LONDON (Reuters) – American billionaire Wilbur Ross is buying into a vehicle set up to buy UK banking assets and has signaled he will use the shell to pursue acquisitions in continental Europe.

Ross will pay about 8 million pounds ($13 million) for up to 37.8 percent of NBNK (NBNK.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which is effectively a shell company and was in the process of being wound up after failing to buy a trio of UK bank assets.

LONDON, Dec 13 (Reuters) – American billionaire Wilbur Ross
is buying into a vehicle set up to buy UK banking assets and has
signaled he will use the shell to pursue acquisitions in
continental Europe.

Ross will pay about 8 million pounds ($13 million) for up to
37.8 percent of NBNK, which is effectively a shell
company and was in the process of being wound up after failing
to buy a trio of UK bank assets.

LONDON (Reuters) – HSBC takes its name from its roots as the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, but there has long been a joke inside and outside the firm that the name stands for “How Simple Became Complicated”.

That complexity in part explains how the London-based bank ended up with the biggest fine ever imposed on a financial firm by U.S. regulators on Tuesday – an eye-watering $1.9 billion – after a lengthy U.S. probe showed sweeping problems at the bank. Lax controls had left HSBC as the “preferred financial institution” for drug traffickers and money launderers, U.S. prosecutors said this week.

LONDON, Dec 12 (Reuters) – HSBC takes its name from
its roots as the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, but
there has long been a joke inside and outside the firm that the
name stands for “How Simple Became Complicated”.

That complexity in part explains how the London-based bank
ended up with the biggest fine ever imposed on a financial firm
by U.S. regulators on Tuesday – an eye-watering $1.9 billion -
after a lengthy U.S. probe showed sweeping problems at the bank.
Lax controls had left HSBC as the “preferred financial
institution” for drug traffickers and money launderers, U.S.
prosecutors said this week.

HONG KONG/LONDON (Reuters) – Standard Chartered expects to pay $330 million to settle a case with U.S. regulators for breaking sanctions on Iran, the Asian-focused bank said on Thursday, a second such penalty which could almost wipe out its profit growth this year.

Standard Chartered already paid $340 million to New York’s Department of Financial Services (DFS) in the third quarter, and the London-based bank said the settlement with federal and other state regulators was expected “very shortly”.

HONG KONG/LONDON, Dec 6 (Reuters) – Standard Chartered
expects to pay $330 million to settle a case with U.S.
regulators for breaking sanctions on Iran, the Asian-focused
bank said on Thursday, a second such penalty which could almost
wipe out its profit growth this year.

Standard Chartered already paid $340 million to New York’s
Department of Financial Services (DFS) in the third quarter, and
the London-based bank said the settlement with federal and other
state regulators was expected “very shortly”.

LONDON (Reuters) – A former chief executive of HBOS (LLOY.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) apologized for the first time on Monday for his role in the high-risk lending strategy that brought the British bank close to collapse during the financial crisis.

Knighted by the Queen in 2006 for services to the financial sector, James Crosby admitted to a committee of British members of parliament that incompetent corporate lending brought HBOS to its knees two years later.

ZURICH/LONDON (Reuters) – Swiss bank UBS AG is nearing a deal to settle claims some of its staff manipulated interest rates and could reach agreement with U.S. and British authorities by the end of the year, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday.

UBS is expected to pay more than $450 million to settle claims some of its employees submitted false Libor rates, the New York Times reported earlier.

LONDON, Dec 3 (Reuters) – The former bosses of bailed-out
British bank HBOS said on Monday management had underestimated
the extent of the risks the group faced before it nearly
collapsed during the financial crisis.

HBOS, now owned by Lloyds, was Britain’s biggest
home loan provider but its downfall was blamed on the aggressive
growth of its corporate lending division. The bank was also
heavily reliant on wholesale funding which dried up suddenly
when financial markets froze during the crisis.

LONDON, Nov 30 (Reuters) – Barclays could axe as
many as 3,500 investment bank staff and cut its advisory or
equities operations in Asia as part of a broader strategic
review aimed at fixing the bank’s culture in the wake of the
financial crisis.

The future shape and size of the investment bank is seen as
the most critical part of Chief Executive Antony Jenkins’
review, as it contributes more than half of group profits but
conducts the “casino” activities politicians and regulators are
cracking down on.