Weekly Global News Wrap: Piraeus buys 90% of Ethniki Insurance; BBVA SA seeks double CIB revenue

And the world’s leading climate coalition seeks new members as it overhauls rules

From Reuters:

Greece’s Piraeus Financial Holdings is buying 90% of Greek insurer Ethniki Insurance from CVC Capital Partners for €600m.

Piraeus— one of Greece’s four largest banks— had earlier announced that it was in talks to acquire the insurer.

CVC had bought that 90% stake in Ethniki from National Bank in 2021.

From Bloomberg:

BBVA SA will aim to double revenue in its Corporate and Investment Banking unit, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Spanish lender is likely to say it wants to achieve the new CIB revenue goal in the year 2029 and the increase will be compared to last year’s level, when it was €5.8b, the people said.

The growth push will be underpinned by fresh hiring and include a plan to substantially boost the size of BBVA’s Brazil office.

From Reuters:

The world's leading climate coalition for the banking sector is canvassing members over changes to its rules, its chair told Reuters.

This comes after the withdrawal of some of the biggest banks and as the real economy falls short of more ambitious climate action.

Shargiil Bashir, Chief Sustainability Officer and Executive Vice President at First Abu Dhabi Bank said the move, flagged to members late on Tuesday, also reflected developments in science, policy, methodologies and regulation.