Bloomberg reports that Citigroup is thought to be close to selling off some $12bn in loans at a loss to Apollo Management, Blackstone and TPG Inc., in order to get rid of assets that could result in more write-downs.

The news agency also reports that the current market turmoil looks like benefiting HSBC, which is said to be in discussions with hedge funds with more than $100bn in assets with a view to providing FX and treasury products business. Bloomberg quotes Tim Howell, HSBC's global head of securities services, who said: 'Over the last 3 months, funds moving away from prime brokerage have been the most significant source of the pipeline we have. In the current economic climate, a lot of funds say they ascribe very high value to the creditworthiness of the person looking after the assets'.

Having now completed a share swap with Bear Stearns and picking up more stock on the open market, JPMorgan Chase now owns some 47.41% of its small rival. The Wall Street Journal reports that JPMorgan may continue buying shares in Bear until in acquires 49.5% of the firm.

The Financial Times reports that Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain has said that he is actively looking at ways he can beef up the firm's revenues outside the US. Speaking in Japan, Thain said: 'Besides here in Japan, our business is growing in faster parts of the world, places such as Brazil, India, China, Russia, the Middle East'. He said that 'we continue to believe that there are great growth opportunities outside the US'. Excluding its US wealth management business, Merrill derives some 60% of its revenues outside its domestic market.

The Wall Street Journal reports that each of the 11 nominees Morgan Stanley slated this week for (re)election to its board received over 90% of shareholders votes. Any shareholder revolt, such as it ever was, is over. Some activist investors were suggesting that CEO John Mack should stand down as Chairman in the interests of good corporate governance and in the wake of those 2007 $9.4bn asset writedowns. That's just not gonna happen.

Finally, Reuters reports that Societe Generale is likely to spend up to $158m this year to improve its risk management systems following that $7.7bn trading loss uncovered earlier in the year. In the meantime, bank CEO Daniel Bouton has said that he feels slightly more bullish about the prospects for the markets: 'I am among the people who believe that we have started to see the situation improving', he told a French parliamentary commission earlier this week.

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