The Daily Dose LIVE returns to the City of London on Tuesday, Oct. 1. Join us for a timely panel discussion on the vulnerabilities facing the banking sector and other parts of corporate Europe in a period of deep political, policy and economic uncertainty. Register today to secure your place at this popular breakfast event.
* Klaas Knot, a member of the ECB's Governing Council, told Bloomberg News that the current weakness in the eurozone economy and the inflation outlook may not yet warrant a restart of the regulator's asset purchase program. Meanwhile, incoming ECB President Christine Lagarde said the central bank should "keep all policy tools on the table," calling the asset purchase program an "effective" instrument, and adding that the ECB has the room to cut rates further.
* BNP Paribas SA
UK AND IRELAND
* British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has instructed his chief Brexit negotiator, David Frost, to hold biweekly meetings with EU officials in September to work out a revised exit agreement with the bloc ahead of the Oct. 31 deadline, according to several media reports. Meanwhile, Conservative British lawmakers are preparing for a final meeting with Johnson next week to prevent him from taking the U.K. out of the EU without a Brexit deal, the Financial Times reported.
* Barclays PLC
* Amigo Holdings PLC's shares fell yesterday after the British guarantor loan provider warned that it expects to take higher provisions than previously expected amid what CEO Hamish Paton described as a "changing regulatory and economic landscape."
* Embattled British litigation finance firm Burford Capital Ltd.
GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA
* UBS Group AG CEO Sergio Ermotti told Neue Zürcher Zeitung in an interview that he sees "three good internal candidates" for his succession which he plans for 2022. Tages-Anzeiger wrote that those three are most likely Iqbal Khan, who will take over as co-head of UBS' wealth management division in October; COO Sabine Keller-Busse, who will take on additional responsibilities at UBS EMEA; and Suni Harford, who was promoted to president of UBS' asset management arm.
* Germany's central bank is open to a scenario of negative interest rates for mortgages and would not intervene against them, Stuttgarter Zeitung wrote.
* Law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, former adviser of bankrupt Maple Bank GmbH which was involved in fraudulent cum-ex dividend deals, will pay €50 million to compensate creditors of the bank, Handelsblatt wrote. Overall, insolvency administrator Michael Frege reached an agreement with the German tax authorities for the tax violations of the bank and will transfer about €140 million in compensation.
* German shipping lender Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale
* Hamburg Commercial Bank AG, formerly known as HSH Nordbank AG, reported first half group net result attributable to shareholders of €5 million, compared to a loss of €71 million in the same period in 2018, with the "very high" tax expense of €90 million as a result of the planned reversal of deferred tax assets.
* Germany-based DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale's first-half economic result rose to €223.1 million from €222.6 million in the same period in 2018.
* DZ BANK AG reported first half net profit of €1.03 billion under IFRS, up 41.5% from €731 million a year earlier. In his outlook for the second half of the year, co-CEO Cornelius Riese said the bank is aiming at achieving profit before tax in the middle to upper area of its €1.5 billion to €2 billion range target.
* Talanx AG will no longer invest in government bonds with negative yields, the insurer's CFO, Immo Querner, told boerse-online.de. The statement follows a similar announcement by Allianz Group.
* Switzerland's Helvetia Holding AG booked net income after tax of CHF289.7 million in the first half, up from CHF223.9 million a year ago.
* Zurich Insurance Group AG
* UniCredit Bank Austria AG brought to court the firms that comprise the 3 Banken Group — Bank für Tirol und Vorarlberg AG, BKS Bank AG and Oberbank AG — alleging that their capital increases in recent decades have not really taken place and that the interdependent banks have financed themselves with the money just circulating, Die Presse wrote.
FRANCE AND BENELUX
* Dutch lender ING Groep NV agreed to pay the salaries of all freelancers caught up in the demise of its payroll provider, TCP Solutions, Het Financieele Dagblad wrote. The freelance workers are reportedly owed around €10 million in total in back pay over the month of June. Separately, the group is set to cut another 35 jobs from its markets division in Amsterdam, in addition to the planned 200 redundancies in Brussels by 2021, according to L'Echo.
SPAIN AND PORTUGAL
* Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA
ITALY AND GREECE
* National Bank of Greece SA
NORDIC COUNTRIES
* Jens Henriksson, the newly appointed CEO of Swedbank AB (publ), said he will aim to make the Swedish lender more transparent amid money laundering allegations against it but will not compromise on the privacy of its clients, Bloomberg wrote.
* The Swedish government wants to give financial regulator Finansinspektionen more tools to act against foreign banks that do not comply with money laundering regulations, Realtid reported. The government said it has outlined several new measures in a new draft law, which is under consultation.
* None of Denmark's six largest banks have reached their diversity goals when it comes to gender balance among managers, according to Børsen. While some banks are getting close to the recommended target for gender distribution of between 40% to 60%, this generally applies to the lowest level of managerial positions.
EASTERN EUROPE
* The Czech central bank maintained the countercyclical capital buffer for local banks' capital reserves at 2.00%, effective July 1, 2020.
* Russia's central bank extended its review of Public Stock Co. Orient Express Bank until Sept. 30, Vedomosti wrote.
IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD
Asia-Pacific: SBI unit seeks 80B rupees in IPO; Singapore opens digital bank applications
Middle East & Africa: Equity Group considers fintech unit's fate; 2 Nigerian banks to merge
Latin America: Argentina seeks debt extensions; Mexico central bank cuts growth forecast
North America: Moody's cuts i-banks' 2019 outlook; Kentucky banks in deal
Global Insurance: Dorian could threaten Florida; reinsurance discipline; silent cyber exposure
NOW FEATURED ON S&P GLOBAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE
British mortgage lenders well placed to cope even in Brexit 'doomsday' scenario: Most banks and building societies with significant mortgage books are well capitalized, even overcapitalized in some cases, which will give them a buffer in the event of an adverse scenario, according to analysts.
Deza Mones, Arno Maierbrugger, Meike Wijers, Esben Svendsen, Roman Savinov, Heather O'Brian, Brian McCulloch, Praxilla Trabattoni and Mariana Aldano 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.
