TOP NEWS IN EUROPEAN FINANCIALS
* Credit Suisse Group AG's shares closed 3.9% higher at CHF6.96 on June 8, having fallen more than 7% earlier the same day after a profit warning, following a report by Swiss business blog Inside Paradeplatz that U.S. financial services company State Street Corp. could launch a takeover offer for the embattled Switzerland-based bank, news outlets including Dow Jones Newswires reported. Citing a source, Inside Paradeplatz reported that State Street could make an offer for Credit Suisse at CHF9 per share, valuing the latter at some CHF23 billion. Credit Suisse declined to comment, while a State Street spokesperson said the company was not going to respond to the report.
* Italy-based payments firm Nexi SpA is nearing a deal to acquire the retailer payment business of Intesa Sanpaolo SpA's Croatian unit, sources told Reuters. The price could be set at roughly €180 million, according to the report. It is unclear if the banks commented to Reuters.
➤ Bank disclosures reveal limitations of green asset ratio as a comparable metric
The green asset ratio may be of only limited use in comparing the greenness of European banks' balance sheets as the metric does not cover large sums of banking assets.
➤ Outlook for private equity dealmaking sours as inflation, interest rates rise
One result of the current macroenvironment could be more deals smaller in size, up to $100 million, with less leverage and less risk than in recent years, industry sources said.
READ MORE about the market reaction and industry impact of the evolving situation in Russia and Ukraine in our new Issue in Focus.
BANKING
* Credit Suisse is looking at job cuts across its business divisions including investment banking and wealth management in several regions as the Swiss bank seeks to accelerate cost-cutting, insiders told Bloomberg News. The reductions are reportedly likely to come as Credit Suisse prepares for its investor day on June 28. Credit Suisse on June 8 warned of a second-quarter loss and said it was ramping up cost initiatives. A spokesperson for the bank declined to comment to Bloomberg.
* HSBC Holdings PLC is shuttering Serai Ltd., a Hong Kong-based trade platform unit launched in 2019, Reuters reported, citing an emailed statement from the U.K.-based bank. The decision follows a business review and was a purely commercial decision, HSBC told the news wire. However, the business failed to become commercially viable, according to Reuters.
* Société Générale SA intends to earmark more capital for its most profitable businesses, CEO Frédéric Oudéa said at the Goldman Sachs European Financials Conference in Rome, Reuters and L'Agefi reported. Areas of focus include the French lender's central and Eastern Europe units and its car leasing business.
* Italy's Banco BPM SpA is expected to complete the securitization of €460 million in bad loans at the end of June, with the fund GWM investing €60 million in the platform and acquiring 80% of senior and mezzanine notes, according to Il Messaggero.
* Sberbank of Russia has suspended settlements in yuan for corporate clients and is working with partners from China on resuming the payments, Reuters reported, citing the lender's spokesperson. The reason behind suspending yuan settlements by Russia's largest lender was not immediately clear, the news wire noted, adding that Sberbank has also recently experienced problems with processing payments in Indian rupees.
* Banca Popolare di Bari SpA has changed the organizational structure of its lending activities and units that report to the COO as part of efforts to bring down its 125% cost-income ratio, the highest in the Italian banking sector, while reducing its nonperforming exposure ratio, MF reported. The bank is also separating credit risk assumption activities from those for loan issuance and control, the newspaper added.
* German lender Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen Girozentrale, or Helaba, and Finland-based Aktia Pankki Oyj became official signatories of the UN Principles for Responsible Banking.
* Austrian Anadi Bank AG, successor to the collapsed Hypo Alpe Adria Bank AG, plans to sell its traditional banking operations and seeks to transform itself into a digital-only bank as a "fintech with a comprehensive full banking structure."
* Polish banks expect a strong interest from retail clients in mortgage repayment deferrals that the country's government is looking to introduce as part of its program to support borrowers, and some lenders could report a loss for 2022 as a result, Marcin Gadomski, deputy head of Bank Polska Kasa Opieki SA, told news agency PAP.
* Hannoversche Volksbank eG has to meet additional capital requirements set by German financial supervisory authority BaFin after the bank was found to have violated the requirements for proper business organization.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
* Generali Investments SpA, the asset management unit of Italian insurer Assicurazioni Generali SpA, is in talks to buy investment firms specialized in U.S. credit markets and renewable energy, Carlo Trabattoni, CEO of Generali's asset and wealth management activities, told Bloomberg.
* Norway-based Storebrand ASA is considering possible acquisitions to grow its asset management business in Denmark, FinansWatch wrote. Jan Erik Saugestad, head of Storebrand Asset Management AS, said the company has "ambitious plans" to expand its operations in Denmark. Saugestad confirmed that the unit is looking at one or more potential acquisition targets, according to the report.
* Netherlands-based fintech Biller BV has established a presence in Denmark and launched its buy-now, pay-later credit solutions to companies operating in the Danish market, FinansWatch reported, citing Børsen. Biller is expected to use Denmark as a bridgehead to all Nordic markets.
POLICY AND REGULATION
* The Polish central bank raised its interest rates by 0.75 percentage point, taking the reference, Lombard and deposit rates to 6%, 6.5% and 5.5%, respectively. The regulator said the hike was taken to arrest a persistent risk of inflation running above target. The decision puts the rate at a 14-year high, according to Reuters.
* Czech Republic President Miloš Zeman appointed Jan Frait, Karina Kubelková and Eva Zamrazilová to the central bank's rate-setting board, effective July 1, with Zamrazilová set to become deputy governor. The trio will replace Jiří Rusnok, currently the central bank's governor, Tomáš Nidetzký and Vojtěch Benda.
INDUSTRY NEWS
* U.K. financial regulators will have the power to directly oversee what the Treasury described as "critical" third-party services to the finance sector. Such services include cloud computing firms such as Amazon and Microsoft, Reuters reported. The move will ensure the resilience of the services, effectively lowering the risk of systemic disruption, the Treasury said in a policy statement.
Erin Tanchico, Arno Maierbrugger, Meike Wijers, Esben Svendsen, Beata Fojcik, Heather O'Brian, Stéphanie Salti, Sophie Davies and Mariana Aldano contributed to this report.
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