The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced that its remaining investigations into firms, following its thematic review into the fair treatment of longstanding customers in the life insurance sector, have each been closed. The FCA launched the investigation following a thematic review, published on 3 March 2016. This identified further work was required to determine whether 6 of the 11 firms that were involved in the thematic review had failed to meet our standards. These 6 firms were Abbey Life, Countrywide Assured, Old Mutual, Police Mutual, Prudential and Scottish Widows.
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European Central Bank (ECB) Banking Supervision has published the findings of the thematic review of banks’ profitability and business models conducted from 2016 to the end of the first quarter of 2018. The review shows that although the economic situation of banks in the euro area has generally improved, profitability and business models remain under pressure.
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Authors: Mathias Drehmann and James Yetman
Excessive credit growth is part and parcel of any financial boom and bust. But what is “excessive”? There is no clear cut answer to this question, so researchers use proxies. Typically, credit is divided, or “normalised”, by some variable such as GDP so that it can be compared across time and between countries. The gap between the level of normalised credit and some “trend” level is then used as a proxy for excessive credit growth.
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has banned Christian Bittar from performing any function in relation to any regulated financial activity. Mr Bittar formerly worked at Deutsche Bank where he traded interest rate derivative products referenced to benchmarks including EURIBOR. The FCA has found that Mr Bittar lacks integrity and therefore fitness and propriety to carry out such a role. Mr Bittar made requests to EURIBOR submitters to make high or low EURIBOR submissions, both internally to Deutsche Bank submitters and externally to traders at other EURIBOR panel banks. He did so to benefit the profitability of the trading positions for which he was responsible and, on occasion, the profitability of the trading positions of other traders.
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Introductory statement by Mr Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank, and Mr Luis de Guindos, Vice-President of the European Central Bank. We will  report on the outcome of today’s meeting of the Governing Council, which was also attended by the Commission Vice-President, Mr Dombrovskis. Based on our regular economic and monetary analyses, we decided to keep the key ECB interest rates unchanged. We continue to expect them to remain at their present levels at least through the summer of 2019, and in any case for as long as necessary to ensure the continued sustained convergence of inflation to levels that are below, but close to, 2% over the medium term.
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ING announced that Koos Timmermans will step down from his position as chief financial officer and member of the Executive Board of ING Group and will leave the company. His resignation follows the announcement on 4 September 2018 of the settlement regarding shortcomings in the execution of customer due diligence policies to prevent financial economic crime at ING Netherlands. During the investigated period (2010-2016) Koos Timmermans was a member of the Management Board Banking and for several years end-responsible for ING Netherlands. In light of these circumstances and in consultation with the Supervisory Board, Koos Timmermans will step down.
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With just under a year to go until the UK leaves the EU a lot of attention has been paid to how the insurance industry is responding to Brexit and the disruption it will cause. There has been much less information about Captives – yet the implications for them are far-reaching. Simon Burtwell, Jenny Coletta, Ben Reid, and Martin Powell of EY provide an overview of the key challenges.
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At his keynote speech at the Global Capital Sustainable & Responsible Markets Forum, Frank Elderson, first Chairman of The Network ON Greening the Financial system (NGFS). shed his light on the ways central banks are contributing to the greening of the financial system. He gives an insight into their work and progress. And he describes how therir activities fit within the broader context of international developments in this area.
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ING announced that it has entered into a settlement agreement with the Dutch Public Prosecution Service (DPPS) relating to previously disclosed investigations regarding various requirements for client on-boarding and the prevention of money laundering and corrupt practices. Under the terms of the agreement ING has agreed to pay a fine of €675 million and €100 million for disgorgement.
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In a case brought by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), five individuals have been sentenced to a total of 17.5 years’ imprisonment for their roles in a share fraud carried out through a series of boiler room companies which led to the loss of more than £2.8m of investors’ money. The sentencing of five defendants was concluded today at Southwark Crown Court. The sixth defendant, Michael Nascimento (DOB 28th June 1977), will be sentenced on the 14th September 2018. He was the controlling mind, instigator and the main beneficiary of the fraud.
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