Banks

France's Saint Gobain has hired Goldman Sachs to sell its German building materials business as part of an asset disposal plan aimed at raising cash and improving margins, four sources close to the matter told Reuters.

China took a big step last week on the long road toward recapitalisation of banks hobbled by stale loans, giving a first ever approval for a perpetual bond issue by a lender, but going by initial feedback "perps" could be difficult to sell.

(This January 16 story was corrected to include gender pay gap at Citi when accounting for similar positions and geographies)

BlackRock and Goldman Sachs Asset Management both plan to temporarily move some British-based fund managers to New York in the event of a no-deal Brexit, two sources told Reuters.

Italy is considering merging troubled banks Monte dei Paschi and Banca Carige with healthier rivals such as UBI Banca as it scrambles to avert a new banking crisis, sources familiar with the matter said.

Malaysia's finance minister said on Friday the government would be ready to discuss dropping criminal charges against Goldman Sachs linked to the 1MDB scandal if the bank pays $7.5 billion (5.78 billion pounds) in reparations.

The ECB has expressed concerns over reports that Spanish bank BBVA hired a former police chief in 2004 to spy on a would-be buyer and some of its officials have discussed it with the bank, a source with knowledge of the situation told Reuters.

Royal Bank of Scotland will consult with shareholders on plans to buyback shares owned by the British government using excess capital to accelerate a return to private ownership.

A profit warning from Societe Generale and U.S. frictions over Chinese tech giant Huawei weighed on European shares on Thursday, although the worries gradually faded and a rising Wall Street helped indexes pare losses or close a shade higher.