By John O’Donnell FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Germany’s savings banks, a conservative bastion that holds more than 1 trillion euros for thrifty Germans, is looking into offering a wallet to trade cryptocurrency, a group of the banks said on Monday. The project marks a potentially radical departure for the banks, whose customers still use cash and eschew …
Germany’s trillion-euro savings banks mull crypto wallet Read More »
By Anisha Sircar and Shashank Nayar (Reuters) -European shares ended lower on Monday, led by travel and energy stocks over rising Omicron variant risks, while a wave of central bank policy decisions this week kept investor sentiment subdued. The pan-European benchmark STOXX 600 erased early session gains to end 0.4% lower, marking its fourth consecutive …
Travel stocks push European shares lower on Omicron worries Read More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Sterling traded lower on Monday as Britain braced for a “tidal wave” of the Omicron coronavirus variant and investors took the view the Bank of England would keep interest rates on hold to assess its economic impact before tightening monetary policy. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned of an incoming surge in …
Pound weakens as Britain braces for Omicron ‘tidal wave’ Read More »
LONDON (Reuters) -BlackRock Inc trimmed its exposure to European government bonds and said it favoured equities over fixed income in the year ahead as inflation will settle above pre-pandemic levels. The world’s biggest asset manager said it had turned “underweight” European government bonds, predicting yields would head higher while current market pricing pointed to no …
BlackRock cuts European government debt bets as yields seen rising Read More »
MILAN (Reuters) – Banco BPM has always liked the idea of joining forces with a similar-size rival to create a third large banking group in Italy but is open to assessing all options, Chief Executive Giuseppe Castagna said on Monday. Speaking at the annual conference of banking union FABI, Castagna said Banco BPM was “on …
Banco BPM open to all M&A options, prefers same-size – CEO Read More »
By Tangi Salaün PARIS (Reuters) – A Paris appeals court on Monday slashed the penalty UBS must pay for allegedly helping wealthy clients in France evade taxes to 1.8 billion euros ($2 billion), but upheld that the Swiss bank was guilty of both promoting illegal banking services and money laundering. The revised penalty is less …
French court slashes UBS tax evasion fine to 1.8 billion euros Read More »
LONDON (Reuters) – State-backed bank NatWest is to pay 265 million pounds ($351.13 million) in fines, after pleading guilty to failing to prevent the laundering of nearly 400 million pounds. The fine, issued as a sentence on Monday, caps a landmark case in which NatWest became the first bank to be criminally prosecuted in Britain …
NatWest to pay $351 million for money laundering offences Read More »
By Kate Abnett, Nina Chestney and Susanna Twidale BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) – The European Union is expected to propose a system this week to allow countries to jointly buy strategic stocks of gas, a measure drawn up in response to soaring energy prices. Benchmark wholesale European gas prices rose by more than 500% this year, hitting …
Explainer-Can joint gas buying tackle Europe’s high prices? Read More »
MILAN (Reuters) – Shares in Telecom Italia (TIM) rose as much as 4.4% on Monday as investors bet on the possibility that U.S. private equity group KKR is ready to launch a formal takeover offer for Italy’s biggest telecoms company following a non-binding approach last month. KKR’s bid approach, which values TIM at 33 billion …
Telecom Italia rises on speculation KKR ready to make formal bid Read More »
By Kate Abnett BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Commission will propose a system for EU countries to voluntarily jointly buy gas to form strategic reserves of the fuel, a measure drawn up in response to soaring energy prices, according to a document shared with countries ahead of a summit this week. European gas prices surged to …
EU to propose joint gas buying in response to high energy prices -document Read More »
