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Worldline's (WLN.PA) stock slide, which saw around $4 billion wiped off its market value, is the latest wake-up call. COMMISSIONS CUTRevenue growth has suffered at payments firms as inflation has force European consumers to spend less, while investors fret about the euro zone slipping into recession. Some analysts say payments firms have also been caught napping, after a period of growth during COVID lockdowns. In a further sign of investor wariness, venture capital investment flows into European payment firms have also dried up. Now, it may leave private equity investors to pick up the pieces for payment service firms, analysts said.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Paul Charpentier, Bryan Garnier, napping, Jefferies, Hannes Leitner, Leitner, Charpentier, wariness, Italy's Intesa Sanpaolo, Morgan Stanley, Worldline, Bryan Garnier's Charpentier, Elizabeth Howcroft, Alexander Smith Organizations: REUTERS, PayPal, Holdings, Companies, Barclays, Reuters, Spain's Banco Sabadell, Fidelity National Information Services, CVC Capital Partners, CVC, Thomson Locations: London, U.S, Nexi, Europe

☆ Italy's Intesa Sanpaolo says it will invest in SpaceX
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

[1/2] The logo of bank Intesa Sanpaolo is seen in Milan, Italy, January 18, 2016. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsMILAN, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Italy's biggest bank Intesa Sanpaolo (ISP.MI) said on Friday it had decided to invest in US billionaire Elon Musk's space company SpaceX. Intesa Sanpaolo recognizes "the aerospace sector as having a particularly important role in the development of world economies and has therefore decided to invest in a player that has demonstrated a cutting-edge vision of the near future", the bank said in a statement. The size of the investment was not disclosed. Reporting by Elisa Anzolin, editing by Alvise ArmelliniOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Stefano Rellandini, Elon, Intesa Sanpaolo, Elisa Anzolin, Alvise Organizations: REUTERS, SpaceX, Thomson Locations: Milan, Italy

A Barclays bank building is seen at Canary Wharf in London, Britain May 17, 2017. Barclays distributed a presentation on its domestic merchant acquiring unit to potential bidders - mainly specialist payments providers - over the summer, two of the people said, but plans may still be altered or dropped entirely. Our businesses continue to perform well and growing our global payments business is a priority for us." The group drafted in consultants to prepare separate financials for its domestic merchant acquiring operation in an initiative known internally as Project Hyperion, one of the people said. Barclays is also gauging interest in its German consumer finance operations, known as Barclaycard Germany.

Persons: Stefan Wermuth, Sanpaolo, Amy, Jo Crowley, Pablo Mayo, Milana, Lawrence White, Elisa Martinuzzi, Susan Fenton Organizations: Barclays, REUTERS, Barclays Plc, Reuters, Chief, CS Venkatakrishnan, Spain's Banco Sabadell, Italy's, Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro, Thomson Locations: London, Britain, Germany, New York

☆ Russia should not take temporary control of foreign banks' units, central-bank governor says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed a decree placing the Russian assets of Finland's Fortum (FORTUM.HE) and Germany's Uniper (UN01.DE), which both operate power plants in Russia, under Moscow's control. "Such decisions should be made with very good reasons, connected to the stable functioning of the Russian economy," Nabiullina said when asked whether Russia could do the same with banks. Foreign banks have stepped in to take business from Russian lenders hit by sweeping Western sanctions imposed after Moscow despatched troops to Ukraine in February 2022. Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International (RBIV.VI), earned more than half of its profit last year from Russia. Reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya, Vladimir Soldatkin, Alexander Marrow and Jake Cordell; Editing by Sharon SingletonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Egypt central bank seeks advisor for United Bank sale -sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

CAIRO, March 9 (Reuters) - Egypt's central bank has sent investment banks a request for proposals to pitch for an advisory role in the sale of United Bank of Egypt, which the central bank owns, two sources with knowledge of the matter said. The search for advisors comes after talks with Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund to acquire United Bank failed after disagreement over its valuation. The government said it planned to sell stakes in 32 companies, but since then has placed stakes in other companies up for sale as well. The finance ministry said last month it was seeking to sell the 20% stake in AlexBank that it still owns. Analysts say a stake in the state-controlled House and Development Bank may also be up for sale.

☆ Banks pile into euro zone bond sales as rates shoot up
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Yoruk Bahceli | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Heavy central bank buying had kept borrowing costs and volatility low for years, so the key question now is who steps in as the ECB steps out. They were the top buyers in the European Union's debt sale this month, buying almost 50% of a seven-year bond and 35% of a 20-year bond. Banks also took 39% of an Italian 20-year debt sale in January, while fund managers took 25%. In a 16-year debt sale last year, banks bought 29%. Bank treasuries took 30% of a 30-year Belgian debt sale in February, versus 10% a year ago.

☆ Egypt court to rule soon in case over Intesa's local unit - sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

It did not mention AlexBank, though a sale of its remaining stake to Intesa is a possibility, one of the sources said. The sale was challenged in court by activist group, the Egyptian Centre for Transparency, local media reported. Egypt's constitutional court in mid-January ruled to uphold that law rejecting a challenge brought against it. A number of cases, including that centred around the sale of AlexBank, had been put on hold pending the decision on the law. Reporting by Patrick Werr in Cairo and Valentina Za in Milan; Editing by Emelia Sithole-MatariseOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ ECB fines Germany's Helaba for misrepresenting risk
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

FRANKFURT, Feb 10 (Reuters) - The European Central Bank said on Friday that it had fined German state-owned bank Helaba for "consciously" misrepresenting its exposure to turbulent financial markets during the COVID-19 pandemic so it would need less capital. The fine highlights the ECB's increased scrutiny of the models that banks use for calculating risk, which has also had repercussions for Italy's Intesa Sanpaolo and Germany's Deutsche Bank. "When using its internal models to determine its risk-weighted assets for market risk (in 2020), the bank consciously decided to disregard the increased volatility," the ECB said. "The bank knowingly reported wrongly calculated figures to the ECB, therefore preventing the ECB from having a comprehensive view of its risk profile." Helaba said in a statement that it did not intend to breach its prudential obligations, but conceded that its "original assumption" was incorrect.

The European Central Bank (ECB), which supervises euro zone banks, believes some lenders have overly optimistic assumptions about the economy, based on models that cannot fully capture the damage from the current bout of inflation, the sources say. Source: S&P Global-EBAMorgan Stanley estimates euro zone banks will pay out 40 billion euros ($40 billion) in 2022 dividends plus an additional 60 billion euros in share buybacks between this year and next - an outsized return by recent standards. "It's not a good idea to pay out capital during a recession," Intesa's Chief Executive Carlo Messina told analysts last week. "With the economy entering recession, the time of massive bank payouts is over," Marco Troiano, a managing director at Scope Ratings, said. "Running down capital cushions would weaken banks."

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