Weekly Global News Wrap: Spanish banks reopen; StanChart defends climate goals after carbon finance flak

And Morgan Stanley agrees to pay $5m fine.

From Reuters

Spanish banks such as BBVA and Santander are reopening branches and letting staff return to work, although employees at their headquarters will still mainly work remotely as the country starts to ease lockdown measures.

BBVA, one of the first banks in Spain to move staff out of Madrid to protect against the pandemic, said that about 200 employees at its corporate centre would return to their offices this week.

At Santander, almost all its workforce at the corporate centres in Spain are still working from home, a source said. It reopened 189 offices on 11 May and so far have opened around 60% of its total branches in the country.

From Reuters

Standard Chartered defended its environmental credentials after renewed criticism from climate campaigners for its funding of fossil fuel companies as the bank held its annual shareholder meeting last 6 May.

Chairman Jose Vinals said it had “long recognised” the threat of climate change and would continue to “respond robustly”, pointing to goals to help clients transition to having less than 10% of revenues derived from coal by 2030.

The pledges came a day after German environmental pressure group Urgewald renewed its calls on the bank to cease all financial services to companies expanding their fossil fuel activities.

From Reuters

A Morgan Stanley unit agreed to pay a $5m fine to settle charges from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it misled retail investing clients about the costs of a “wrap fee” program, the regulator said on 12 May.

The SEC said that while Morgan Stanley Smith Barney promised wrap fee clients a “transparent” fee structure, some managers sent most or all of their client trades to third party brokers, causing clients to pay extra fees they could not see.

Morgan Stanley oversaw $2.4t of client assets, including $1.13t from fee-based clients, as of 31 March, according to a regulatory filing. The alleged wrongdoing occurred from October 2012 to June 2017, and the $5m will be distributed to harmed investors.

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