TOP NEWS IN GLOBAL FINANCIALS
– Around 500 Credit Suisse Group AG equity investors including former employees are set to file a claim in Zurich's commercial court against the Swiss government-brokered rescue of the bank by UBS Group AG, the Financial Times reported. This would be the second class-action suit against the deal, according to the report. UBS declined to comment on the case. Separately, holders of Credit Suisse's additional Tier 1 (AT1) bonds criticized UBS' decision to terminate the government backstop, saying that if the protections were unnecessary, so too was the debt wipeout of some $17 billion, Bloomberg News reported. Meanwhile, UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti said in an internal memo that more information about the Credit Suisse integration will be announced alongside the group's second-quarter earnings results on Aug. 31, finews.com reported.
– FTX Trading Ltd. founder Sam Bankman-Fried is in custody after US District Judge Lewis Kaplan canceled his $250 million bail in a hearing Aug. 11 for allegedly trying to tamper with two witnesses in a multibillion-dollar fraud case against him, Bloomberg News reported. Marshalls escorted the 31-year-old crypto mogul out of the Manhattan courtroom supposedly to take him to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, the main federal prison in New York for defendants awaiting trial, according to the report, citing a person familiar with the process. Bankman-Fried's lawyers lost a plea to stay Kaplan's order, the report said.
➤ Investment managers' risk aversion grows with US stock valuations a key concern
US equity investors have grown increasingly risk-averse amid concerns that stocks are too expensive, according to the latest results from S&P Global's Investment Manager Index survey.
➤ State Farm tops Hawaii homeowners exposure list
With a market share of 35.2% and direct premiums of $162 million in 2022, State Farm is the insurer with the largest homeowners exposure in the state of Hawaii, where wildfires have brought death and destruction to the island of Maui.
➤ Singapore banks face challenging outlook as loan demand slows
Singapore banks are likely to face muted results in the second half of 2023 after higher interest rates boosted profits in the first six months of the year.
READ MORE about the liquidity crunch and the fallout for the financial sector in our new Issue in Focus.
AMERICAS
– Three former board members of failed Chicago-based Washington Federal Bank for Savings — William Mahon, George Kozdemba and Janice Weston — pleaded guilty to conspiring to falsify bank records shared with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to conceal rampant fraud, American Banker reported, citing the directors' pleas lodged in federal court for the Northern District of Illinois this month. Washington Federal failed in December 2017.
– MSCI Inc. agreed to acquire the remaining 66% of The Burgiss Group LLC, a data, analytics and technology solutions provider for investors in private assets, for $697 million in an all-cash deal expected to close in the fourth quarter. Since its initial investment in January 2020, MSCI will have invested an aggregate of $913 million to acquire all of Burgiss, according to a news release.
Click here for more of the day's essential bank and financial services news in the US and Canada.
EUROPE
– The Dutch government's plan to reduce its stake in ABN Amro Bank NV is unlikely to be derailed by the collapse of Prime Minister Mark Rutte's coalition, the lender's CFO, Ferdinand Vaandrager, told Bloomberg News in an interview. In February, the government's NL Financial Investments holding company said it was considering cutting its stake in the bank to below 50% through a sale of depositary receipts. The government's collapse last month paused policy-making and decisions ahead of a November election, Bloomberg noted. The reduction program is still being implemented, Vaandrager said.
– UK-based The Co-operative Bank PLC is acquiring the mortgage portfolio of Sainsbury's Bank PLC with balances of approximately £479 million and 3,500 customers. The portfolio will be sold for roughly £464 million and paid upon completion, supermarket chain operator J Sainsbury PLC said, noting that the deal is expected to complete Aug. 15. The deal marked Sainsbury's Bank's formal exit from the UK mortgage market after ceasing new lending in 2019, according to City A.M.
Click here for more of the day's essential financial news in Europe.
MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA
– Nigeria's central bank disclosed large dollar deals with US banks JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in documents that also showed it exceeded limits on lending to the government, Bloomberg News reported, citing the central bank's website. Multiple annual financial statements since 2015 were posted on the website for the first time, showing two securities lending agreements with JPMorgan for $7 billion in 2021 and two for $500 million with Goldman Sachs, the report said.
– The African Development Bank (Tunisia) said it has not disbursed any money from a $55 million integrity fund launched to fight corruption in Africa in 2016, making it inaccessible even to nongovernmental organizations, which filed applications for grants from the fund, the Financial Times reported.
ASIA-PACIFIC
– The China Securities Regulatory Commission and Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission agreed to introduce block trading under the Stock Connect program. This allows southbound and northbound investors to take part in the block trading facilities of the Hong Kong and mainland China markets. The stock exchanges on both sides will announce the operational details and the official launch date in due course, according to a joint release.
– SBFC Finance Ltd. announced the allotment of shares in its IPO, Mint reported. Bidders who applied for the public issue of 10.25 billion Indian rupees of shares were told to check the company's or the registrar's website for the status of their application, the publication noted. The public issue received strong response from investors and the issue is fairly priced, according to market observers.
Click here for more of the day's essential financial news in Asia-Pacific.
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