Good morning. A preliminary deal by Airbus to settle corruption probes in three countries could provide a boost to the U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office after several high-profile setbacks for the agency.

If approved by the courts, the compnay said, the agreements would result in Airbus taking a provision of €3.6 billion ($3.96 billion) for the payment of potential penalties to French, U.K. and U.S. authorities. The settlement would lift a reputational and legal cloud that has hung over Airbus for years.

Terms reached with U.K. prosecutors in a preliminary court ruling Tuesday pave the way for a deferred prosecution agreement, which could allow Airbus to avoid formal charges. The settlement remains subject to review by courts in each jurisdiction, Airbus said, with hearings expected Friday.

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The settlement would represent one of the largest secured by the SFO through a deferred prosecution agreement, a legal tool the agency received authority to use in 2014. The SFO opened its investigation into Airbus in 2016.

A settlement also would provide a victory for Lisa Osofsky, who took over as the SFO’s director in 2018. After struggling to win convictions against individual executives in high-profile cases, the SFO could have more leverage in negotiations with companies if it can show a stronger record of court victories, according to Jonathan Rusch, a former prosecutor in the U.S. Justice Department’s fraud section. “That’s where I think eyes will still be on the SFO,” said Mr. Rusch, now a principal at DTG Risk & Compliance.

Previously:

• Former Tesco Subsidiary Executive Acquitted in Fraud Case
• Sarclad Settlement Questioned Following Executives’ Acquittal
• Ex-Seismic Device Company Employees Acquitted in U.K.

The U.K.’s financial watchdog said it has concluded the overdraft market is dysfunctional, with major banks having aligned overdraft rates around 40%, and warned it would take action if it sees continued harm to customers.

This comes after the Financial Conduct Authority said in June it would bring measures this April to protect vulnerable customers from banks charging high fees for unarranged overdrafts. The new rules would only let banks charge a single interest rate on all types of overdraft, with no fixed fees.

The FCA said it has been in regular contact with major British banks to ask for evidence of how they arrived at their pricing decisions and how they plan to deal with the most affected customers.

The eurozone’s main banking regulator encouraged lenders to consider mergers and acquisitions to boost profits, reinforcing an increasingly vocal message to bankers across the region.

“There is no supervisory impediment, at least, no impediment that we want to throw into the way of consolidation,” Andrea Enria, the head of the European Central Bank’s banking arm, said at a press conference in Frankfurt.

Mr. Enria said a perception that eurozone regulators resisted mergers was wrong and that combinations could help eliminate “excess capacity” and overlapping operations in national markets. Bank mergers across borders were also “very positive,” he said, because they could create lenders with more diversified asset bases.

• U.S. prosecutors sought restraining orders against two sets of telecommunications providers they said facilitated hundreds of millions of fraudulent robocalls coming into the U.S. from overseas. Authorities described the move as a first-of-its-kind legal action aimed at stemming the flood of calls inundating Americans. 
   
• Navinder Singh Sarao, the British trader accused of contributing to the 2010 stock-market “flash crash,” won’t serve any more time in jail, a judge ruled Tuesday, capping a multiyear saga that gripped markets and traders after one of the most dramatic stock plunges in history.
   
• The chairman of Harvard University’s chemistry department was arrested Tuesday on charges of lying about receiving millions in Chinese funding, in an escalation of U.S. efforts to counter what officials say is a plot by Beijing to raid U.S. universities to transform China into a scientific superpower. A federal criminal complaint alleges Charles Lieber misled the Defense Department and the National Institutes of Health about his participation in China’s Thousand Talents Plan while the agencies were spending more than $15 million to fund his research group in the U.S.

Finance executives at international companies are taking measures to protect employees and customers against the coronavirus, but say it is too early to tell what the financial implications might be for their businesses.

Companies across a range of industries, including travel, leisure and consumer products, could be negatively affected by the continued spread of the virus that originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan and has since moved across China and to other countries, including the U.S., according to analysts at Moody’s Investors Service. Stocks of some travel companies, alongside casino and hotel operators, have taken a hit, and more businesses are expected to report a financial impact should the virus keep spreading, analysts said.

Meanwhile, British Airways became the first global airline to cancel all flights to and from mainland China. Cruise operators are canceling voyages. The outbreak could hit the global auto industry, which has a large footprint in central China. Starbucks temporarily closed more than half of its stores in China.

• U.S. Screening at 20 Airports; Officials Seek to Reassure Public
• Lunar New Year Visitors to Gambling Hub Macau Screened

• Financial headwinds facing J.C. Penney’s headquarters development show how the repercussions from upheaval in the retail world are rippling through the financial system. As online sales continue to surge, banks and other lenders have become increasingly skittish about making loans to some bricks-and-mortar retailers as well as owners of the shopping centers and office buildings that house them.
   
• Technology giants helped pump the West Coast full of choking traffic and expensive homes. Now they are trying to fix the damage. The challenge, and all its many complications, is playing out in San Jose. 

The Securities and Exchange Commission is telling financial-services companies what kind of cybersecurity practices it has found during audits, giving them detailed information on how to handle sensitive data and guard against cyberattacks.

The observations by the SEC are the latest in a string of moves by regulators and government agencies that demonstrate they are increasingly concerned about corporate cybersecurity practices.

The SEC’s listing of these practices comes less than a week after the National Security Agency published guidance on how companies should secure their cloud-based services. A number of points raised in that guidance are similar to what the SEC recommends, such as using multifactor authentication, maintaining patching programs and encrypting data traffic.

• The U.K. has given the green light for Huawei Technologies to build part of its next-generation 5G cellular network, dismissing calls from the Trump administration to boycott the Chinese telecom-equipment vendor over security fears. The U.K. said Huawei would be given permission to build noncritical parts of the country’s 5G network. Britain’s National Security Council concluded the security risks the Chinese company presented could be managed. Huawei officials have repeatedly denied claims that its equipment could be used by the Chinese state to spy on countries or incapacitate key infrastructure.

Chief financial officers have traditionally emerged from the accounting ranks, with reputations as masters of cost management, corporate finance strategy, accounting standards and reporting requirements. But the role has morphed to the point that accounting expertise is often no longer required.

The shift could reflect changing expectations from Wall Street, according to analysts. Advocates of the accounting profession, meanwhile, say CFOs who lack accounting credentials could pose a risk to companies and investors.

• Match Group Chief Executive Mandy Ginsberg is stepping down following challenges in her personal life, according to an internal memo, marking a change in leadership at the company months before it is to be spun off.
   
• J.Crew Group said it hired former Victoria’s Secret executive Jan Singer as its next chief executive, as it seeks to revitalize its namesake brand and reverse a long sales slump.
   
• Private-equity firm Platinum Equity has sought to recruit CBS chief Joe Ianniello to front its bid to acquire Univision Communications Inc., according to people familiar with the matter, a move that would bring an experienced media executive to the helm of the Spanish-language broadcaster.
   
• Ben Smith, the founding editor of BuzzFeed News, said he is leaving the company, where he helped turn a startup best known for whimsical online quizzes and listicles into a formidable news organization.

3M posted lower revenue in key U.S. markets and set plans for fresh layoffs, the latest manufacturer to show signs of strain amid weakness for the industrial economy. 3M sells its diverse array of products in a wide swath of the economy, including to consumers, offices, manufacturers and hospitals.

While the U.S. economy remains strong overall, the manufacturing sector contracted for five consecutive months through December. 3M’s results on Tuesday showed this divergence. Units that largely serve industry posted revenue declines, while sales in units serving consumers and the health-care industry were flat.

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Send comments to the Risk & Compliance editor, Jack Hagel, at jack.hagel@wsj.com