russian lender decided to sell Turkish unit DenizBank AS due to EU sanctions, which negatively affected its competitiveness on the Turkish market, Vedomosti reported.

* The Polish prosecutor's office set up a team that will investigate GetBack SA's April announcement saying the debt collector was in talks about getting financing from PKO Bank Polski SA and Polish development fund PFR, Rzeczpospolita reported. Meanwhile, Puls Biznesu reported that the newly appointed supervisory board of GetBack named Przemyslaw Dabrowski president of the management board.

* Slovenia's Bank Assets Management Co. divested its 6.81% stake in Gorenjska banka dd Kranj, SEENews reported.

* A Croatian court ordered Slovenia-based Nova Ljubljanska banka dd to pay €600,000 in compensation for deposits repaid to its Croatian customers by local banks, SEENews reported. NLB does not intend to settle the payment, as the Slovenian government earlier said the lender should not comply with compensation rulings issued by Croatian courts.

* JSC Halyk Savings Bank of Kazakhstan plans to open a subsidiary in Uzbekistan and is in the process of collecting the necessary documents for submission to the Kazakh and Uzbek central banks, Kapital.kz reported, citing the lender's head, Umut Shayakhmetova.

* Hungary's central bank left its base rate unchanged at 0.90%.

IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

Asia-Pacific: China's Anbang to exit securities unit; Mitsui Sumitomo to buy BoCommLife stake

Middle East & Africa: Emirates NBD snaps up DenizBank; Nigeria holds rates; Misr to list 2 units

Latin America: ICBC Peru gets capital hike; Supervielle's Q1 income more than doubles

North America: Wells Fargo to resume auto lending growth; First Midwest to close 19 branches

North America Insurance: US uninsured rate flat; The Hartford in play for Aspen; Icahn gets support

NOW FEATURED ON S&P GLOBAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE

Polish bank PKO on track for double-digit profit growth in 2018: PKO Bank Polski should meet analysts' expectations of double-digit profit growth in 2018 amid strong economic growth and is on track to meet its long-term financial goals, its CEO said.

Nationwide to increase digital spending as fintech rivals strengthen: Britain's top mutual lender reported fiscal-year earnings and is eyeing growing expenditure on technology to ward off competition at a time when its reserve capital ratio is set to halve.

Leo Magno, Ed Meza, Meike Wijers, Gerard O'Dwyer, Beata Fojcik, Heather O'Brian, Stephanie Salti, Praxilla Trabattoni and Mariana Aldano contributed to this report.

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