Half a billion property hit to Banesto profits April 12, 2012 SPANISH retail bank Banesto was hit by a €475m (£392m) provision for bad real estate loans, it reported in its first-quarter results yesterday. Banesto, which is mostly owned by Santander and is one of Spain’s biggest high street lenders, reported a halving in pre-tax profits to €126m. That was above expectations despite the massive property [...]
TIMELINE | LLOYDS BRANCH SALE April 12, 2012 November 2009 It emerged that the EU would force Lloyds to sell a large chunk of its business to comply with competition rules following its merger with HBOS. It set an end-of-2013 deadline to complete a sale or float. April 2011 The Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) said in its interim report that Lloyds should [...]
Santander gets renminbi licence April 12, 2012 Spain’s biggest bank has secured a licence to trade renminbi in China, making it the first Spanish or Latin American bank to get permission to handle the Chinese currency. The bank said that the licence will boost its position as a provider of trade finance for exporters to and from China and will enable it [...]
Bank of America streamlines units April 12, 2012 Bank of America has rid itself of one business unit to streamline its operations. The move merges its credit cards business with its retail lending business, which could enable more cross-selling of cards to customers. Lending to large corporates will also move from its investment bank to be combined with its business for smaller businesses, [...]
Sberbank mulls Denizbank bid April 12, 2012 Russia’s top lender Sberbank is taking another look at Denizbank, put up for sale by stricken Belgian lender Dexia. Last year, Sberbank dropped out of the race for Denizbank, now worth $6bn, as it focused on integrating its acquisitions of Russian brokerage Troika Dialog. But now that talks with Qatar National Bank (QNB) over the [...]
Banks €485bn short of Basel capital targets April 12, 2012 THE WORLD’S largest international banks need to shore up their balance sheets to the tune of hundreds of billions of euros if they are to hit regulatory targets to improve financial stability, a report from the Basel Committee revealed yesterday. The monitoring report also revealed most banks fail to meet liquidity coverage ratio requirements, and [...]
BlackRock plans bond hub April 12, 2012 AMERICAN investment banks face a new threat to their profits as BlackRock plans to launch a trading platform that would cut out Wall Street. The world’s largest money manager has devised a platform which would allow it to trade bonds directly with the rest of its industry. The electronic trading hub would be run by [...]
Goldman agrees to pay £14m fine to settle huddles charge April 12, 2012 US REGULATORS said yesterday that Goldman Sachs will pay $22m (£14m) to settle civil charges over allegations that it lacked adequate policies to prevent its analysts from sharing non-public information with Goldman traders and select clients. The charges stem from a practice known as “huddles” at Goldman, which came to light several years ago. Stock [...]
MF Global trustee to sue staff April 12, 2012 The trustee liquidating MF Global’s broker-dealer said yesterday he may bring civil lawsuits against some of the company’s employees in connection with a massive shortfall in customer funds created in the days leading up to its collapse. Trustee James Giddens said he may assert claims for breach of fiduciary duty and for violating rules governing [...]
Man hires head of forex for AHL April 12, 2012 Man Group has hired a foreign exchange veteran for its $21bn (£13bn) flagship fund AHL, as the hedge fund manager tries to revive performance at its key computer-driven unit. Ravi Chari, who has worked for 12 years in systematic trading at hedge funds, joins Man from computer trading firm IKOS, where he headed its futures [...]
