Global News Wrap Up: Turkish banks struggle under growing bad loans; Societe Generale eyes cutting 1,600 jobs

And Standard Chartered slapped with $1.1b fine for sanction violations.

From Bloomberg:

Turkish banks are struggling as Non-performing loans (NPLs) climbed 13% to $19.3b in 2018,which could signal a deeper-than-anticipated economic contraction or renewed pressure on the lira could erode the estimated $27b in pre-provision operating-profit cushion the lenders have, according to Bloomberg Intelligence banking analyst Tomasz Noetzel.

More than half of the liabilities of Turkish companies is to banks based in the country, over double the ratio in 2008, according to central bank data. Non-performing loans as a percentage of total credit rose to 4.11% in February from 2.95% at the beginning of 2018, according to the banking regulator, which predicted the ratio could climb to 6 percentthis year. 

From Reuters:

French bank Societe Generale eyes to cut 1,600 jobs, mainly in its corporate and investment banking arm. The move is a part of its attempt to uplift profits after a poor performance in 2018.

The bank, which employs 18,000 people in 30 countries in corporate and investment banking, said it would cut 750 jobs in France, where all redundancies will be voluntary. People will be offered a financial incentive or another job within the bank. Other cuts, mainly in New York and London, may see the bank fire people.

From Reuters: 

Standard Chartered agreed to pay $1.1b to US and British authorities for conducting illegal financial transactions that violated sanctions against Iran and other countries.The settlement by the London-based bank is amongst the most severe imposed for sanctions violations, some of which occurred not long after Standard Chartered settled similar charges in 2012.

“The circumstances that led to today’s resolutions are completely unacceptable” and “not representative” of the bank today, group chief executive Bill Winters said in a statement.