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In spite of recent legislation that will make it more expensive to operate in the UK, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. continues to expand in that country. The bank has bought two London buildings, one for 495 million pounds sterling, and the other for an undisclosed amount.

As economic conditions in Portugal continue to deteriorate, Portuguese banks are looking abroad to further growth. Article discusses Portuguese banks' expansion in other countries, funding, and expected earnings for the fiscal year.

Without providing financial details, Lloyds Banking Group PLC reported a profit for its fiscal third quarter and said it is well positioned to meet Basel III capital requirements. Net interest margin continued to improve in the quarter.

Allied Irish Banks PLC will sell its M&T Bank Corp. stake, raising approximately $2 bil. The 22.4% stake will be sold via a public offering, and will consist of 26.7 mil notes at $77.50 each. Allied Irish is being required by Ireland's government to raise 10.4 bil euros; the bank plans to launch a share offering next month for 5.4 bil euros and has already acquired 2.5 bil euros from its sale of a stake in Bank Zachodni.

Sources state that the United Kingdom's Independent Commission on Banking will be focusing on financial stability issues, which may lead to recommendations that include dividing up large banks between investment firms and retail operations. The commission was established in June after the nation's near collapse of its banking sector.

Speaking to investors, Man Group PLC's chief Peter Clarke said the hedge-fund group is lobbying to sell investment products to government agencies and private investors in mainland China. In the first-quarter, Man's assets under management slipped 2.3% to $38.5 billion.

Driven by its consumer- and wholesale-banking businesses, Standard Chartered PLC reports that net profit for the first half of 2010 is ahead of last year's first-half profit of $1.88 billion. Income is expected to remain flat.

Banco Santander S.A. is expected to be the sole bidder for 318 of Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC's branches in the U.K. The transaction is valued at about 1.8 billion pounds sterling.

Prudential PLC dismissed reports that it would sell its U.K. and U.S. operations to fund the $35.5 billion acquisition of AIA Group from American International Group Inc. Pending shareholder approval, Prudential will hold a $20 billion rights issue to partially finance the purchase of AIA.

Having posted a loss of 6.3 billion pounds sterling in 2009, Lloyds Banking Group PLC - 41%-owned by the UK government - reported a pre-tax profit for its first quarter. The bank did not disclose financial details. Lloyds expects to post a profit for full year 2010.

To fulfill governmental capital requirements, Bank of Ireland PLC will raise 3.42 billion euro through a rights issue and the private sale of stock to institutional investors. The bank expects its Tier 1 capital ratio to increase from 5.3% to 8%.

Boosted by a 3.8% cut in operating expenses, Credit Suisse Group AG's first-quarter profit inched up 2.4% to 2.06 billion Swiss francs. Revenue rose 11% to 9.01 billion francs from 8.11 billion francs. Revenue from investment banking fell 19% to 5.22 billion francs, while private-banking revenue rose 1% to 2.9 billion. Tier 1 ratio was 11.3% at the end of March compared with 11.2% at the end of December.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC has received bids from National Australia Bank Ltd., Banco Santander S.A., Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A., Virgin Money, and J.C. Flowers to acquire its 318 bank branches in England and Wales. The branches - which have a combined 23.6 billion pounds sterling in assets and 6,000 employees - are expected to fetch as much as 2 billion pounds. After due diligence, the parties will go through a second round of bidding. RBS is also receiving offers for its Global Merchant Services unit.

Following its $35.5 billion acquisition of American International Assurance Ltd., Prudential PLC will list its shares in Hong Kong ahead of the $20 billion rights issue planned for May. Prudential's shares are expected to begin trading on the Hong Kong market in late April or early May.

UK bank Standard Chartered PLC's net profit rose 4.7% to $3.28 billion in 2009. Profit at the bank's wholesale-banking operations rose to $4.08 billion from $3 billion, while consumer-banking profit fell to $867 billion from $1.12 billion. Standard Chartered will pay dividend of 66.03 cents a share, a 7% increase from the previous year.

Buoyed by strong results from its investment-banking operations, HSBC Holdings PLC's net profit in 2009 inched up 1% to $5.8 billion. Bad loan provisions rose 9% to $26.5 billion. In London trading, the bank's shares dropped 5.2% to 682 pence.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC's net loss for full-year 2009 narrowed to 3.61 billion pounds sterling from a loss of 24.31 billion pounds in 2008. Impairment charges for bad loans nearly doubled to 13.9 billion pounds. Because of improving economic conditions, the bank does not expect to seek government assistance to insure 282 billion pounds in toxic assets.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC is negotiating the sale of parts of its asset-management division to Aberdeen Asset Management PLC. Aberdeen is expected to pay between 80 million pounds sterling and 100 million pounds for portions of RBS Asset Management.

After the acquisition of Abbey National, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley, Spanish bank Banco Santander S.A. will have 1,300 branches across the U.K. In 2010, Santander is expected to focus on gaining market share and growth through acquisitions.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC is close to completing the sale of its retail- and commercial-banking assets in China, India and Malaysia to HSBC Holdings PLC. RBS recently sold its retail and commercial operations in Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia and Hong Kong to Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. for $550 million.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC shareholders will vote on the bank's participation in the U.K. Asset Protection Scheme that would insure 282 billion pounds sterling of the bank's loans and investments. The government disclosed that almost a third of insured assets have real estate as collateral.

Barclays PLC agreed to buy Standard Life PLC's retail banking business for 226 million pounds sterling. The acquisition bulks up Barclays's savings book by 5.5 billion pounds, and volume of outstanding mortgages by about 8.8 billion pounds. Before the purchase, Barclays has deposits of 88.5 billion pounds and mortgages totaling 84.4 billion pounds.

Byline: PATRICIA KOWSMANN AND P.R. VENKAT; John Jannarone and William Mallard in Singapore and Rachel Pannett contributed to this article SINGAPORE -- With global trade talks stalled, Asian-Pacific nations forged [...]