Weekly Global News Wrap Up: Brexit may slash London bank assets by $909b; Swedish banks mull Stibor alternative

And EU is moving to enhance its money laundering defense.

From CNBC: London is predicted to lose up to 800 billion euros ($909 billion) of assets by March next year, as banks move their business operations to other hubs before Brexit takes place.

The 800 billion euros being moved out of London relates to balance sheet assets such as cash, inventory and prepaid expenses. 

Several large banks have said they will shift jobs out of London before Brexit kicks in. FMF said it believed up to 10,000 jobs would be moved to Frankfurt ahead of Brexit, and that it expected job relocations to the city to continue until 2024.

From Reuters: Swedish banks will look at ways to revamp Stibor, an interbank rate used as a reference for billions of crowns of financial contracts, the Swedish Banker's Association said, after worries about transparency and governance.

Sweden's central bank launched an investigation into Stibor in 2012 and though it said it had not found evidence of manipulation, it warned that the Swedish system lacked transparency and a clear governance framework.

From CNBC: European Union finance ministers adopted a plan to enhance the bloc's defences against money laundering at banks, but the move could slow a legislative reform on banking supervision.

The action plan is meant to be the EU response to high-profile cases of alleged money laundering at banks in several EU states, including Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Spain, the Netherlands, Britain and Cyprus.

The action plan lists measures that would need to be carried out until 2020 and tries to reduce the discretion of national supervisors in applying anti-money laundering rules, which in some states have been executed too leniently.