Citi mandates vaccination; South Korea bank rules; StanChart's net-zero targets

TOP NEWS IN GLOBAL FINANCIALS

* Citigroup Inc. will require all U.S. employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of employment, Sara Wechter, Citi's head of human resources, wrote in a LinkedIn post. Wechter cited compliance with President Joe Biden's vaccination mandate and ensuring "the health and safety of our colleagues as we return to the office in the U.S.," as reasons behind the company's decision. The bank has also asked workers to submit proof of vaccination by Dec. 8, adding those who do so will be paid $200 as a "thank you," Bloomberg News reported, citing a company memo.

* Financial Services Commission Chairman Koh Seung-beom said the South Korean regulator would improve and ease regulations to allow banks to expand the scope of their investment advisory businesses and new forms of financial services and business, The Korea Herald reported.

* Standard Chartered PLC said it will stop financing companies that are expanding in thermal coal, and by 2030 will only provide financial services to clients that are less than 5% dependent on thermal coal revenues while also reducing its lending to the power, steel and mining, oil and gas sectors. There are the U.K.-headquartered bank's new interim targets, which are part of its goal to reach net-zero carbon emissions from its financed activity by 2050.

➤ ANZ to make amends after mea culpa on missing Australia's housing boom

Australia's second-biggest bank has hired more staff and allocated greater resources to its home loans business as it prepares for "what we think will continue to be a pretty active market," CEO Shayne Elliott said after Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. reported earnings.

➤ Stablecoins face industry-defining regulatory guidance

While the adoption of stablecoins in the U.S. is at the very early stages, regulatory clarity is viewed as necessary for the industry to decide the next moves.

➤ French, Spanish banks to retain provisions as COVID-19 uncertainty lingers

The French and Spanish economies have been among the worst affected in Europe by the pandemic, which has led banks to take a cautious approach in terms of releasing loan loss provisions.

US & CANADA

* Valley National Bancorp's Valley Pay, a digital payment platform that caters to cannabis-related businesses, could be a launching pad to broader services for the controversial industry, Valley National's management said on the bank's third-quarter earnings call. Valley Pay provides a closed-loop platform so that cannabis-related businesses can readily accept payments. "It's a very immature business at this point, which creates a lot of opportunity for us," Chairman, President and CEO Ira Robbins said. "It's a very segmented business today, and we think that we provide a leading opportunity to gain significant market share," Robbins said on the call.

* The accelerated adoption of mobile payments in the U.S. and India during the pandemic is not a one-off spike and will continue, as banks, financial technology companies and tech giants are proactively competing for users from digital channels, Market Intelligence analysts Nimayi Dixit and Sampath Sharma Nariyanuri said Oct. 28 during the latest episode of Market Intelligence Live.

Click here for more of the day's essential bank and financial services news in the U.S. and Canada.

LATIN AMERICA

* Brazil's BRB - Banco de Brasília SA postponed a follow-on offering of shares that it filed back in September due to deteriorating market conditions. The bank will search for more favorable options to pursue the offering, it said in a filing.

* Banco Santander México S.A. Institución de Banca Múltiple Grupo Financiero Santa's third-quarter net income dropped 3.7% to 4.84 billion Mexican pesos from 5.03 billion pesos a year ago. Net interest income and net commissions and fees decreased 2.5% and 5.2% from the year-ago period, respectively. Administrative and promotional expenses and other operating expenses both increased 3.1% and 25.7% from the third quarter of 2020, respectively.

EUROPE

* BNP Paribas SA said it will kick off a €900 million share buyback program on Nov. 1. The French bank booked a third-quarter net income attributable to equity holders of €2.50 billion, up from €1.89 billion a year earlier, as cost of risk fell 43.3% over the period to €706 million.

* U.S. prosecutors told NatWest Group PLC in August that it had "materially breached" terms of a 2017 non-prosecution agreement following alleged illicit transactions carried out by former traders, Bloomberg News wrote, citing a Sept. 3 filing. The breach threatens to expose the British bank's U.S. trading arm NatWest Markets Securities Inc. to criminal prosecution and other regulatory actions.

Click here for more of the day's essential financial news in Europe.

MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA

* Zimbabwe's central bank raised its bank policy rate to 60% from 40%, a move that Bloomberg News noted was a bid to stabilize a free-falling currency and curb rising inflation. The decision also comes as a response to issues raised by Parliament in recent pre-budget discussions, according to New Zimbabwe. Elsewhere, the Egyptian central bank maintained its key rates, including the overnight deposit and lending rates at 8.25% and 9.25%, respectively.

* Nigerian bank FBN Holdings PLC named Nnamdi Okonkwo new group managing director, replacing U.K. Eke on Jan. 1, 2022. Additionally, Kuwait-based Warba Bank KSCP appointed Dharar Abdullah Dakhil al-Dakhil chief risk officer.

ASIA-PACIFIC

* Macquarie Group Ltd. plans to raise A$1.5 billion through a nonunderwritten institutional placement, to be followed by a nonunderwritten share purchase plan to finance future investments. The Australian firm reported net profit after tax attributable to ordinary shareholders of A$2.04 billion in the first fiscal half ended Sept. 30, jumping 107% from the prior-year period. It declared an interim ordinary dividend of A$2.72 per share for the half.

* Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank completed the sale of a 49% stake in its VPBank Finance Co. Ltd. subsidiary to Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. unit SMBC Consumer Finance Co. Ltd. The acquired firm will be renamed VPBank SMBC Finance Co. Ltd. and the Vietnamese bank will still hold a 50% of charter capital at the firm.

Click here for more of the day's essential financial news in Asia-Pacific.

Adrian Jimenea and Ryan Jeffrey Sy contributed to this report.

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