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☆ FTSE 100 tracks glum global sentiment ahead of BoE rate decision
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Johann M Cherian | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SummarySummary Companies FTSE 100 down 0.7%, FTSE 250 off 0.6%Currys drops to bottom of FTMCHSBC slumps on shareholder's campaign for spinoffDec 15 (Reuters) - UK's export-driven FTSE 100 fell on Thursday, tracking glum global sentiment, while traders avoided bets on risky assets ahead of the Bank of England's monetary policy decision. The blue-chip FTSE 100 (.FTSE) fell 0.7%, while the FTSE 250 (.FTMC) shed 0.6% by 9:29 GMT. After the Fed's hawkish commentary on Wednesday, traders now await the BoE's monetary policy meeting at 1200 GMT. "The split within the Monetary Policy Committee could give a hawkish edge to the meeting. Besides the 50 basis point hike on Thursday, Koopman expects BoE's terminal rate to be 4.75% by mid-2023.

☆ Morning Bid: Still a ways to go?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

For markets navigating the barrage of major central bank interest rate rises this week - there's a ways to go, much as Fed chief Jerome Powell insists about the tightening cycle. Central banks in the Philippines, Norway and Taiwan also raised rates by 50bp, 25bp and 12.5bp respectively. But the policy message all around is that more pain is coming unless there's further evidence of sky-high inflation rates returning to 2% targets. Peak Fed rates implied in futures markets on Thursday remain 20bp below that official Fed projection and year-end market pricing is some 70bp below it. The economy there lost more steam in November as factory output slowed and retail sales extended declines, both missing forecasts and clocking their worst readings in six months.

☆ Europe shares slump on jitters ahead of ECB rate decision
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Amruta Khandekar | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SummarySummary Companies STOXX 600 set for worst day since SeptECB rate decision due 1315 GMTBoE rate decision due 1200 GMTH&M falls as quarterly sales fail to impressDec 15 (Reuters) - European shares slumped on Thursday, as risk sentiment waned ahead of an interest rate decision from the bloc's central bank, after the U.S. Federal Reserve's hawkish comments on rate hikes rattled global markets. The region-wide STOXX 600 (.STOXX) was down 1.2% at 0915 a.m. GMT, and appeared set for its worst day since late September, following a dismal trading session on Wall Street overnight after the Fed signalled more rate hikes to come. “There is a very high probability that the ECB will signal that they’ve still work to do in terms of rates.”UK's blue-chip FTSE 100 (.FTSE) was down 0.7%, with investors eyeing the Bank of England's interest rate decision also due later in the day. Among STOXX 600 sectors, energy (.SXEP) was the biggest loser, down 1.9%, tracking crude prices lower, while the retail sector (.SXRP) declined 1.8%. Reporting by Amruta Khandekar; editing by Uttaresh.V and Dhanya Ann ThoppilOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Danske slap confirms pay-what-you-can principle
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

That’s one takeaway from the $2 billion slap it delivered late on Tuesday to Denmark’s Danske Bank (DANSKE.CO), which pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Danske’s Estonian unit processed $160 billion of potentially illicit payments through U.S. banks on behalf of foreign customers, including Russians, the DOJ said. BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA) in 2014, by contrast, agreed to pay roughly $9 billion for moving $8.8 billion for sanctioned clients. In Danske’s case, the bill is roughly 1% of suspicious flows, whereas BNP’s was around 100% of illicit payments. Danske will be able to keep using U.S. correspondent banks for dollar payments, according to a person familiar with the matter.

HONG KONG, Dec 12 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Hong Kong’s bankers and officials fantasise about the moment China finally ditches its Covid-19 restrictions. Mainland Chinese firms account for eight of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing’s (0388.HK) ten largest ever IPOs. It remains faster for Chinese companies to list in Hong Kong, rather than join the long queue on the mainland. Hong Kong could also host more offerings from places like the Middle East and Southeast Asia, as Cha envisions. IPOs on the Hong Kong exchange have raised $7.1 billion so far in 2022, according to Refinitiv data for the year up to Dec. 7.

☆ Europe's BNP Paribas appoints senior executives to Global Markets Americas division
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 7 (Reuters) - BNP Paribas SA (BNPP.PA) has appointed several senior executives to its Global Markets Americas division, the European bank said on Wednesday, in a move to further consolidate its presence in the United States. The French bank appointed former Morgan Stanley executive Kunal Maini as the co-head of Global Macro - Americas and he will be responsible for globalizing the US Rates franchise. In addition, BNP also hired a string of executives to strengthen its credit portfolio at a time when global fixed income markets have come under immense pressure from soaring inflation and outsized interest rate hikes. John Hanisch was appointed the co-head of Secondary Credit Americas and Global Head of Securitized Products Trading; Charlie Shah the Head of IG & CDS Trading Americas and Bo Bazylevsky the Head of LatAm Flow Credit Trading. BNP's move to hire across divisions sharply contrasts global banks including HSBC Holdings PLC (HSBA.L) and Goldman Sachs (GS.N), which axed jobs to rein in costs.

☆ Dealmakers face pressure to clinch M&A quickly in volatile markets
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Maiya Keidan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

HSBC wrapped up the deal in just eights weeks after saying it was considering selling its Canadian business in early October. From its first contact, RBC, Canada's biggest lender, told HSBC it could close the deal quickly if selected, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. After the final bids went in around mid-November, RBC said it could turn everything around in a week, the person added. In the United States, deal timelines fell by almost 30% to 66 days this year from last year, where transactions took more than one day to close, the data shows. Deal announcements are one thing but getting all the regulatory approvals to close a deal are another matter altogether.

FTX's implosion has heightened the need for more trustworthy, regulated cryptocurrency players, and big banks see an opportunity to pick up business, Mathew McDermott, Goldman's head of digital assets, told Reuters. Goldman is doing due diligence on a number of different crypto firms, he added, without giving details. HSBC (HSBA.L) CEO Noel Quinn, meanwhile, told a banking conference in London last week he has no plans to expand into crypto trading or investing for retail customers. Goldman Sachs has also together with MSCI and Coin Metrics launched data service datonomy, aimed at classifying digital assets based on how they are used. The firm is also building its own private distributed ledger technology, McDermott said.

NEW YORK, Dec 2 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Friday dismissed an indictment against Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies Co [RIC:RIC:HWT.UL], formally ending a criminal sanctions case that strained U.S.-China relations. U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly in Brooklyn dismissed Meng's indictment with prejudice, meaning it cannot be brought again. A lawyer for Meng and a spokeswoman for Huawei did not immediately respond to requests for comment. On the day Donnelly approved that agreement, Meng flew home to Shenzhen. On Nov. 25, the Biden administration banned approvals of new telecommunications equipment from Huawei and China's ZTE Corp (000063.SZ) because they posed an "unacceptable risk" to national security.

☆ HSBC resigns as LME member after exiting industrial metals
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, Dec 2 (Reuters) - HSBC (HSBA.L) has resigned its membership in the London Metal Exchange, the LME said on Friday, after the bank decided to close its industrial metals business two years ago. The exchange, the world's oldest and largest market for industrial metals, said in a notice that HSBC Bank plc had resigned from both the exchange and its clearing house effective on Friday. The bank was a small player in industrial metals, but told Reuters in July 2020 that returns were too low to justify continuing the business. "We remain focused on growing our leading position in precious metals," a HSBC spokesperson said on Friday. HSBC was a Category 2 LME member, which allows trading for their own account and on behalf of clients using the LME electronic system, but not in the open-outcry ring.

The global job cuts at the London-headquartered bank will fall across several business units and geographical locations and result in the loss of at least 200 positions, mostly with the title of Chief Operating Officer (COO), the sources said. HSBC, which used to position itself as the world's local bank, employs many COOs because country and business lines have their own separate COO, the sources said. The lender has been shrinking its sprawling global business for several years, downsizing in many regions and exiting some countries entirely as it tries to improve shareholder returns. The initiative, codenamed Project Banyan, follows HSBC's last major redundancy plan in 2020, which targeted up to 35,000 job cuts globally across all staffing levels. Three separate sources confirmed job cuts were underway, as HSBC joins a chorus of other western banks axing staff as a bleak global economic outlook weighs on business, consumer and investment banking revenues.

☆ 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.

☆ HSBC will have to share custody with JPMorgan of $52 bln in gold bars
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Peter Hobson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Gold bars are displayed during a photo opportunity at the Ginza Tanaka store in Tokyo September 7, 2009. HSBC had been the sole custodian for SPDR Gold Trust, also known as GLD, since it launched in 2004. The bank currently stores about 910 tonnes of gold for GLD in London -- around a quarter of all the gold held for ETFs globally. Cavatoni said the WGC's agreement with JPMorgan allowed it to store gold in the United States and Switzerland but for the time the fund intended continue storing all its gold in London. HSBC said: "We're pleased to continue acting as a custodian for the World Gold Council's SPDR Gold Trust."

☆ European shares kick off month on firm footing on Powell speech
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Susan Mathew | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The pan-European STOXX 600 index (.STOXX) climbed 0.6%, after gaining 6.8% in November to log its best month since July. Energy stocks (.SXEP) slumped, capping gains for the broader index, as oil prices dipped amid uncertainty ahead of Sunday's OPEC+ meeting. China's stringent measures have contributed to slowing global growth, while aggressive policy tightening and an energy crisis in Europe have also fuelled worries over a recession. "European markets are indeed incorporating the speech from Powell that was well-received by markets already elsewhere. These developments fuel optimism that followed after data showed a smaller-than-expected rise in euro zone inflation on Wednesday, which raised the prospect of a less-aggressive monetary policy tightening by the European Central Bank.

☆ HSBC to close 114 branches in Britain from April 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

LONDON, Nov 30 (Reuters) - HSBC (HSBA.L) will close 114 branches in Britain from April 2023, the British lender said on Wednesday, the latest in a string of such announcements by retail banks in the country as they slash their networks to try and cut costs. HSBC, in common with peers such as Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.L) that has also closed branches in recent months, blamed changing customer behaviour for the move, saying customers are increasingly banking online. HSBC said it will invest tens of millions of pounds in updating and improving its remaining 327 branches. Reporting by Lawrence White, Editing by Louise HeavensOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Top Canada banks RBC, National Bank's profits dip as bad debt provisions mount
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Profit from personal and commercial banking for RBC and National Bank in the quarter grew 5% and 13%, respectively. RBC earmarked C$381 million in provisions for credit losses (PCL), compared with a C$227 million release last year. National Bank reported C$87 million versus a C$41 million release a year ago. Shares of RBC, which agreed to buy HSBC's (HSBA.L) Canadian business on Tuesday, were down 1.4%, while National Bank fell nearly 4%. National Bank, on the other hand, posted an adjusted profit of C$2.08 per share, below analysts' expectation of C$2.24.

☆ 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.

TORONTO, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Canadian regulators will review the sale of HSBC's (HSBA.L) business in Canada to Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO) for C$13.5 billion ($10 billion) in cash, the Canadian government's finance ministry said on Tuesday. The Competition Bureau, under the Competition Act, will also review the transaction," the finance ministry said in a statement. RBC's purchase price reflects a 30% premium to the value some analysts had attributed to HSBC's Canada business. Analysts had valued HSBC's Canada business in the range of C$8 billion to C$10 billion. "The Minister of Finance's decision will be informed by all required regulatory review processes," it added.

The transaction is also fraught with regulatory risks, analysts said, though RBC argues that HSBC's Canada business accounts for just 2% of Canadian banking market share. The finance minister has the authority to impose any terms and conditions, the finance department said in a statement. "This regulatory assessment isn't likely to be completed for some time," Calvin Goldman, former commissioner of Canada's competition bureau, told Reuters, referring to the latest deal. QUICK MOVEDespite the expected regulatory risks, RBC was keen to move quickly. RBC is paying 9.4 times HSBC's 2024 adjusted earnings, which KBW analysts said was a steep price, though offset by savings potentials.

[1/2] HSBC logo is seen on a branch bank in the financial district in New York, U.S., Aug. 7, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File PhotoLONDON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - HSBC (HSBA.L) has agreed to sell its business in Canada to Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO) for $13.5 billion Canadian dollars ($10.04 billion) in cash. Chinese insurance company Ping An Insurance Group has been pushing HSBC to split off its Asian business to boost returns. "We decided to sell following a thorough review of the business, which assessed its relative market position within the Canadian market and its strategic fit within the HSBC portfolio," Chief Executive Noel Quinn said. Analysts had valued HSBC's Canada business in the range of C$8 billion to C$10 billion.

☆ Indonesia’s green step not yet a leap for mankind
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( George Hay | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

That’s where the private sector comes in, and why Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs) are a potential game changer. More significantly, seven international banks, including HSBC (HSBA.L), (0005.HK), Citigroup and Bank of America (BAC.N), have promised to match that amount. International Finance Corporation figures show that “concessional” finance extended by public bodies at below-market rates can often attract 10 times its own level in private finance. The GFANZ working group will need to ensure Jakarta is sticking to its side of the decarbonisation bargain. The GFANZ group includes Bank of America, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Macquarie, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Standard Chartered.

☆ Banking giants and New York Fed start 12-week digital dollar pilot
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Lananh Nguyen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW YORK, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Global banking giants are starting a 12-week digital dollar pilot with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the participants announced on Tuesday. Citigroup Inc , HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA.L), Mastercard Inc (MA.N) and Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) are among the financial companies participating in the experiment alongside the New York Fed's innovation center, they said in a statement. The project, which is called the regulated liability network, will be conducted in a test environment and use simulated data, the New York Fed said. The pilot will test how banks using digital dollar tokens in a common database can help speed up payments. Earlier this month, Michelle Neal, head of the New York Fed's market's group, said it sees promise in using a central bank digital dollar to speed up settlement time in currency markets.

"We’ve built a platform for cooperation that can truly transform Indonesia’s power sector from coal to renewables and support significant economic growth," U.S. Special Envoy on Climate Change John Kerry said. EARLIER, LOWER PEAKThe Treasury official said that the peak power emissions for Indonesia in 2030 under the plan would be at a level 25% lower than their currently estimated peak in 2037. Indonesia's annual emissions reduction over those years would be larger than Britain's annual power sector emissions, the official said. U.S., JAPAN LEADThe United States and Japan are co-leading the effort with Indonesia on behalf of the other G7 democracies Britain, Canada, France, Germany Italy, as well as partners Norway, Denmark and the European Union. On Monday, Japan announced it would help Indonesia transition away from coal power through public and private institutions, including the state-affiliated Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).

☆ Piyush Gupta might be banking’s boldest boss
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Una Galani | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Piyush Gupta of $65 billion Singaporean lender DBS Group (DBSM.SI) appears to be that CEO, whether he thinks of himself that way or not. Yet the two banks trade on a similar multiple of 1.5 times their estimated 2022 book value, according to Refinitiv. There is limited room for growth in DBS’ tiny home market, a city with a population of 5.5 million people. That, plus the pressure to maintain that 1.5-times-book market value, means Gupta needs to keep finding ways to grow. U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks on Nov. 14 while at the G20 summit in Indonesia.

At the same time, the pan-European STOXX 600 (.STOXX) was down 0.4% and an index of European oil and gas stocks was down 0.9%. (.SXEP)The IPO, which priced at the bottom of the expected price range, gave an initial valuation of 2.45 billion pounds ($2.83 billion) for the company. The London stock exchange has suffered the worst year on record for UK IPOs as market volatility persists amid the energy crisis and worsening economic forecasts. So far in 2022, global utility and energy IPOs valued at more than $100 million saw an average 19.9% return after one day, compared with negative returns for European utility and energy IPOs and UK IPOs across all sectors, according to Dealogic data. The last oil and gas producer to float on the main London stock exchange was eastern Mediterranean-focused Energean (ENOG.L) in 2018.

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