* The U.K. House of Commons yesterday voted in favor of postponing the March 29 Brexit date, avoiding, for now, the risk of crashing out of the EU without a deal. Lawmakers voted 412-202 backing a government motion to delay the departure from the bloc until June 30, as long as a Brexit deal could be passed by March 20.
* However, a spokesman for the European Commission said any extension would require the unanimous approval of all 27 member states in the bloc, Reuters reported. Senior EU officials and other European leaders are understood to have informed May that she must hold a second referendum or soften her Brexit demands to delay the deadline, according to The Times.
* Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission barred UBS Group AG from sponsoring IPOs in the city for one year, as well as reprimanded and fined it and three other investments banks, including Standard Chartered PLC 's local unit, for failing their duties as sponsors in three new listings as far back as 10 years ago.
* The German Banking Industry Committee, which represents Germany's banking-sector associations, is calling for a revision of MiFID II rules on securities transactions that have been in place since the beginning of 2018, Handelsblatt reported. The committee argued that the regulations are a "nuisance" to customers and a "nightmare" for credit institutions and advisers, backing its position with a survey conducted among customers and banks.
* Catastrophe risk modeler AIR Worldwide pegged insured losses due to wind from a recent winter storm in Europe in the range of €900 million to €1.5 billion, with Germany bearing the brunt.
UK AND IRELAND
* A long-delayed independent investigation into whether executives at Lloyds Banking Group PLC
* The U.K. Treasury postponed the appointment of Jayne-Anne Gadhia as an external member of the Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee to April 2020 rather than next month, to avoid conflicts of interest. Gadhia is the former CEO of Virgin Money Holdings (UK) PLC.
* The British Competition and Markets Authority is discussing taking possible action against a group of high-street banks in the U.K. after missing an important deadline for the rollout of the government's open banking framework, the Financial News wrote.
* Barclays PLC
* U.K. life insurer Just Group PLC
GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA
* UBS said it increased its total provisions for ongoing litigations to €450 million. In February, the Swiss lender was fined a total of €4.5 billion by a French court, which ruled that UBS aided and abetted tax fraud for its wealthy clients in France.
* Deutsche Bank AG
* Swiss Re AG's board of directors will ask shareholders to approve up to CHF2.0 billion in share repurchases, which would be about double the size of the reinsurer's recently completed share buyback program.
* Swiss private banking group Julius Bär Gruppe AG
* Allianz Group
FRANCE AND BENELUX
* VIVAT NV
* Dutch car leasing firm LeasePlan is reviewing ways to sell its second-hand car unit CarNext, according to Het Financieele Dagblad.
* BNP Paribas Asset Management, the fund management arm of French banking giant BNP Paribas SA, will stop investing in companies that make more than 10% of their revenues from coal mining.
* Belgian state-owned Belfius Banque SA
SPAIN AND PORTUGAL
* Former Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA
* Unicaja Banco SA
ITALY AND GREECE
* Generali
* Unione di Banche Italiane SpA's new board is expected to see the confirmation of Victor Massiah as CEO and Letizia Moratti as chairwoman, according to Il Sole 24 Ore.
* Igea Banca SpA's board approved its binding offer for Banca del Fucino SpA, MF noted. A deal has also been agreed with state-controlled bad loan manager SGA Società per la Gestione di Attività - SGA SpA
* Attica Bank SA
EASTERN EUROPE
* VTB Bank PJSC
* Leading Russian banks, including PAO Sberbank of Russia, VTB and AO Gazprombank, are exploring ways in which they could help each other with keeping at least short-term access to the global financial system in case of new U.S. sanctions, Reuters reported.
* Gazprombank divested its indirect stake in Petrozamora, a joint venture set up with Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA in 2012 to develop Venezuelan oil fields, Reuters noted.
* VTB launched a tender offer to purchase the remaining shares of Vozrozhdenie Bank
* The Russian central bank declared an auction for the sale of an almost 100% stake in PJSC Asian-Pacific Bank
* Azerbaijan-based AccessBank CJSC
* Bank BGŻ BNP Paribas SA
* The Albanian central bank granted preliminary approval for OTP Bank Nyrt.
* Ukraine-based JSC International Investment Bank
IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD
Asia-Pacific: Hong Kong fines 4 global banks; UBS Australia faces probe over A$1.2B loan
Middle East & Africa: Dubai payments firm tables London IPO; Standard Bank to cut 1,200 jobs
Latin America: Davivienda Q4'18 profit up 4%; BCRA rate hike to hurt banks, Moody's says
North America: Wells Fargo CEO gets 5% pay raise; Dems drop CRA mandate for CUs in housing bill
Global Insurance: Liberty Mutual sale; short-term health plans probed; US grounds 737 MAX
NOW FEATURED ON S&P GLOBAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE
Generali wants to bolster position in Europe with bolt-on M&A, says CEO: The Italian insurer's general manager, Frédéric de Courtois, said the company would remain "extremely disciplined" about what it buys.
French investment banks hit hardest in year-end 2018 market turmoil: France-based BNP Paribas, SocGen, Natixis saw the sharpest drops in trading revenues during the capital markets turmoil at the end of 2018 and were also among the worst performing global investment banks on a full-year basis.
Favorable prospects justify investor support, Just Group CEO says as shares drop: Rodney Cook told analysts that the life insurer is taking steps to become capital self-sufficient by 2022, including hedges for no negative equity guarantees in equity release mortgages. Just's shares fell over 12% as it sought fresh debt and equity.
Deza Mones, Ed Meza, Danielle Rossingh, Gerard O'Dwyer, Beata Fojcik, Heather O'Brian, Stephanie Salti, PraxillaTrabattoni and Mariana Aldano 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.