Barclays, UBS Charge Record Fees, HSBC Banker Sues Yahoo, JPMorgan To Boost Profits by $1bn in Merger

Bloomberg reports that the two banks are part of a group of underwriters led by UniCredit and Mediobanca that are charging fees of at least 4.5% on rights offers by Fondiaria-SAI and Unipol Gruppo Finanziario, company filings show. That’s more than twice the 2.25% median fee for European rights offers since 2010, data compiled by New York-based research firm Freeman & Co. show.

In the meantime, the news organisation says that Sandeep Sharma, a Managing Director at HSBC’s private banking arm, claimed in a lawsuit he had been defamed by a Yahoo! user impersonating him and making offensive remarks about Singaporeans.

Sharma asked Singapore’s High Court to order Yahoo! Asia Pacific Pte to reveal details including the identity of the person using the moniker 'Sandeep' and claiming to be Sharma. A closed hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.

Finally, The Financial Times reports that JPMorgan aims to boost profits by $1bn within 5 years due to the merger of its corporate and investment banking divisions, which was announced 2 weeks ago.