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"Here's a few interesting stories currently doing the rounds.Bloomberg reports that BNP Paribas, Societe Generale and Credit Agricole all&amp;nbsp;face higher taxes and may have to split off some of their riskiest operations after Francois Hollande was elected President of France. Hollande, who called&amp;nbsp;banking his 'greatest adversary' during the campaign, has pledged he will force banks to split retail and speculative operations, impose a tax on all transactions and increase the levy on bank profit by 15%. In the meantime the news organisation reports that Credit Suisse plans to boost capital at its Chinese joint venture and apply for a stock trading permit in the country, as the government loosens restrictions on foreign investment banks. Credit Suisse will move bankers to China to take advantage of higher ownership limits and a shorter wait for a license to trade shares in Shanghai and Shenzhen. And Reuters reports that HSBC has beaten expectations with an underlying profit of almost $7bn in the first quarter, thanks to a strong rebound in investment banking income and a fall in U.S. bad debts. Finally, The New York Times reports that as Wells Fargo becomes a bigger player in the investment banking game, not everyone is a fan. Moody&amp;rsquo;s Investors Service has raised concerns about the bank&amp;rsquo;s recent move outside its comfort zone of consumer lending. Moody&amp;rsquo;s directed criticism at the bank for stepping into prime brokerage, calling&amp;nbsp;its recent acquisition of Merlin Securities 'credit negative'. &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;And the Best Place to Work in the global financial markets 2015 is..."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2012/05/08/bnp-socgen-brace-themselves-credit-suisse-seeks-hsbc-investment/>