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Deutsche Bank posts bigger FY'17 loss; UK banks to face tougher stress tests

* The Financial Stability Board will pivot away from making new regulations and will instead focus on evaluating whether existing reforms are operating as intended, according to FSB Chairman Mark Carney. In a letter to G-20 central bankers and finance ministers, Carney said the planned evaluations will include assessing the effects of the reforms aimed at ending "too-big-to-fail" banks by 2020.

* In its initial assessment, the FSB has concluded that crypto-assets do not pose risks to global financial stability at present in part because they are "small relative to the financial system," Carney said.

* Giovanni Sabatini, director general of Italian banking association ABI, said the ECB's guidelines on dealing with nonperforming loans does not impose legal obligation on banks, Reuters wrote.

UK AND IRELAND

* The Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee said the U.K. stress test scenario will be the same as that used in 2017, but stressed that banks will need to pass tougher capital hurdles, primarily due to the new IFRS 9 accounting standards.

* Thousands of Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc investors have yet to receive compensation almost a year after their £200 million lawsuit over the lender's ill-fated crisis-era rights issue was settled, the Financial Times reported.

* Meanwhile, the East India Club is preparing legal action against RBS over the bank's alleged failure to flag illegal transactions that allowed a former club treasurer to steal more than £560,000, The Times wrote.

* RBS accepted a special resolution by shareholders pushing for the creation of a shareholder committee, which will allow investors to have a say on executive pay and other controversial matters, the Financial Times reported.

* David Thorburn, a member of the BoE's Prudential Regulation Committee, is departing to become nonexecutive director and chair of the board risk committee at Barclays Plc's Barclays Bank UK, the U.K. lender's ring-fenced unit.

* Sherborne-controlled entities have acquired voting rights over 5.16% of Barclays' issued share capital.

* Standard Chartered Plc placed its head of compliance, Neil Barry, on leave. An insider told the Financial Times that the British lender's move was due to a pending investigation into Barry over an unspecified "internal matter."

* Aviva Plc's shareholders opposed CEO Mark Wilson's appointment to BlackRock Inc.'s board, citing potential conflict of interest and the time commitment Wilson will have to make for Blackrock as part of his role, the Financial Times reported.

* Allied Irish Banks Plc hired banks to arrange meetings with potential investors as it prepares to issue so-called "bail-inable" bonds, The Irish Times wrote.

* AA Plc is seeking to claw back roughly 33 million shares from former Chairman Bob Mackenzie, who was ousted in July 2017 after he had a physical altercation with a senior colleague, Sky News reported. The shares could be worth up to £220 million.

GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA

* Deutsche Bank AG's annual 2017 report revealed that the bank’s bonus pool for 2017 more than quadrupled to €2.2 billion and that posttax loss for the full year of €735 million was 48% higher than reported in early February.

* Talanx AG reported full-year 2017 group net income attributable to shareholders of €672 million, down from the adjusted €903 million in the year-ago period.

FRANCE AND BENELUX

* Société Générale SA has entered into a phase of more active discussions with the U.S. Department of Justice and Commodity Futures Trading Commission regarding their investigations into interbank offered rate submissions and transactions involving Libyan counterparties, with a view to reach a resolution of the probes within the coming weeks.

* Dexia SA unit Dexia Crédit Local SA agreed to sell its 58.9% stake in Dexia Israel Bank Ltd. to a series of qualified investors in an off-market transaction at a price of 674 Israeli shekels per share, amounting to a total consideration of around €82 million.

* Michael Anseeuw, CEO of BNP Paribas Fortis SA, said the bank could potentially reduce its number of offices to about 150 to 250 by 2025 due to digitalization, De Tijd reported. This is compared to 748 at the start of 2018, L'Echo noted.

* KBC Group NV's Bulgarian unit has completed the acquisition of MetLife Inc.'s remaining 40% stake in Ubb-Metlife Zhivotozastrahovatelno Drujestvo AD.

SPAIN AND PORTUGAL

* Spanish bank restructuring fund FROB is considering selling larger stakes in Bankia SA to complete the lender's privatization before the December 2019 deadline, Europa Press wrote. The next divestment could be opened in May.

* Ibercaja Banco SA has unveiled a new three-year strategic plan that includes going public in 2020, Expansión wrote.

* Portugal's Caixa Económica Montepio Geral caixa económica bancária SA has appointed Carlos Tavares CEO, replacing José Félix Morgado, the official Lusa news agency reported. Tavares was previously an adviser at Caixa Geral de Depósitos SA.

* Portugal's Aprose insurance brokers' association wants banks to be banned from selling insurance products as part of legislation due to come into force later this year, Lusa news agency reported.

ITALY AND GREECE

* Another wave of consolidation in the Italian banking sector is set to begin in the next couple of years with a drastic reduction in the number of lenders, Affari & Finanza wrote.

* Generali wants to accelerate its strategy in the asset management sector with the launch of multi-boutique model and has no intention of reconsidering its holding of Italian government bonds as it sees no reason for concern in Italy, CEO Philippe Donnet told Class-CNBC in an interview published in full by Milano Finanza.

* The Benetton family is considering increasing its stake in Generali to 5% from 2%, making it the second-largest shareholder of the Italian insurer, Il Sole 24 Ore reported.

* Italian asset manager Anima Holding SpA appointed Livio Raimondi to its board, replacing Chairman Claudio Bombonato, who resigned from the group for personal reasons.

NORDIC COUNTRIES

* NDX Intressenter, which comprises Finnish insurer Sampo Oyj and Nordic Capital Fund VIII LP, said it has received the necessary government authorizations to acquire Swedish bank Nordax Group AB (publ), Realtid reported.

* Failed Swedish pension company Allra is planning to sue the Swedish Pensions Agency for 1.9 billion Swedish kronor, Dagens Industri reported.

EASTERN EUROPE

* Vladimir Putin was elected for another six years as Russia's president after receiving more than 76% of the vote in yesterday's election, the BBC News reported. Putin's closest threat, Communist Party candidate Pavel Grudinin, gained roughly 12% of the vote.

* Russian insurance company OAO Reso Garantia plans to carry out an IPO in April and selected organizers for the offering, Reuters reported. French insurer Axa, which owns a 36.7% stake in Reso Garantia, plans to sell some of the shares during the planned IPO, according to Vedomosti.

* The Russian central bank could spend 1.1 trillion Russian rubles on the recapitalization of National Bank Trust PJSC and JSC Rost Bank, insiders told Reuters.

* Ukraine's central bank plans to conduct stress tests for 25 local lenders in 2018, Delo.ua said. The regulator, meanwhile, extended sanctions on the local units of Russian state lenders PAO Sberbank of Russia, JSC VTB Bank and Vnesheconombank, Vedomosti said.

* JSC DOM.RF Russia Housing & Urban Development Corp. plans to put up for sale a portfolio of corporate loans issued by unit Bank Rossiysky Capital (PJSC), Kommersant reported. The sale of the portfolio, whose estimated value amounts to around 140 billion Russian rubles, will be carried out within three to four months.

* Nova Ljubljanska banka d.d. launched a search for investors to acquire a portfolio of Serbian nonperforming loans and a Serbian company servicing the loans. The assets include well-diversified nonperforming exposures of around €115 million gross claim value and a smaller portfolio of real estate assets.

* The Serbian central bank decided to postpone the deadline for the implementation of the EU Solvency II Directive to 2021 from the end of 2018, SEENews said.

IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

Asia-Pacific: China to name central bank governor; HSBC boosting Singapore ops

Middle East & Africa: Dexia sells Israeli unit stake; Moody's cuts Oman; Mauritian president resigns

NOW FEATURED ON S&P GLOBAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE

SocGen exec's departure may draw line under legal issues, but questions remain: The unexpected departure of the French lender's Deputy CEO Didier Valet may lead to the conclusion of a U.S. lawsuit, but it also raises questions over how Société Générale plans to settle its ongoing lawsuits, according to analysts.

UK peer-to-peer lending 'an accident waiting to happen': ex-consumer advocate: The sector could prove dangerous if the regulator does not fully understand risks involved, warned John Howard, who is a former chairman of the consumer panel at the Financial Services Authority, predecessor of the Financial Conduct Authority.

Sheryl Obejera, Arno Maierbrugger, Danielle Rossingh, Esben Svendsen, Beata Fojcik, Yael Schrage, Brian McCulloch, Sophie Davies and Helen Popper contributed to this report.

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