* Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has resigned, opening the way for the formation of a new coalition or fresh elections in Italy. He stepped down after the leader of the right-wing League, Matteo Salvini, called for new elections amid persistent policy differences with Conte and coalition partner the Five Star Movement.
* Facebook's cryptocurrency Libra is being investigated by EU antitrust regulators over concerns that it may create potential competition barriers in the way it uses consumer data and exchanges information, Bloomberg News wrote, citing a questionnaire that was sent out to groups working on the Libra project.
UK AND IRELAND
* U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid may wait until after the Oct. 31 Brexit date before naming a new head of the Bank of England amid uncertainty over the fate of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government, Bloomberg News reported, citing a source familiar with the matter. The source said Javid is flexible on the timeline for the appointment of a successor to BoE Governor Mark Carney and that he has yet to come up with a list of final candidates for the job. Carney is to step down at the end of January 2020.
* U.K.-based Charter Court Financial Services Group PLC raised its interim dividend to 4.3 pence per share in the first half from 2.8 pence per share last year. Meanwhile, OneSavings Bank PLC increased its half-year dividend by 14% year over year to 4.9 pence per share. The two British challenger banks have signed an all-share merger, which is pending certain regulatory approvals.
* Bermuda-based Hamilton Insurance Group has acquired British insurance broker Pembroke Managing Agency Ltd. and its platform at Lloyd's, as well as Ireland-based Ironshore Europe DAC, from U.S.-based insurer Liberty Mutual Holding Co. Inc.
* Edward Bramson, the shareholder activist, is still trying to get Barclays PLC to implement a restructuring, months after he lost his bid to secure a seat on the bank's board, Reuters reported. According to the half-year report of Bramson's Sherborne Investors C, it had advised the bank's board that an overhaul could improve the lender's financial strength and long-term competitive position and increase shareholder value.
* An IT outage caused by a hardware-related issue at U.S.-based payment processor Total System Services Inc. left users at several U.K. banks and building societies unable to make credit card payments and access their account information, the Financial Times reported. Customers at Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, Nationwide Building Society and Tesco Personal Finance PLC were among those affected.
* Swiss lender Credit Suisse Group AG will invest up to £225 million in British digital lending platform Lendable Ltd's new fund, The Lendable Credit Opportunities, Financial News wrote. The fund will initially invest exclusively in Lendable-sourced loans, and offer a 15% annual return.
GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA
* In a first, the German government will issue 30-year bonds with a 0% coupon, media outlets including City AM, the Financial Times and Bloomberg News reported. Catering to investors’ increasing appetite for ultra-safe assets amid the slowdown of the global economy and central banks cutting interest rates, Germany will sell bonds worth €2 billion, due to mature in 2050, today.
* Swiss asset manager Bellevue Group AG agreed to sell wealth management unit Bank am Bellevue AG to Luxembourg-based KBL European Private Bankers SA for an undisclosed amount. Bellevue Group said its plan to expand Bank am Bellevue's wealth management business "has proven to be difficult in the current environment" — leading to its decision to sell the lender.
* SIX Swiss Exchange Ltd. expects its second half results to get a boost from the ban in the country on trading on euro zone platforms, which has forced market participants to turn to the domestic exchange, Reuters wrote. The ban came into effect in July as a result of the standoff between Switzerland and the EU over a stalled partnership treaty.
* An agreed-upon cash injection for Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale, or NordLB, originally scheduled for late August, is unlikely to happen this month, Handelsblatt reported, citing Reuters. The decisive factor is whether and when the EU Commission gives the green light for the bank rescue, after which the state parliaments of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt would have to agree and endorse the new state treaty for the capitalization.
* Commerzbank AG is considering the closure of more than a hundred branches in its around 1,000-branch network in Germany as part of its cost cutting strategy, Handelsblatt wrote.
FRANCE AND BENELUX
* Rabobank has decided to refuse professional football clubs as new clients due to potential money laundering risks, NRC Handelsblad reported. Professional football clubs in Belgium are also facing a heightened level of bank scrutiny as the banks include Dutch recommendations in their customer selection process, according to L'Echo.
SPAIN AND PORTUGAL
* The Provincial Court of Madrid has found the private banking subsidiary of Banco Popular Español SA and Bankinter SA guilty of selling structured bonds without providing the client with appropriate information, wrote Europa Press. It handed down two sentences that oblige the banks to compensate the plaintiffs for a joint amount of almost €470,000. Popular is now part of Banco Santander SA.
ITALY AND GREECE
* UniCredit SpA has put up for sale a portfolio of €1 billion in unlikely-to-pay loans, and should close the sale of a €750 million guaranteed nonperforming loan portfolio in September, as it seeks to clean up its balance sheet ahead of the presentation of a new industrial plan on Dec. 3, MF reported.
NORDIC COUNTRIES
* In a bid to boost pan-organization transparency, Denmark's Danske Bank A/S has decided to do away with thousands of job titles, cutting them to around 400 from approximately 3,600 currently, Bloomberg News reported, citing Finansforbundet, the finance industry’s labor union.
* Meanwhile management of Danish financial regulator Finanstilsynet wants to report Danske Bank to the police for violating rules on investor protection, Finans reported. The move needs to be approved by the regulator's board. The background is a case in which Danske Bank failed to inform its customers that they would get a negative return on investments.
* Several Danish banks are mulling the introduction of negative interest rates on large deposits from private customers, after Jyske Bank A/S said it would do so, Berlingske Business reported. Ringkjøbing Landbobank A/S said it is planning the same, and several other banks are considering it, due to continued low interest rates in the Danish market.
* Finland-based OP Financial Group is planning further cost-cutting measures, and as many as 250 full-time positions could be cut, Hufvudstadsbladet reported.
* Danish fintech Lunar Way has been given a banking license by financial regulator Finanstilsynet, Børsen reported. The company has also raised 195 million Danish kroner from investors. Lunar Way has developed an online banking app, which offers banking services in cooperation with Nykredit Bank.
EASTERN EUROPE
* Russia's state development bank VEB.RF will get a 173 billion Russian ruble capital boost from transactions accompanying the upcoming transfer of its unit Interregional Bank for Settlements of the Telecommunications & Postal Services, or Sviaz-Bank, to PAO Promsvyazbank, also controlled by the Russian state, Interfax reported. VEB will use the funds to set aside provisions on an old loan associated with the former owner of Globex Bank, which VEB took after the 2008 global financial crisis and merged with Sviaz-Bank in 2018.
* A Russian arbitration court invalidated 22.6 billion Russian rubles worth of transactions carried out by Russian businessman Boris Mints' O1 Group Limited, Public Joint Stock Co. Financial Group FUTURE and National Bank Trust PJSC shortly before Trust's 2017 bailout by the Russian central bank, Vedomosti reported. The court also asked O1 Group and Future to return the full amount to Trust.
* TCS Group Holding PLC, which includes Russia-based JSC Tinkoff Bank, said it expects its 2019 net loan growth to be significantly higher than the 60% level anticipated in its previous forecast.
* The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has fined Russia-based ICO Rating almost $269,000 for not disclosing the payments it received between December 2017 and July 2018 for publicizing the digital asset offerings of issuers it rated, Reuters wrote.
IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD
Middle East & Africa: Banque du Caire to sell stake by 2020; Ghana's finance sector cleanup continues
Latin America: Chile's economy grows 0.8% in Q2; new chairman at Banco do Nordeste
North America: Texas bank eyes in-state peer buy; CECL may impact bank M&A pricing
Global Insurance: Root's valuation; BA cyber policy; Guy Carpenter wins key role
NOW FEATURED ON S&P GLOBAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE
Finance leaders back claims in leaked government report on Brexit disruption: With Brexit scheduled for Oct. 31, the leaked Operation Yellowhammer document warns of cross-border financial services troubles in the event of a "no deal" Brexit and the finance industry has called for better guidance from the government.
Spanish, US banks most exposed to crisis-stricken Argentina: Spanish lenders show the highest exposure to Argentina, followed by U.S. banks. However, the exposure has decreased since last year, data from the Bank for International Settlements shows.
Ben Meggeson, Arno Maierbrugger, Meike Wijers, Esben Svendsen, Beata Fojcik, Heather O'Brian, Stephanie Salti, Sophie Davies and Helen Popper contributed to this report.
The Daily Dose has an editorial deadline of 7 a.m. London time. Some external links may require a subscription. Links are current as of publication time, and we are not responsible if those links are unavailable later.
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.
