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Credit Suisse chief executive Thomas Gottstein has brought its investment bank back together but threatens to leave it with a diminished corporate finance business, David Rothnie reports.

Investors appeared positive on Natixis's prospects after Nicolas Namias replaced François Riahi as chief executive. Meanwhile, the bank has said it will reposition its equities division after it endured another tough quarter.

UniCredit returned to profit in the second quarter with a larger pool of excess capital to reward shareholders from next year, if the European Central Bank gives its permission.

Commerzbank expects its corporate division to remain under pressure from the coronavirus crisis in the second half of the year, after a second quarter where international firms rushed to take out debt products but the bank was stung by a large single provision, understood to relate to disgraced payments company, Wirecard.

Slawomir Krupa will replace Séverin Cabannes to lead Société Générale’s global banking and investor solutions (GBIS) activities from next year. The division reported a net loss of €604m in the first half of the year.

The case of O’Donnell versus the Australian Commonwealth, if successful, could force all issuers seeking to make use of the Australian bond market to make thorough disclosures of their climate strategy.

Less than a year ago, international investor optimism about Ukraine was high but the journey to western style reform since then has shown just how hard a road it can be to travel.

The auditor for digital bank Monzo warned that a slower than expected recovery could lead it to breach its capital requirements, even though at the end of February it had a much better capital ratio than traditional banks. So what’s going on? GlobalCapital wonders if the risk is more about investors’ appetite to continue funding an unprofitable business than the bank breaching the requirements in the next few months.

The Agence France Trésor (AFT) has suspended Morgan Stanley’s primary dealership in French government bonds, making it the first bank to suffer such a proscription.

HSBC revealed a big increase in credit loss provisions in its second quarter results on Monday, as it vowed to step up the pace of its strategy shift. In the investment bank, it was a strong outing for fixed income and currencies trading, but a disappointing quarter for equities.

Société Générale will make its structured products less risky, it said, after a difficult first half of the year in its equities business.

Credit Suisse has given staff including Jeff Cohen new positions and is also creating a new energy and infrastructure group.