Weekly Global News Wrap Up: UK banks hit by Brexit-induced investment slowdown; Deutsche Bank to pay $197m to settle bribery case

And BNP Paribas will pull out from financing private prison firms.

From Reuters: 

Britain’s major banks have seen a growing number of business customers delay decisions on investments and borrowing in recent weeks, as the probability of a disorderly exit from the European Union inches higher.

An executive at a bank said more big corporates were delaying investment decisions, with the conversion rate of the bank’s potential new commercial business pipeline falling from 70% to 50% in recent months, although lending to smaller firms was holding up.

From Bloomberg:

Deutsche Bank settled a lawsuit from a Dutch affordable-housing provider that said the lender was responsible for bribery over derivatives trades, bringing an end to a long-running and at times colorful trial that was just entering its final stage.

The bank paid $197m (EUR175m) to settle the case with no admission of liability, it said Friday in a statement. The deal ends a court battle that had featured testimony from a middleman who’s confessed to bribery, and tales of expensive sushi, “bubbly” wine, an exclusive nightclub favored by British royals, and meals at a Michelin-starred restaurant.

From Bloomberg:

BNP Paribas SA will no longer finance private prison companies, joining a wave of banks pulling out of the business amid criticism of the conditions in U.S. detention facilities.

“This decision is the result of the bank’s internal and external consultative process that ensures that clients’ practices are aligned with the group’s policies,” BNP Paribas said Saturday in an emailed statement. “Today, BNP Paribas has a limited exposure to this sector and following its latest decision, the bank will no longer commit to new financing facilities within this sector.”