TOP NEWS IN BANKING & FINANCIAL SERVICES
* JPMorgan Chase & Co., America's biggest bank by assets, is winding down its Russia operations and is not pursuing any new business in the country in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, CNBC reported, citing an email from JPMorgan spokesperson Tasha Pelio. The bank's dealings related to Russia were limited to helping global clients address and close out preexisting obligations, managing clients' Russian-related risk, acting as clients' custodian and looking after its employees, Pelio reportedly said.
* BlackRock Inc., the world's largest asset manager, marked down the value of its Russian securities holdings by approximately $17 billion following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Financial Times reported. Shuttered markets and worldwide sanctions on Russia have made the vast majority of BlackRock's $18.2 billion in Russian assets as of end of January unsaleable, leading to the markdowns, according to the report. BlackRock stopped buying Russian assets on Feb. 28, saying its exposure to Russia had then fallen to less than 0.01% of its AUM largely due to markdowns, the Financial Times reported.
➤ Global insurers face raft of challenges from sanctions targeting Russia
Sanctions against Russia will cause the global insurance industry to lose some business, may trigger loss claims and force companies to keep pace with a barrage of new rules.
➤ Peak auto physical damage losses in Q4'21 reinforce industry's rate push
U.S. property and casualty insurers ended 2021 with near-breakeven underwriting results as Hurricane Ida and the effects of inflation on private-passenger auto claims costs offset favorable trends in many casualty business lines.
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BANKING
* Phoenix-based Arizona FCU will acquire substantially all of the assets and assume substantially all of the liabilities of Lake Havasu City, Ariz.-based Horizon Community Bank, a subsidiary of Horizon Bancorp Inc. (Lake Havasu City AZ), for $91.4 million in cash, subject to adjustments.
* Prairie View FCU in Texas has merged with Houston-based Cy-Fair FCU and operates as a division of the latter, effective March 1, according to a news release posted on CUInsight.com.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
* MeridianLink Inc. signed a merger agreement March 5 to acquire StreetShares Inc., a financial technology company that provides digital small business lending technology to banks and credit unions.
* The Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center warned the financial services sector in a report released March 10 of fiercer global cyber threats in 2022, especially third-party risk, zero-day vulnerability exploits, and ransomware that adapts even to increased law enforcement scrutiny.
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