Thu Feb 25, 2016/Reuters

The African Development Bank has priced a three-year $1 billion global benchmark due on 4 March 2019 at a coupon of 1.125 percent, the AFDB said on Wednesday.

The lead managers of the bank’s first USD global benchmark for 2016 are BNP Paribas, HSBC, JP Morgan and Nomura, the AFDB said in a statement.

(Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Editing by Tiisetso Motsoeneng)

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HSBC will announce staff bonuses totaling just under 2.4 billion pounds ($4 billion) globally for 2013 and is expected to report a significant rise in pretax profit, Sky News reported on its website on Saturday without citing its sources.

Referring to an unnamed source close to the bank, Sky also said Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver will receive a 1.8 million pound bonus as part of an overall pay deal worth more than 7 million pounds, though this would be less than his previous year pay deal of 7.4 million.

Europe’s biggest bank is expected to announce the size of its bonus pool on Monday along with its yearly results. Bonus payments remain a sensitive issue as many Britons still blame banks for the 2008 financial crisis, after which the state was forced to bail out RBS and Lloyds.

Earlier this month Barclays prompted an angry reaction from politicians and labor unions after it increased its bonuses by 13 percent to 2.4 billion pounds, even as it announced plans to axe 12,000 jobs.

Sky quoted an unnamed source saying the rise in variable pay or bonuses at HSBC would be smaller than its likely increase in earnings.

The broadcaster also reported Gulliver’s bonus was just over half the maximum he could have received under the terms of his contract and that he would be paid a deferred share award of 3.7 million pounds under the bank’s long-term incentive plan.

He would also take a cash payment in lieu of pension contributions alongside his basic salary of 1.25 million, giving the total of more than 7 million, according to an unnamed source.

A spokesman at HSBC declined comment.

The bank’s overall bonus payments would be marginally higher than its 2012 bonus pool of 2.2 billion pounds and would come only a year before a new EU bonus cap which Britain is resisting through the courts.

The new rules would mean from 2015 bonuses cannot be more than fixed salary, or double this amount if a bank obtains shareholder approval.

Banks including HSBC, Barclays and Goldman Sachs are among the banks expected to raise the non-bonus part of remuneration with, for example, monthly or quarterly “allowances”.

Source: Reuters (by Costas Pitas)

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HSBC and Citigroup both suspended foreign exchange traders on Friday as a global probe into possible currency market manipulation intensified.

Regulators from the United States arrived in London this week, stepping up an investigation in which they are working with Britain’s financial watchdog to determine whether traders at some of the world’s biggest banks colluded to manipulate the $5.3 trillion-a-day foreign exchange market.

The investigations center on senior traders’ communication of client positions via electronic chatrooms, which featured prominently also in a probe into the rigging of a key interest rate known as the London interbank offered rate, or Libor.

As the currency investigation ramps up, the banks themselves are scrutinizing their employees more closely and most are now carrying out internal investigations.

Sources told Reuters that Deutsche Bank suspended several traders in New York this week, while U.S. regulators descended on Citigroup’s London offices.

A spokesman for HSBC confirmed the bank had suspended two FX traders in London, but declined further comment.

The two HSBC traders suspended are Edward Pinto and Serge Sarramegna, said a person with direct knowledge of the situation.

Their positions were not known, but Sarramegna has in the past been head of the G10 spot FX desk, according to numerous reports. Both men are listed as active on the UK regulator’s register of financial industry professionals.

The two men could not immediately be reached at their office phones or company email addresses. Sarramegna could not be reached at his home in Essex, 28 miles (45km) east of London.

A Citigroup spokesman said two FX traders had been sent “on leave”.

The Citi traders are London-based Anthony John and Andrew Amantia, who works in New York, a source with knowledge of the matter said. Both are G10 spot currency traders at the U.S. bank.

The source said the men were suspended on Thursday as a result of investigations into chatroom communications.

Neither man could be reached at their office telephone numbers.

Several traders at several banks have been suspended or sent on leave. Citi last week fired its head of European spot foreign exchange trading, Rohan Ramchandani, following a prolonged period on leave, one source with knowledge of the matter said.

Deutsche Bank, Citi and HSBC are three of the biggest players in the FX market.

Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority began a formal investigation into the currency market in October and the U.S. Justice Department is also investigating possible manipulation.

The FCA is focusing on around 15 banks, whom it has asked for – or required to provide – information about currency trading activities.

Source: Reuters (by Steve Slater and Clare Hutchison)

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