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Polish lender's net profit jumps 44pc

The bank's net fee income rose 7% to PLN222 million, while costs dropped to PLN392.1 million.

Commerzbank Exceeds Capital Target as Profit Declines

Commerzbank AG (CBK) exceeded the capital target set by Europe’s top banking regulator, even as Germany’s second-biggest lender posted lower-than-estimated profit in the first quarter.

Boutique banks come back into fashion

The latest round of seasoned investment bankers to leave large investment banks could spawn the next wave of boutique advisory houses.

Natixis CEO John Hailer looking to grow by acquisition

Natixis uses a force of more than 130 sales teams to market a collection of mutual funds that it owns, but which operate like individual boutique investment firms.

HSBC boss backs austerity as he reports fall in profits to $4.3bn

As the bank reported a slide in pre-tax profits to $4.3bn (£2.7bn) from $4.9bn, Gulliver said that the markets were rewarding the coalition's austerity policies by keeping interest rates low and sterling strong.

BNP Paribas First-Quarter Profit Rises 9.6% on Klepierre Gain

BNP Paribas SA (BNP), France’s largest bank, said first-quarter profit rose 9.6 percent, helped by the sale of a stake in property company Klepierre SA and a rebound in fixed-income trading revenue.

Royal Bank of Scotland trims impairment losses by a third‎

Royal Bank of Scotland reported a first-quarter group operating profit of £1.184bn. Core operating profit was £1.667bn, with return on tangible equity 11%. Impairment losses totalled £1.314bn, down 33% year-on-year.

Societe Generale quarterly profits fall 20% ‎

SocGen said a "sharp upturn in corporate and investment banking activities" had begun once the last Greek bailout had been finalised.

Raiffeisen Bank International closes acquisition of Polbank

The combined bank will become RBI's largest subsidiary in terms of customer loan volumes. RBI's subsidiary in Russia will remain the largest operation in terms of assets.

RBS to spin off M&A unit into boutique operation

In January the UK government-owned bank announced that it is getting out of some of its non-core activities such as brokerage and equity markets and the M&A business as part of a global realignment of its business.

Lloyds Banking Group profits hit by PPI claims

Taxpayer-backed Lloyds Banking Group revealed lower-than-expected profits today after it took an additional £375 million hit to cover payment protection insurance (PPI) claims.

BBVA Q1 profits down 12.6% amid provisions

The second biggest Spanish bank BBVA said Wednesday that its first quarter profit fell 12.6 percent to one billion euros ($1.3 billion) amid provisions to meet criteria on cleaning up bad property loans.

RBS set to spin off its M&A business

Around 45 M&A bankers from RBS will join the new firm, people familiar with the matter said, but there is no set timescale for the launch, which will be managed carefully to protect ongoing deals for existing clients.

Deutsche Bank profits hit amid debt crisis

The bank said although the business environment was "more stable" than at the end of last year, it was "far less favourable" than a year earlier.

Spain, Brazil weigh on Santander results

Spain has instructed its banks to set aside capital to cover a funding gap of tens of billions of euros stemming from a decade of unsustainable lending to property developers during a real estate boom that went abruptly into reverse in 2008.

Eurobank Books EUR4.6B Net Loss From Debt Write-Down‎

Greece’s dire fiscal and economic condition made painful decisions necessary in order to prevent a dramatic deterioration of the country’s situation.

UK banks need to raise £20bn to strengthen balance sheets, says Barclays Capital

CDS are a form of insurance on bonds that help offset the risk that a borrower will default on payments to an investor.

Deutsche Bank seeks revamp

Anshu Jain will make such a deeper collaboration one of his top priorities in the first 18 months of his tenure which will start this June, people close to the situation said.

QNB Talks to Buy Dexia’s Denizbank Stall Over Price

QNB is still seeking a price close to Denizbank’s book value, which stood at about $2.5 billion at the end of last year, while Dexia is seeking more than 1.5 times book value, two of the people said, declining to be identified as the talks are priva

Dutch Parliamentary Committee Proposes Overhaul Of Banking Sector

The committee said that activities such as proprietary trading, should be separated and have their own capital base. It also called for studies to examine whether banks need higher capital requirements and if they should ringfence their operations abroad

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