S&P Global Market Intelligence offers our toppicks of banking news stories and more published throughout the week.
Earnings, earnings
*Lloyds Banking GroupPlc's unaudited first-quarter statutory profit attributable toequity holders dropped to £506 million from £913 million a year ago asthe bank reiteratedits 2016 guidance of a net interest margin around 2.70%.
*Royal Bank of Scotland GroupPlc saw its first-quarter loss attributable to ordinary shareholders widen yearover year to £968 million from a restated £459 million.
*Barclays Plc'sfirst-quarter group attributable profit dropped on a yearly basis to £433 million from £465million. CEO Jes Staley is looking to "adjust bonuses" due toweak returns ininvestment banking.
*Deutsche Bank AG'sfirst-quarter profit attributable to shareholders and additional equitycomponents declinedyear over year to €214 million from €544 million. The bank's risk-weightedassets rose and Tier 1 capital fell, resulting in a in its common equity Tier 1 andleverage ratios quarter over quarter.
*London Stock Exchange GroupPlc's first-quarter total income rose on a yearly basis to £613.8 million from £603.0million, while Deutsche BörseAG's first-quarter net profit attributable to its shareholdersdropped to €205.4million from €222.3 million in the year-ago period.
* StandardChartered Plc's first-quarter pretax statutory profit wasdown year over yearto $589 million from $1.44 billion. The drop in the bank's revenues was a majorconcern for analysts.
*Banco Santander SA'sfirst-quarter profit attributable to the group year over year to €1.63 billionfrom €1.72 billion, mainly due to the negative impact of exchange rates.
* Spain's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA, and all recorded year-over-year in their first-quarterearnings, whileBanco Popular EspañolSA's first-quarter profit saw a year-over-year .
*Swedbank AB (publ),DNB ASA and released their quarterly earnings, along with Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB and .
On the deal table
*RBS' planned disposalof Williams & Glyn's network will likely take more time and have a greateroverall financial impact onRBS than previously estimated.
*Barclays is in exclusive talks to sell various businesses to andagreed to sell the Barclaycard consumer payments in Portugal and Spain toBancopopular-e SAU.Meanwhile, Atlas MaraLtd. held discussions with a consortium of investors for apotential acquisitionof Barclays' 62.3% stake in Barclays Africa Group Ltd.
*CaixaBank and Angolan businesswoman Isabel dos Santos negotiations regarding the saleof the latter's stake in BancoBPI SA, which saw its first-quarter earnings on a yearly basis.
*Spain's FROB bank restructuring fund and the European Commission are discussing apotential merger between Bankia and Banco Mare Nostrum SA.
Legal claims
*Claims against RBS from former clients of the bank's Global Restructuring Groupcould exceed £1billion. The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority is reportedly set to publish areport on the Global Restructuring Group within weeks.
*German prosecutors filed an appeal against a ruling that Deutsche Bank co-CEO JürgenFitschen and four other former bank officials of charges of deceiving judges inlegal proceedings related to the collapse of Leo Kirch's media empire.
* ALisbon court reportedly ordered Banco de Portugal to provisionally halt thetransfer of a series of bonds from Novo Banco SA to Banco Espírito Santo SA. This followed a request frombondholder Merrill Lynch to suspend the bond transfer.
In other news
* The price range of GE Money Bank a.s.' IPO was at between 68.0 Czech koruny pershare and 85.0 koruny per share, with the midpoint implying a marketcapitalization of around 39.1 billion koruny. The final pricing is expected onor around May 5, while the bank's new namewill be introduced May 1.
* JSC TBCBank's plans of a premium listing on the London Stock Exchangeare expected to complete in third quarter.
Featured during the week on S&PGlobal Market Intelligence
Nordea is expanding its compliance departmentat considerable cost, as an investigation seeks to reveal whether the bankbreached any laws in using offshore structures for clients.
The ECB is unlikely to back away from encouraging banks tosell Additional Tier 1 CoCos, analysts said, reacting to a report of growingdoubts at the supervisor about the bonds.
The next few days could prove critical forItaly's banks as Popolare di Vicenza undertakes a capital raise.