US Banks Push EU Rivals Toward Bigger Bonuses

Welcome to Bloomberg’s Banking Monitor. Every Thursday we’ll deliver you the top news of the global banking industry with emerging trends, winners and losers and market opportunities. Sign up now if you’re not already on the list.

Who wouldn’t want a bigger bonus? Apparently not everyone, or at least, not right away. Giant American banks are pushing for rule changes in Europe to allow them to boost payouts, but their counterparts in Europe are resisting, concerned that this might derail their other deregulatory efforts. UBS Group isn’t waiting around, increasing some bonus pools by 20%. HSBC Holdings, led by Georges Elhedery, is embracing the American attitude in the opposite way, zeroing out some bonuses to encourage laggards to leave.

Another trove of Epstein files has dropped, putting an unwanted spotlight on executives at some of those same US banks. UBS Group was center stage in Europe because of its consensus-beating earnings, but concern emerged about slowing growth at its key American unit, and US lawmakers took the bank to task for a problem it inherited when it acquired Credit Suisse: another trove of accounts apparently linked to Nazi-era financing.

More transatlantic dealings: Banco Santander is buying Webster Financial in the US, as star analyst Mike Mayo says the new round of consolidation is just getting started. — Rick Green