HSBC Plc plans to cut its workforce which may account for more than 10,000 employees, as the bank seeks to cut its costs, reported Sky News, citing the sources with the knowledge of the matter. Sky News adds that the plans of the bank have not been yet finalized. Meantime, officials at the company provide no comments.

Standard Chartered reported that its income growth leveled up with cost growth in the first half of this year as its austerity policy helped it evade more than a year of expenses outpacing profit. The bank expected profit before tax to rise by a double-digit figure in the first half of the year, helped by strong growth in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, China and Indonesia, it said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange. In a move to cut costs the bank decreased its workforce in the region.  

Bling Nation, a US mobile payments service, announced about the “pause” of its activity to fix its business model that has failed to be attractive for merchants. While it became very popular at the dawn of its business Bling Nation lost its way when it introduced FanConnect, a social media-heavy loyalty programme that was compulsory for Bling's bank and merchant partners.

A number of banks such as Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase & Co plan to follow Citigroup and Bank of America in allowing shareholders to vote on executive compensation, reports the Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources with the knowledge of the case. Under the statutes of the last year’s Dodd-Frank financial reform there should be a say-on-pay vote at least three years at most big U.S. companies.

Lloyds Banking Group wants to raise £20 billion ($32 billion) in a move to fund the sale of its 600 branches, according to the Sunday Times reports. Almost owned by the government Lloyds needs more cash to address a funding gap at the branches, the paper reported. Citigroup, Credit Suisse, JPMorgan Chase, Rothschild and UBS are all hoping to win the deal to advise on the sale of the branches but have been told they must offer a loan of between 15 and 20 billion pounds if they want to pick up the business, according to the Sunday Times.  

Reuters/IFR conducted a global poll of bankers which revealed that from Wall Street to the City of London to Hong Kong's Central District, bankers are bracing for bonuses to be down 7 percent on average from a year ago, and higher salaries will only partially cushion the hit. A number of the industry experts expect 30% decline after weak trading results that are depressing bank profits and shrinking the bonus pool. Bankers are known to rely heavily on year-end bonuses for a large portion of their yearly compensation.

Citigroup will be opening flagship bank branches in largest Western European cities next year to re-focus its retail offer on affluent "global citizens," as reported by the Financial Times. Citi’s operations in the UK, Spain, Greece and Belgium are closing down under terms of the U.S. government bail-out and therefore, the bank is seeking to slim down and target major cities in France, Britain and Germany, the FT said.

 Bank of America Merrill Lynch has started aggressive market penetration in Europe. Such decision can be made after announcement of BofA about hiring ten bankers to its European corporate banking business. A key moment in this announcement was that a large number of bankers were recruited from its rivals Royal Bank of Scotland and Citigroup. 

Bank of America Merrill Lynch reported that its ePayables solution continues to post significant growth, with a compound annual growth rate of 43 percent over the last two years. Last year over $6.1 billion in payments was processed via ePayables. Since ePayables was first offered five years ago, payments processed through the card solution have grown significantly across all markets and segments, demonstrating the confidence clients have placed in BofA Merrill as a provider of end-to-end payments services.

A global provider of financial services Fiserv announced its Revenue Expansion program specifically developed to help banks and credit unions impacted by Regulation E. as is known on November 12, 2009, the US Federal Reserve Board published a final rule under Regulation E that prohibits financial institutions from charging overdraft fees for ATM or one-time debit card transactions, unless a consumer opts-in to the overdraft service.

Misys announced the new release of its Confirmation Matching Service (CMS) which includes inter-bank matching for Exotic FX Options - extending the existing support for buy-side counterparties which went live earlier this year and is now used by more than a dozen banks and fund managers.

As it became known, Saturday, a systems glitch injured Barclays’ customers. So the majority of bank’s clients were left unable to access their accounts online or use cash machines.  The Barclays’ computer systems failed early on Saturday hitting Internet and telephone banking customers as well as ATMs. However, the bank representatives claim point of sale transactions were not affected.

Monday, HSBC unveiled its plans to acquire South Africa's fourth-biggest bank Nedbank. Thus far, Europe's biggest bank is currently in exclusive talks with Anglo-South African insurer Old Mutual to buy Nedbank.

Well Fargo was ordered by a federal judge to pay California consumers $203 million in restitution for claims that it had manipulated transactions to maximize the overdraft fees it charged, reports the New York Times. A judge in San Francisco found that instead of processing transactions in an order they were received the bank started with largest and went to smallest further. In his 90-page opinion United States District Judge William Alsup wrote that the practice was unfair and deceptive.

Two top European banks, HSBC and BNP Paribas, excel their earnings outlooks as bad debts fell sharply to make up for slowing investment banking growth.