Spanish Bank Santander Reportedly In Talks To Acquire Stockbroker Peel Hunt
Spanish bank Santander is reportedly in talks to acquire UK stockbroker Peel Hunt.
Sky News has reported that is in “preliminary” discussions with the British stockbroking firm, which was founded in 1989.
After the report was published, the Chief Executive of Peel Hunt, Steven Fine, issued a statement saying: “We do not comment on press speculation, however I can confirm that Peel Hunt is categorically not up for sale.”
Sources said a deal could give Santander access to high-profile corporate accounts, as the bank looks to bolster its corporate and investment banking division.
The news comes in the wake of MiFID II regulations, which have negatively impacted revenues at stockbroking firms.
The European regulations, which came into force on 3rd January, require investment firms to be more transparent with regards to budgets for research.
According to ITG, the new regulations caused broker commission fees to fall by almost 20% in the first quarter of 2018.
ITG’s director of trading analytics Andre Nogueira said: “A fall in execution rates was always likely, but not to this extent.
"Nearly six months in, a decline of nearly a third in UK commission rates proves that MiFID II is really starting to bite.
“As more and more asset managers move towards using algorithms to handle their orders, lower commissions are inevitable. All this means that, for the banks and brokers, there is now increased pressure to do more volumes which puts a significant squeeze on their cost base."
Santander has not released a statement on the news.
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