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Metro Bank execs probed; HSBC French unit under review; Lloyd's H1 profit up

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Metro Bank execs probed; HSBC French unit under review; Lloyd's H1 profit up

* Facebook Inc. has reiterated that Libra will not jeopardize central banks' control over money creation, Bloomberg News reported. David Marcus, the executive leading the social media giant's cryptocurrency project, said the mere existence of Libra does not create new value. Meanwhile, Germany's finance minister, Olaf Scholz, said yesterday that policymakers cannot accept the emergence of parallel currencies like Libra and that Berlin would reject any such plans, Reuters wrote.

* The European Parliament voted to approve Christine Lagarde's candidacy as president of the ECB, which is headed by Mario Draghi. Subject to the European Council's approval due next month, she would take the helm at the ECB on Nov. 1, amid global trade volatility and Brexit uncertainty.

* The Association for Financial Markets in Europe named Adam Farkas, the executive director of the European Banking Authority, to be its new CEO. The appointment drew sharp criticism from advocacy groups and lawmakers; however, the EBA imposed limits on what undertakings Farkas can get involved with in his new role, including a 24-month ban from directly lobbying the banking regulator, Bloomberg noted.

UK AND IRELAND

* U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker agreed to ramp up negotiations on a Brexit deal after failing to make a breakthrough at a Sept. 16 meeting, with the EU saying that it was still awaiting detailed proposals from Britain regarding the Irish backstop.

* Bank of England Governor Mark Carney could be asked to stay in his role beyond January 2020 if the U.K. is unable to leave the EU as scheduled by the end of next month, sources told the Financial Times.

* The U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority is investigating certain senior executives at Metro Bank PLC over their possible involvement in the misreporting scandal that triggered an emergency share issue and caused the British lender's share price to plunge by more than 80%, the Financial Times wrote.

* HSBC Holdings PLC has started a "strategic review" of HSBC France SA, Reuters reported, citing six French unions. The bank is weighing a potential sale of a chunk of the business or the entire unit. L'Agefi also covered this.

* Lloyd's of London's pretax profit in the first half hit £2.3 billion, up year over year from £600 million, on the back of its investment income for the period rising to £2.3 billion from the year-ago £200 million. The insurance market also named David Sansom chief risk officer, subject to regulatory approval. CEO John Neal said the findings of its marketwide culture survey and the actions it will take will be announced Sept. 24. Lloyd's has been under fire for alleged workplace misconduct amid claims of alcohol abuse and sexual harassment by employees.

GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA

* Deutsche Bank AG CEO Christian Sewing, who took over responsibility of the lender's investment banking unit following the departure of Garth Ritchie, is considering appointing a new head of the division to fully focus on his role, sources told Bloomberg.

* Deutsche Bank has repurchased its own subordinated bonds for hundreds of million euros between 2014 and 2017 without the necessary approval of the supervisory authority, Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote. As a result, the ECB wants to take action against the lender which could face a substantial penalty equal to twice the profits or savings from the purchases.

FRANCE AND BENELUX

* Banks and insurance companies will invest €5 billion over three years in promising French startups as part of a plan led by the French government, L'Agefi wrote. Natixis, Aviva PLC, Allianz Group, AXA SA and Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale will take part in the initiative.

SPAIN AND PORTUGAL

* Spain appears set to hold its fourth general election in four years after acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's Socialist Party failed to strike a deal with other political parties on forming a government following an inconclusive election in April, El País reported. BBC News and the Financial Times also covered this.

* CaixaBank SA issued a five-year, €1 billion "social" bond with the aim of facilitating the financing of activities that contribute to economic and social development in Spain, according to Expansión. It is the bank's first issuance of this type of bond, as well as the first issuance among Spanish banks.

* Nearly 2,000 employees have already signed up to the latest redundancy round executed by Banco Santander SA, Europa Press wrote, citing trade union data. A total of 1,236 staff still need to take redundancy to achieve the 3,223 layoffs planned by the bank.

* Tougher new rules aimed at cracking down on the misselling of policies by insurance brokers in Portugal came into the force at the start of this year but regulators have admitted that they will not be met until the first quarter of 2020, Jornal de Negócios wrote.

* Fitch Ratings said a €225 million fine imposed on 14 Portuguese banks by the country's competition watchdog last week could hurt the results of some of the lenders but will not affect their capital ratios or credit ratings, Jornal Económico noted. Some of the banks, including state-run Caixa Geral de Depósitos SA, Millennium BCP and Banco Santander Totta SA, have vowed to appeal.

ITALY AND GREECE

* Delfin, the financial holding of Leonardo Del Vecchio, bought a 6.94% stake in Mediobanca - Banca di Credito Finanziario SpA and could increase the stake further, subject to authorization from the Bank of Italy, all dailies including MF reported. Delfin also holds a 4.86% stake in Generali, whose biggest shareholder is Mediobanca. Reuters also covered this.

* A group of 100 investors in Banca Carige SpA that are against the capital strengthening plan organized by the interbank deposit protection fund FITD will file a petition at the Sept. 20 shareholders' meeting with market watchdog Consob, citing a lack of transparency over the objectives of the capital hike and its consequences on the shareholder structure of the lender, Il Sole 24 Ore reported. Reuters also covered this.

* Meanwhile, the FITD is assessing a plan B in case the Malacalaza family, the reference shareholder of Banca Carige, fails to approve the capital strengthening plan, Corriere della Sera wrote.

* Illimity signed an insurance partnership with AON and Helvetia while it also financed for €110 million the purchase by Cerberus of a €110 million unlikely-to-pay loan portfolio from Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, MF wrote.

* Malta-based insurer DARAG Group Ltd. appointed Andrew Hill COO, The Insurance Insider reported. Hill most recently led the restructuring team in North America at Zurich Insurance Group AG's Zurich Legacy Solutions.

NORDIC COUNTRIES

* Swedish lender Svenska Handelsbanken AB (publ) named Martin Noréus chief compliance officer, effective March 2020. Noréus is the deputy director general of the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority.

* The board of Denmark-based Sydbank A/S has elected Lars Mikkelgaard-Jensen to be its new chairman.

* Kobstaedernes Forsikring Gensidig is planning to enter Denmark's difficult accident and sickness insurance segment, an area in which larger insurance providers are struggling to generate healthy margins and profits, according to FinansWatch.

EASTERN EUROPE

* Turkey's banking regulator has instructed banks to write off loans worth 46 billion lira by the end of the year and also to set aside loss reserves, Reuters wrote. The move marks one of the most aggressive steps the country has taken to manage the currency crisis it faced last year.

* Promsvyaz Capital, owned by PAO Promsvyazbank's former co-owner Dmitry Ananiev, appealed a legal settlement between the bank and non-state pension funds NPF Budushchee and Safmar regarding 16.5 billion Russian ruble transactions carried out shortly before Promsvyazbank was bailed out by the Russian central bank, Vedomosti and news agency TASS reported. A court hearing on the matter will be held Nov. 14.

* Croatia's Supreme Court refused to review a case in which the Croatian Consumer Protection Association sued eight local banks, ruling that the lenders had breached the interests and rights of holders of loans pegged to the Swiss franc, N1 said on its website. A local association representing loan holders said the verdict opens the way for around 125,000 holders of Swiss franc-pegged loans to launch individual lawsuits against banks in courts.

* The Polish Financial Supervision Authority proposed to increase the other systemically important institution buffer held by Santander Bank Polska SA to 0.75% from 0.50% of the total risk exposure, news agency PAP reported.

* Polish financially troubled lender Idea Bank SA needs a roughly 500 million Polish zloty capital boost in order to meet regulatory capital requirements, news agency PAP reported, citing the lender's head, Jerzy Pruski. The executive added that restructuring measures recently launched by the bank will help it reduce operating costs by around 100 million zlotys per year.

* The Ukrainian Finance Ministry said it was not engaged in negotiations with JSC CB Privatbank's former owner Ihor Kolomoisky. The comments came after the Financial Times cited Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk as saying that the country's president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, wanted to reach a settlement with Kolomoisky over the 2016 nationalization of Privatbank.

IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

Asia-Pacific: ADB confirms president resignation; investors eye new Chinese bank

Middle East & Africa: Israel's tight election; Moody's expects Islamic finance in Africa to grow

Latin America: Correction: SoftBank ups Banco Inter stake; Galicia creating new finance firm

North America: Tennessee banks in deal; CFTC approves Volcker 2.0; SEC fines 2 broker/dealers

Global Insurance: JLT exec departures; CopperPoint deal; Humberto could become major hurricane

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Crime prevention is a key driver for digitization in trade finance: Banks want to go digital in trade finance because technology offers opportunities to stop financial crime, in addition to achieving greater efficiency, said Daniel Schmand, chair of the International Chamber of Commerce's banking commission.

Deza Mones, Arno Maierbrugger, Meike Wijers, 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. Descriptions in this news article were not prepared by S&P Global Ratings.