Bank Orders Hit on Whistleblower

Latvian Bank Owner Orders Hit

The owner of a Latvian bank has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for ordering a hit on a whistleblower. Mihails Ulans, the former owner of LPB Bank was found guilty of paying for a hit on lawyer, Martins Bunkus. Mr. Bunkus had reported his concerns about LPB’s money laundering practices to the regulatory authorities.

Santander Delays UK Results

Santander has delayed the publication of full UK results pending a court decision on the legality of practices in the car finance market. A court will rule as to whether the payment of commission to secure car lending business is legal. There is a possibility that up to GBP 16 billion in customer redress may be payable with Santander’s share amounting to GBP 1 billion. In further bad news, the bank revealed that UK profits fell 18.5 per cent to Euro 346 million. It has cut 468 staff in the UK to leave a headcount of 21.812.

Saudi Reduces International Investment

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has announced that it will be reducing its investments overseas. In 2020 the fund had 30 per cent of its assets overseas. That figure will be reduced to 18 per cent. The $930 billion fund will not seek to focus on the domestic economy as oil revenues decline.

UBS Impresses UBS has just announced results that beat analysts’ expectations by 100 per cent! The bank has posted profits of $1.4 billion on revenues of $12.3 billion. High volatility, cost cutting and string wealth management flows were key factors. All of this was achieved whilst integrating Credit Suisse.