The listed but family controlled Catalonian bank Banco Sabadell, a medium sized Spanish retail provider, has acquired the rival Banco Atlantico for Euros 1.5 billion. The bank saw off rival bids from Barclays Bank of the UK owners of Banco
HSBC is buying 50 per cent of Fujian Asia Bank Limited for "not more than" US$20 million in cash, funded from internal resources. China Ping An Trust & Investment Co. Limited, a subsidiary of Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of
The State Street Associates investor confidence index rose 7.1 points this month to 114.8 from a revised November level of 107.7. The index gain was the year's largest, concluding 2003 at a twelve month high after rising from 98.0 at
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) will pay $80 million to settle charges it helped Enron perpetrate an accounting fraud, US regulators announced yesterday. The settlement is one of the largest regulatory penalties ever levied against a Canadian bank. The
Credit Lyonnais and other French firms connected will pay a total of $771 million to settle charges that the French bank's takeover of Californian insurer Executive Life took place at a time when US law banned such deals. The settlement,
China Life has raised the size of its IPO by 15 percent to US$3.46 billion, selling more shares to meet massive demand from investors. Shares in the company rose 26 per cent on their first day of trading on Thursday,
Wachovia Bank has acquired the correspondent banking payment processing business of Harris Bank International Corporation (HBIC), a part of the BMO Financial Group. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Wachovia will work with HBIC to transition its existing
It looks as if banks will be able to act as agency brokers in the Japanese securities markets from the Spring of 2005. Following approval by the Financial System Council, an advisory body to the Japanese Prime Minister, the Financial
New findings from the Grant Thornton International Business Owners Survey (IBOS), released today, reveal that businesses in Asia have been negatively affected by SARS but predict different recovery times. Of the key countries hit by SARS during 2003, 79% of
Following its debut on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, Bank Austria Creditanstalt (BA CA) has established a local Short & Medium Term Bond Programme in Poland. With a volume amounting to PLN 1 billion (approx. EUR 200 million) it is the