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ECB hack warning; Jyske earnings; SocGen to take part in cum-ex trial

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ECB hack warning; Jyske earnings; SocGen to take part in cum-ex trial

* U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged European Council President Donald Tusk to remove the Irish backstop plan from the existing Brexit deal and instead include a pledge to introduce "alternative arrangements" in a bid to push negotiations forward and avoid a disorderly departure from the EU. Johnson is also set to meet French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel this week, Reuters reported.

* A director general at the European Central Bank's supervisory division, Korbinian Ibel, said that banks embracing external data storage and other digital technology face a good chance of getting hacked, Bloomberg News reported. The ECB itself was hacked last week, and had to shut down its Banks' Integrated Reporting Dictionary website as a result.

UK AND IRELAND

* U.K.-based investment and financial planning services provider Tilney Group Ltd confirmed media speculation that it was engaged in exclusive discussions with Smith & Williamson Holdings Ltd. to merge, with the merger creating an entity with combined assets under management of more than £45 billion.

* Bank of Ireland Group Plc resolved an issue which had left its credit card customers unable to access their statements and balances, The Irish Times reported. AIB Group PLC had also reported a similar issue, wherein the company's customers complained of not being able to access their credit card account information.

* U.K. unsecured credit provider Non-Standard Finance PLC raised its half year dividend by 17% year over year to 0.7 pence per share.

GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA

* France-based Société Générale SA, along with U.S.-based Bank of New York Mellon Corp. and Germany-based M.M.Warburg & CO Gruppe GmbH and Hansainvest, were ordered to participate as associated parties in Germany's first trial related to the so-called cum-ex trade probe, insiders told Bloomberg News. The scheme allegedly used a dividend-stripping technique to avoid paying taxes, resulting in losses of as much as €447.5 million to the government.

* Germany's government is preparing a stimulus plan to boost the domestic economy and consumer spending and prevent large-scale unemployment in the event of a deep recession. This follows the German central bank's warning that the economy could decline further in the third quarter after falling 0.1% in the second quarter.

* UniCredit Bank AG, or HypoVereinsbank, achieved half-year net profit of €603 million, up from €262 million in the same period of the previous year, mainly owing to the release of provisions for court cases involving Iran deals following a settlement with US authorities, as well as the sale of properties, Börsen-Zeitung reported. HypoVereinsbank is the German subsidiary of Italy's UniCredit SpA.

* Swiss asset manager Bellevue Group AG has signed an agreement with its Luxembourg competitor KBL European Private Bankers SA for the sale of Bank am Bellevue AG for an undisclosed price, Finews reported.

* The United Arab Emirates-based owners of Falcon Private Bank AG will resume the sale process for the Swiss bank in the third quarter, after indecision over what type of sale to pursue halted previous plans. Ongoing probes into the bank related to money laundering investigations linked to Malaysian fund 1MDB have adversely impacted the sale process.

* Pictet & Cie Group SCA appointed Claude Haberer, CEO of Asian wealth management division, the chairman of the business with effect from October. The Swiss group hired Tee Fong-Seng to replace Haberer as the CEO of the Pictet Wealth Management Asia.

FRANCE AND BENELUX

* Dutch sustainable bank ASN Bank NV is operating on a carbon-neutral basis, Het Financieele Dagblad reported. Chairman Arie Koornneef says the bank reached its target ten years ahead of time, and that the next step is "actually removing CO2 from the air."

ITALY AND GREECE

* Italy-based Banca Carige SpA will hold a shareholder meeting on Sept. 20 to approve a planned capital increase, a part of the bank's rescue plan, insiders told Reuters. The ECB gave the go-ahead for the plan last week.

* The board of Banca Popolare di Bari SCpA is meeting three times in the next month as it seeks to implement a capital increase and turnaround measures, Il Sole 24 Ore reported.

NORDIC COUNTRIES

* Jyske Bank A/S' second quarter group net profit attributable to shareholders fell year over year to 459 million Danish kroner from 780 million kroner a year ago.

* Denmark-based Nykredit Realkredit A/S reported a year-over-year rise in second quarter comprehensive income attributable to shareholders to 1.96 billion Danish kroner from 1.56 billion kroner.

* Sweden-based Nordic Capital Fund IX and Sampo Oyj agreed to acquire a 17.47% stake in Oslo-based Norwegian Finans Holding ASA from airline company Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA for about 2.22 billion Norwegian kroner. Norwegian Finans Holding owns digital lender Bank Norwegian AS.

* Denmark's Sydbank A/S is planning cost-cutting measures, and is likely to cut jobs, the bank's CEO Karen Frøsig told Økonomisk Ugebrev. The bank is struggling with negative interest rates and stagnant lending, and analysts have repeatedly lowered expectations of its performance.

EASTERN EUROPE

* Fitch Ratings upgraded the long-term foreign and local-currency issuer default ratings and debt ratings of 21 Russian and Russian-owned financial institutions by one notch, following the upgrade of Russia's ratings earlier in August.

* Turkey's central bank lowered reserve requirements for banks with loan growth of between 10% and 20%, Reuters reported.

* Qiwi PLC, which provides payment services in Russia, said it decided to explore opportunities of a partial or complete sale of its unit RocketBank LLC after its board of directors concluded that Rocketbank's investment profile is not compatible with Qiwi's risk appetite and core business.

* Russia's law enforcement authorities launched an investigation into an alleged withdrawal of assets from Rosgosstrakh Insurance Co. (PJSC) shortly before the 2017 bailout of the insurer's parent Otkritie Financial Corp. Bank, RBC reported. The lawyer of one of Rosgosstrakh's former owners told the newswire that the legality of the transactions scrutinized by the investigators was confirmed by the company's auditors.

IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

Asia-Pacific: China local debt sales; DHFL resolution plan; Westpac customer refunds

Middle East & Africa: Zenith Bank profit up; Fitch downgrades Lesotho; Sanlam expects lower earnings

Latin America: Treasury minister's resignation, sovereign rating cuts jolt Argentina

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Ben Meggeson, Arno Maierbrugger, Meike Wijers, Esben Svendsen, Beata Fojcik, Heather O'Brian, Stephanie Salti, Sophie Davies and Helen Popper contributed to this report.

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