The fundamental credit outlook for the UK banking system remains negative, reflecting the weakness of the domestic macroeconomic environment and its likely continuing effect on the UK banks' fina....

Europe’s initial public offering (IPO) markets have endured another poor quarter with just 28 new listings in the three months up to June 30, although the EUR 456 mln raised was a huge improveme....

The prices of most industrial raw materials, including oil, have rallied strongly since the beginning of 2009, and particularly in the second quarter of the year. However, the Economist Intelligence U....

What future for the properties of the bankrupt German retailers?

The German media has been dealing with the industry’s concerns of what will become of the venues of the department stores affected by the insolvency of country’s leading department store g....

Hellenic Bank warns of first quarter loss

Hellenic Bank Public Company Ltd (HB) issued a profit warning for the first quarter of 2009, indicating that it will record a loss in a stark reminder that the recent advance in equity prices is fragi....

EU guidelines seek to end bank rewards for failure

Bankers' bonuses should reflect a company's performance over time and severance pay must not reward failure, according to non-binding draft guidelines drawn up by the European Union's e....

World economy in severe recession, IMF says

The International Monetary Fund said the world economy has fallen into a severe recession, cutting its forecast for global growth and calling for forceful action to spur a recovery. In its latest Wo....

ECB's Orphanides calls for more regulation

The financial crisis highlights the need for more effective regulation and supervision, European Central Bank (ECB) Governing Council member Athanasios Orphanides said on Thursday. Orphanides said h....

Fed sees US economy sliding further

Federal Reserve policy-makers, faced with bleaker forecasts for a rapidly worsening recession, decided to buy a "substantial" amount of U.S. Treasury and mortgage debt to halt the slide, min....

Equity market rebound seen in H2 2009 – Cyprus seminar

The positive effects of the aggressive action taken by the U.S. Federal Reserve and governments around the world is seen rubbing off on equity markets from the second half of 2009 and onwards, accordi....

ECB to pause on interest rates as gloom deepens

The European Central Bank has made it very clear it will pause with cuts in interest rates on Thursday, focussing financial markets on signals of how low the bank can go and the likely scale of a cut ....

Citi forecasts Bank of Cyprus '08 profit at EUR 485mln

Citibank analysts are forecasting that Bank of Cyprus will report EUR 485.4 mln in net profits for 2008, having maintained their price target at EUR 4/share. Bank of Cyprus will release preliminary 20....

Citi says UK economy prospects grim despite bank measures

Nearterm prospects for the UK economy remain grim and it will be a long route back to sustainable economic prosperity, according to an analysis by Citigroup. The UK government announced a range of m....

S&P cuts Greek debt rating as global crisis bites

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services cut its credit ratings on Greece's sovereign debt on Wednesday, due to falling economic competitiveness and a rising fiscal deficit worsened by the glo....

US Dec payrolls fall 524,000, jobless rate 7.2%

US employers slashed payrolls by 524,000 in December, driving the unemployment rate to its highest level in almost 16 years, suggesting that the year-long recession was deepening. The Labour Departm....

Bank of England cuts interest rates to record low

The Bank of England cut interest rates by half a percentage point on Thursday to a record low of 1.5 percent and is widely expected to cut again in February as it battles to prevent Britain from falli....