Weekly Global News Wrap Up: US big banks' Q4 revenue disappoints amidst weak bond trading; Italian banks face $63b funding crunch

And here's why European Investment Bank is being sued.

From Reuters: Three big U.S. banks’ quarterly results paint a grim picture as they grapple with weak bond trading revenue due to concerns about global economy and the ongoing U.S.-China trade war. 

JPMorgan Chase & Co’s Q4 fixed income trading revenue fell 18% whilst bond trading dropped 21% at Citigroup Inc. Wells Fargo & Co’s loan book shrinks as more people pays off their mortgages than taking out new ones with all three banks missing Q4 revenue estimates. 

From CNBC: Many Italian banks are struggling to borrow on the private markets and want European Central Bank (ECB) help as they seek more than $63b (EUR55b) in funding this year.

Italian banks rely on some 240 billion euros of ultra-cheap, longer-term funds borrowed from the ECB in 2016 and 2017, but that source of funding is now shut and without replacing so-called TLTRO funds Italian banks will see a drop in their Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR), a long-term liquidity measure monitored by regulators.

From Bloomberg: The European Investment Bank is being sued in the region’s second-highest court by environmental advocacy group ClientEarth as the group seeks to have European Union judges determine whether the EIB breached its own renewable energy-financing criteria. The case focuses on a loan for as much as $69m (EUR60m) to build a biomass power plant in Galicia, northern Spain.

The Curtis-Teixeiro plant was appraised and deemed to be in line with our lending objectives and considered economically, financially, technically and environmentally sound, an EIB spokesperson said by email. However, the project being labeled low efficiency and not meeting the EIB’s financing thresholds for renewable technologies, according to a statement by ClientEarth.