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☆ Intrepid bankers will find Boutique Blvd jam-packed
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Jeffrey Goldfarb | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The situation complicates things for rainmakers considering their next steps in a weaker environment for mergers and acquisitions. Making the well-trod move from Wall Street to Boutique Boulevard will be much harder in 2023. The entrepreneurial spirit often hits investment bankers when times get tough, and their mega-bank employers start cutting staff or restricting access to the balance sheet. It's easy to see how the likes of Blair Effron’s Centerview, Robey Warshaw and Ken Moelis’ eponymous firm established themselves. Absent those kinds of industry-specific or geographic relationships, idle investment bankers may find themselves just spending more time with their families.

☆ Who will be Wall Street’s un-American idol?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( John Foley | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

Europeans have been losing the battle against Wall Street’s cozy club for a decade. Deutsche Bank has done the former. BNP has made smaller steps, buying Bank of America’s prime broking business in 2008, then Deutsche Bank’s in 2019. Even with the best intentions, European banks must contend with their own regulators, which affects their ability to take risk elsewhere. JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs together took the top five slots for debt capital markets and merger advisory, as they also did in 2021.

☆ JPMorgan, Citi and BNP invest in risk management provider Acin
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Andres Gonzalez | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/3] A view of the exterior of the JP Morgan Chase & Co. corporate headquarters in New York City May 20, 2015. REUTERS/Mike SegarLONDON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - A group of five banks including JPMorgan , Citi (C.N) and BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA) are among the investors who backed an overall $24 million fundraising for risk control specialist Acin as part of their strategy to step up their risk expertise. "We have been working with Acin for the past three years, during which they have supported our established operational risk management and assessment practices," said Julian Liau, Chief Controls Manager at JPMorgan. Both Notion Capital and Fitch Ventures backed Acin in the last fundraising. Acin helps financial institutions digitise their operational and non-financial risk analysis, using its data analytic capabilities.

LONDON, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Barclays (BARC.L) has promoted 85 people to managing director in its investment bank, it said on Thursday, with by far the majority of the coveted titles this year being taken by men. Nor did it give a breakdown of which part of the investment bank those promoted worked in, as it had in previous years. Meanwhile, Barclays Bank PLC, which houses the lender's investment bank, had a mean average pay gap of 43% in favour of men in 2021, the bank's pay gap report states. Barclays' investment bank has been a source of contention in recent years, after previous CEO Jes Staley fended off an activist investor who wanted the unit shrunk. Recent performances have tended to vindicate the investment bank, as in the third quarter this year, when a fixed income trading boom helped it beat market estimates.

☆ Musk's bankers mull new Tesla margin loans to slash Twitter debt - Bloomberg News
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 7 (Reuters) - Billionaire Elon Musk's bankers are considering providing the Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) Chief Executive Officer with new margin loans backed by the U.S. automaker's stock to replace some of the high interest debt on his Twitter deal, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday. The margin loans are one of the options that the Morgan Stanley (MS.N)-led bank group and Musk's advisers have discussed to ease the $13 billion debt Twitter took on as part of Musk's $44 billion deal, the report said, citing people with knowledge of the matter. Morgan Stanley (MS.N), Bank of America Corp (BAC.N), Barclays Plc (BARC.L) and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (8306.T) led the $13 billion financing for the bid by Musk. The banks are not expected to offload any of the Twitter debt to institutional investors until the new year, Bloomberg reported. Reuters reported in October that banks had abandoned plans to sell the debt to investors because of uncertainty around Twitter's fortunes and losses.

☆ Barclays appoints Currie as chief operating officer
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Lawrence White | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Barclays (BARC.L) said it has appointed Alistair Currie as its chief operating officer on Wednesday, as CEO C.S. Currie replaces Mark Ashton-Rigby, who will step down and advise the bank on a part-time basis. Currie had headed the lender's consumer banking and payments business, and will be replaced in that role by Vim Maru, who joins from Lloyds Banking Group. The changes come at a time when Barclays' executive committee of senior managers has taken on increased prominence in the running of the bank, while Venkatakrishnan is treated for cancer. New chief operating officer Currie will in addition to that role take on the running of BX, the bank's name for its firm-wide company providing technology and other support services to all parts of the business.

☆ Barclays announces new Chief Operating Officer
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

LONDON, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Barclays (BARC.L) announced a reshuffle of its executive committee on Wednesday, with Chief Operating Officer Mark Ashton-Rigby stepping down from the role. He will be replaced by Alistair Currie, who currently heads the lender's consumer banking and payments business, the British bank said. Currie in turn will be replaced in that role by Vim Maru, who joins from Lloyds Banking Group. Reporting by Lawrence White, Editing by Louise HeavensOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ UniCredit CEO Orcel has leverage in pay debate
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Lisa Jucca | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Under UniCredit’s remuneration policies, Orcel receives 2.5 million euros in salary, with the potential for twice that via an annual bonus. A regulatory cap prevents UniCredit from paying its CEO a bigger bonus, so the board may have to hike his fixed salary to pay him more. UniCredit Chairman Pier Carlo Padoan said Orcel has not asked for a pay rise. Follow @LJucca on TwitterloadingCONTEXT NEWSItalian lender UniCredit will review the pay package of its Chief Executive Andrea Orcel ahead of its 2023 general meeting. Orcel’s pay package envisages a fixed salary of 2.5 million euros a year and a bonus of up 5 million euros.

☆ Fintech Circle terminates $9 bln deal with Bob Diamond-backed SPAC
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Dec 5 (Reuters) - Cryptocurrency operator Circle Internet Financial said on Monday it has decided to end a $9 billion deal with blank-check firm Concord Acquisition Corp (CND.N), nearly ten months after an earlier agreement was amended. Circle is the principal operator of stablecoin USDC and reported a net income of $43 million and nearly $400 million in cash in the third quarter. Earlier valued at $4.5 billion, Boston-based Circle had amended its agreement with Concord, which is backed by former Barclays (BARC.L) boss Bob Diamond, in February and doubled its valuation. Blank-check vehicle 10X Capital Venture Acquisition Corp II (VCXA.O) said in August it mutually ended its $1.25 billion merger deal with crypto mining and infrastructure company Prime Blockchain. loadingReporting by Mehnaz Yasmin in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra EluriOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Factbox: Global banks take axe to jobs as cost pressures mount
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

LONDON, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Banks typically trim jobs towards the end of the year, but 2022 has seen a bigger wave of redundancies and layoffs. Rising cost pressures as a result of inflation and shrinking revenues in many core business lines amid volatile markets are making bank bosses nervous about profitability in 2023. CITIGROUPCiti (C.N) eliminated dozens of jobs across its investment banking division, as a dealmaking slump continues to weigh on Wall Street's biggest banks, Bloomberg News reported on Nov.8. CREDIT SUISSECredit Suisse (CSGN.S) is accelerating cost cuts announced just weeks ago, Chairman Axel Lehmann said on Dec. 2, confirming a Reuters report, as the bank races to slash its cost base by around 2.5 billion Swiss francs ($2.68 billion). DEUTSCHE BANKDeutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE), Germany's largest bank, cut staff in its investment bank's origination and advisory teams in October, in a move than affected mostly junior bankers.

☆ NatWest lifts staff pay after cost of living backlash
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Iain Withers | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/3] The logo of NatWest Bank, part of the Royal Bank of Scotland group is seen outside a branch in Enfield, London Britain November 15, 2017. Britain's biggest domestic bank Lloyds offered a similar deal of a minimum 2,000 pound pay rise earlier this month. NatWest's shares plunged as much as 10% when it warned of rising costs next year in its third-quarter results on Oct 28, which Rose put down to the need to pay staff more. Pay offers for staff on higher pay bands in Britain were not included in the negotiations with unions. NatWest staff based overseas will be offered the local cash equivalent of the 1,000 pounds lump sum planned in Britain, the memo added.

☆ UK banks’ Big Bang thankfully looks like big flop
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Liam Proud | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Yet, the mooted changes would probably only benefit middling lenders like Santander UK, Virgin Money (VMUK.L) and Banco Sabadell’s (SABE.MC) TSB Bank, according to the FT. And on Wednesday, the BoE’s supervisory body said it planned largely to stick to international bank-capital rules, dubbed Basel 3.1. But the big flop might not be such a bad thing for the country’s financial sector. Separately, the government’s City minister Andrew Griffith said on Nov. 29 that he wanted to relax the so-called ringfencing regime that forces large British lenders to separate their retail and investment banking arms. According to the Financial Times, the ringfencing regime would still apply to the biggest UK banks but there could be exemptions for lenders with limited trading operations including Santander UK, Virgin Money and TSB Bank.

☆ Barclays CEO Venkat to undergo cancer treatment, prognosis 'excellent'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Lawrence White | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Barclays PLC (BARC.L) said on Monday that Chief Executive C.S. Venkatakrishnan would undergo treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of cancer, adding that the condition is treatable and that he would keep working when possible. The CEO, known inside the British bank as Venkat, said in a regulatory filing that doctors have said his prognosis is "excellent", with the treatment in New York expected to last 12 to 16 weeks. Barclays has not appointed an interim chief executive, with Venkat and the lender's executive committee expected to continue running the company, said a spokesperson for the bank. A former JPMorgan banker, Venkatakrishnan has endured a difficult first year in charge of Barclays since taking over from Jes Staley last November.

☆ British crime agency recovers $65 mln of suspect money in Barclays accounts
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( Sam Tobin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) on Friday obtained a civil recovery order relating to nearly 54 million pounds ($65 million) of suspected criminal property held in accounts with Barclays (BARC.L). The NCA's lawyers told London's High Court that the money is likely "the proceeds of unlawful conduct", a view shared by Barclays which first approached the agency about the money. Judge Robin Knowles said he was prepared to make the civil recovery order "without hesitation". The NCA said that the case was "a great example of how the public and private sector can work together to recover proceeds of crime". "The proactive identification of these funds by Barclays was the reason we could take this action," said Adrian Searle, director of the National Economic Crime Centre within the NCA.

SummarySummary Companies Coal miners struggling to fund expansion plansThermal coal costs more than coking coal after price surgeMost Western bankers pulling back from coal industryLONDON, Nov 24 (Reuters) - It's the best of times, it's the worst of times. At least when it comes to mining coal. With funding hard to come by from Western banks, coal miners outside China have turned more to equity markets this year. "With regard to thermal coal mining, any transaction in coal mining requires an enhanced environmental risk review," a Deutsche spokesperson said, adding that the bank was updating its coal policy. Bens Creek listed shares partly because of the lack of appetite from banks to support any expansion of coal mining, chief executive Wilson said.

☆ SocGen’s BNP envy carries a cost
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Liam Proud | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

It mimics BNP Paribas’s (BNPP.PA) deal with European peer Exane, which the French group took over last year. SocGen research analysts cover around 500 mostly European stocks, according to JPMorgan, compared with AllianceBernstein’s more international coverage of roughly 800 companies. Second, the venture makes the French bank’s equities business less reliant on derivatives and structured products, which led to heavy losses in 2020. Trading cash equities and selling research typically chews up much less capital and leads to fewer blow-ups. And the wider equities trading business is increasingly dominated by larger players, especially U.S. banks.

☆ Barclays cuts investment banking jobs as deals languish - source
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Nov 8 (Reuters) - Barclays Plc (BARC.L) has cut its workforce in corporate and investment banking (CIB), according to a person familiar with the matter, joining rivals who also took similar steps to rein in costs as deals plunged from records set last year. As a result, premier banks including Goldman Sachs Group (GS.N) and Deutsche bank (DBKGn.DE) felt compelled to cut their workforce in mergers and acquisitions (M&A). read more read moreCitigroup Inc (C.N) also eliminated dozens of jobs across its investment banking division, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday. The cuts at Barclays account for less than 3% of their headcount in investment banking, according to the source. Reporting by Mehnaz Yasmin in Bengaluru and Anirban Sen in New York; Editing by Shailesh KuberOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ U.S. SEC obtained $6.4 bln from enforcement in fiscal 2022 -chair
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Chris Prentice | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) obtained $6.4 billion from enforcement actions, including $4 billion in penalties, in fiscal 2022, the agency's chair Gary Gensler said on Wednesday. The large number of levies - collected in fines, judgments and other fees from about 700 enforcement actions - would mark a record, underscoring the Wall Street regulator's more aggressive stance against corporate wrongdoing under Democratic leadership. The total levied is higher than the previous year's $3.9 billion the SEC obtained from 697 actions and than 2020's record of $4.7 billion across 715 cases, according to a review of SEC's previous enforcement results. Gensler highlighted the SEC's enforcement activity in the year ended September 30 in prepared remarks at a Practicing Law Institute event. The agency is expected to publish its full enforcement report sometime this month.

☆ Bain gives India’s banking ball a time check
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Bain Capital on Tuesday pocketed some $400 million from selling just under a third of the more than 4% stake it bought in Axis Bank (AXBK.NS) in 2017. Back then, the private equity firm and Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIFI.NS) injected cash as the country’s third-largest non-state-controlled lender was grappling with a slew of bad loans. Axis now oozes confidence under ex-HDFC Life Insurance executive Amitabh Chaudhry, who joined as boss in 2019. Gross bad loans account for 2.5% of total assets, less than half the level when Bain bought in. With Bain currently sitting on 1.6 times its money, excluding dividends, it’s a good time to send some in its party home.

The macroeconomic environment is also not one that really favours aggressive investment at this point in time," Jaideep Khanna, who heads Barclays' Asia Pacific business told Reuters in an interview. We, as a business within the Barclays framework, are accretive to the firm and have delivered over the last three years," said Mumbai-based Khanna, who is also Barclays' India CEO. Khanna, the only regional CEO of a global bank to be based in India, took the role in 2017 after joining Barclays in 2001. The country is also home to Barclays' global services centre, where it employs more than 21,000 - its second-largest number of staff outside of Britain. In Australia, Khanna said Barclays would deepen its involvement with investment banking boutique firm Barrenjoey Capital Partners in which it nearly doubled its stake to 18.2% this year.

☆ Musk's lenders prepare to hold $12.7 bln Twitter debt on books until early 2023 - FT
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Nov 1 (Reuters) - Banks that lent $12.7 billion to Elon Musk for his $44 billion Twitter takeover will hold the debt until early next year as they wait for the billionaire to unveil a clearer business plan they can market to investors, the Financial Times reported. The group of lenders, led by Morgan Stanley (MS.N), Bank of America (BAC.N) and Barclays (BARC.L), have conceded they will be stuck holding the debt on their books for months or even longer and will probably end up incurring huge losses on the financing package, according to the report published Tuesday, citing sources. Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Twitter did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment, while Barclays declined to comment. Reporting by Lavanya Ahire in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi AichOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ NatWest shows bank investors were right to fret
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Oct 28 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Investor scepticism in bank stocks might seem a bit odd. After all, rising interest rates mean banks can make a fatter margin on loans, and unemployment levels are low, which suggests customers will keep paying their mortgages. Investors already valued NatWest at only 0.8 times its tangible book value, and Friday’s 8% share price fall will push that down further. The bank, still 48% owned by the UK government after a 2008 bailout, is expected to deliver a 13% return on tangible equity next year, RBC analysts reckon. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

LONDON, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Having hiked mortgage rates after political turmoil drove up the cost of borrowing, British banks are now cutting home loan prices, albeit slowly, as markets calm since Liz Truss's government collapsed and Rishi Sunak took power. But as markets have stabilised and borrowing costs have fallen, the trickle of mortgage rate cuts has lagged behind. By contrast, average rates on two-year and five-year fixed-rate mortgages have fallen just 0.16 percentage points, Moneyfacts data shows. Reuters GraphicsFIXED RATESMortgage brokers say fixed-rate mortgage rates typically lag changes in swap rates, a trend which could be exacerbated this time as lenders focus on reintroducing products. Five-year mortgage rates have followed a similar pattern, Moneyfacts data shows.

The pound touched its highest level since Sept. 13, continuing its rally after Rishi Sunak became Britain's prime minister. U.S. new home sales decreased 10.9% and mortgage rates reached their highest level in 20 years last week, data showed. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) rallied more than 1%, while Japan's Nikkei (.N225) hit its highest level since Sept. 20. Market participants became cautious after major state-owned banks were spotted selling the dollar on Tuesday to stabilize the market, traders said. U.S. Treasury yields fell, helped by a weaker dollar and Fed hopes.

The U.S. dollar index fell to a five-week low as the pound touched its highest since Sept. 13, continuing its rally after Rishi Sunak became Britain's prime minister. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) rose 0.51%, the S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 0.13% and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) dropped 0.97% at 10:37 a.m. EDT (1437 GMT)MSCI's World Stock Index (.MIWO00000PUS) was up 0.36% and touched a five-week high. Europe's Stoxx 600 (.STOXX) also touched a five-week high in choppy trade. Market participants became cautious after major state-owned banks were spotted selling the dollar on Tuesday to stabilize the market, traders said. Elsewhere in commodities, oil prices rose on the weaker dollar and supply concerns.

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