The sale of Portugal's state-rescued Novo Banco to US private equity firm Lone Star should be concluded by November, reports Bloomberg. A key condition of the deal is a so-called liability management exercise, or a bond swap that the bank has to perform to generate additional capital worth €500 million. Bloomberg reports that EU authorities must also approve the restructuring plan for the Novo Banco sale to go ahead as planned, in the face of opposition from a group of bondholders led by BlackRock. Novo Banco was carved out of the Banco Espirito Santo, Portugal's biggest bank collapse in 2014. JPMorgan Chase & Co has obtained a license from China to conduct interbank bond settlement services — getting into the market ahead of the official mid-July entry date due to the 100-day plan between China and the US to further open up their markets to each other, Caixin reports. This follows JPMorgan's acquisition of a corporate bond underwriting license earlier this year. JPMorgan, along with Citi are two US financial institutions that China promised to open its bond market to before July 16. According to the website of China's National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors, a total of 48 financial institutions have received the license, including offshore banks HSBC, Standard Chartered, BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank. Italian prosecutors have decided to take Morgan Stanley to court over allegations that the U.S. bank caused €2.7 billion in losses to the state in relation to derivative transactions, Bloomberg reports, citing "a source familiar with the matter". The Corte dei Conti, which rules on abuses of public funds, is bringing the case against Morgan Stanley on behalf of Italy's taxpayers. Its prosecutors made their decision after an investigation into derivatives contracts they say were drawn up by Morgan Stanley and Italian officials, which caused losses to the state. Morgan Stanley declined to comment.