All articles by Verdict Staff

Verdict Staff

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Sogcap, the insurance arm of French banking group Socit Gnrale, has been granted approval from Russian regulators to set up a life insurance company, Sogcap Life Insurance

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A few days earlier, the group had announced it was setting up a greenfield insurance business in Taiwan; on 13 September, it said it had entered into an agreement to acquire a 10 percent stake in Vietnams leading insurance and financial services group, Vietnam Insurance, for VND4.12 trillion ($255 million).The deals indicate just how important both insurance and Asia-Pacific have become to HSBC as it looks to diversify its earnings base

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BrandingOP Bank Group to be called OP-PohjolaFinnish banking co-operative OP Bank, the countrys second largest financial services group, has announced that the name of OP Bank Group will change to OP-Pohjola Group and that OKO Bank, its main banking subsidiary, will change to Pohjola Bank.The group entered the non-life insurance business with the purchase of Pohjola two years ago, resulting in a dramatic change in the banks structure and business content

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The bank, the largest issuer of debit cards in the US, used its recently announced three-year sponsorship of the National Football League (NFL) to issue both MasterCard- and Visa-branded debit cards with NFL team logos.Debit card use in the US is growing at a much faster rate than credit card use, driven in part by the increasing take-up of contactless debit payments such as MasterCards PayPass.BofAs NFL sponsorship deal runs through to the end of 2009