The merged unit will have €3.34 trillion assets under custody and €1.83 billion assets under administration, with Agricole taking lion’s share of its holdings. The bank will own 69.5 percent of the unit and Santander 30.5 percent, retaining the brand name of Agricole’s existing asset management arm CACEIS. Also, Santander’s S3, securities services arm in Spain and Latin America will combine with CACEIS.

Santander Chairman Ana Botin, said: “S3 and CACEIS are highly complementary businesses, and by working together we can create a custody and asset servicing platform that leverages our collective scale and global presence, and offers clients a comprehensive service that can support their ambitions and help them to prosper.”

Swiss investment bank Credit Suisse advised Santander on the deal, and Morgan Stanley for Agricole, Reuters reports.

Joint ventures created by collaborating in business operations is an easier option for European banks to benefit through M&A. Clairinvest fund manager Ion-Marc Valahu, said: “S3 and CACEIS are highly complementary businesses, and by working together we can create a custody and asset servicing platform that leverages our collective scale and global presence, and offers clients a comprehensive service that can support their ambitions and help them to prosper.”

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Extent of regulatory changes, recovery of confidence in the financial system and desire and reality at low interest rates are some of the topics that will be discussed in the two-day conference.

Some of the key speakers to address the conference are:

• Regis Monfront

Régis Monfront has been the Deputy Chief Executive Officer at Credit Agricole CIB, France

• Anshu Jain

Analyst at Deutsche Bank, India

·        Herbert Pfennig

Member of Advisory Council, DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschaftsbank, Frankfurt am Main

• Jens Quadbeck

Sector Leader Retail, Travel & Finance at Google, Germany

The post Banks in Transition for 2018 to reflect on banking and financial topics appeared first on International Finance.