Investment banks

Swiss private bank EFG International plans to cut up to 450 jobs over the next three years as part of its takeover of BSI Bank.

Its acquisition of Swiss rival BSI from Brazil's Grupo BTG Pactual SA has made EFG one of Switzerland's biggest private banks, behind the likes of UBS, Credit Suisse, Julius Baer and Pictet.

Belgian bank KBC and Hungarian lender OTP Bank have made offers to acquire United Bulgarian Bank (UBB), the Bulgarian subsidiary of National Bank of Greece (NBG), according to banking industry sources.

The 18th annual Greek Investor Forum takes place on December 12 at the Metropolitan Club of New York, organized by Capital Link in association with the New York Stock Exchange. Guest of honor at the event will be Wilbur Ross, senior financial adviser to the new president and future secretary of commerce.

Piraeus Bank, Greece's largest lender, has appointed George Handjinicolaou as its new board chairman, it said on Tuesday.

Handjinicolaou, who is taking over immediately, was most recently deputy chief executive officer at the London-based International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), Piraeus said in a statement.

The lists of possible tax dodgers at the monitoring authorities' disposal are being checked at a particularly slow rate, according to data released on Thursday by Alternate Finance Minister Tryfon Alexiadis.

Germany's Deutsche Bank is financially sound and doesn't have any problem other than the US demanding it pay up to $14 billion in fines for miss-selling mortgage-backed securities, ECB Governing Council member Yannis Stournaras said on Tuesday.

HSBC is not planning to leave the Turkish market, the major international lender's Turkey CEO has said.

Turkey's leading investment banking services and asset management group, ÜNLÜ & Co, has announced it has set its sights on becoming the leading investment bank in the region. As a step toward this goal, which requires an on-the-ground presence in the finance capitals of the world, ÜNLÜ & Co has obtained a license for brokerage activities and opened an office in New York, the bank said i

Shares of Deutsche Bank fell 8% at the start of the European trading session on Friday, amid capital concerns following a proposed settlement by the U.S. Department of Justice and a report that some hedge funds were reducing their exposure to the embattled bank.

HSBC has decided to retain its Turkish operations after the offers it received for the unit were deemed not to be in the best interest of shareholders, Group CEO Stuart Gulliver said in a statement on Feb. 22.