Santander's U.S. Chief Departs

Elavon and Banco Santander have expanded their existing relationship by agreeing to establish a payment services joint venture together in Spain.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Libor Shuffle: We suspected Libor was going to be big news this week. Following CFTC chairman Gary Gensler's call for radical reform of the Libor system, reports surfaced that the British Bankers' Association has voted to give control of the benchmark interest rate — which the BBA itself created back in 1986 — to someone else. The trade association's vote, which took place earlier this month, precedes the formal recommendations from U.K. Financial Services Authority managing director Martin Wheatley expected to be unveiled on Friday. The Times says the group's potential removal is "a blow to the organization," while the FT's Jonathan Guthrie calls the BBA's decision "the decent thing" to do. His op-ed, however, also points out that the trade association should have stepped down much sooner and equates the move to "an old-fashioned army suicide" preceding a dishonorable discharge at the hands of Wheatley. "The pre-emptive move amounts to banks telling customers: 'We can't be trusted,'" Guthrie writes, while adding that a switch in oversight may not preclude more scandals from popping up since "regulation and Whack a Mole have much in common."

Banco Santander SA, Spain's largest bank, filed to raise as much as $3 billion in a U.S. initial public offering of its Mexican unit.