Home foreclosure filings surged 57% in the 12 month-period ended in March and bank repossessions soared 129% from a year ago, as homeowners struggled to make mortgage payments, real estate data firm RealtyTrac said on Tuesday. For the month of March, foreclosure filings, default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions rose %, led by

Britain's main inflation rate unexpectedly held steady in March, official data showed on Tuesday, suggesting strong price pressures further up the economic pipeline have yet to be passed on to consumers. The Office for National Statistics said consumer prices rose by 0.4% on the month, leaving the annual rate unchanged at 2.5%. Analysts had expected

Bear Stearns said on Monday profit fell 79% in its fiscal first quarter, ahead of a liquidity crisis that led to the investment bank's purchase by JPMorgan Chase & Co. Net income for the quarter ended February 29 fell to $115 mln, or 86 cents per share, from $554 mln, or $3.82 per share, a

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A closely watched poll of McDonald's Corp domestic franchisees showed that U.S. same-store sales ticked up 0.9% in March, the smallest increase in the survey's roughly three-year history, its publisher said late on Tuesday. In a research note, independent restaurant stock analyst Mark Kalinowski said the results came from 32 domestic

ZURICH (Reuters) – UBS needs three years to repair the reputation damage suffered after it bet massively, and wrongly, on the U.S. mortgage market and became the world's hardest-hit bank from the subprime crisis, the bank's chairman-designate said on Wednesday. "We shouldn't fool ourselves," Peter Kurer told the Financial Times in an interview. "We can't

TOKYO (Reuters) – Merrill Lynch will announce a further $6 bln to $8 bln of asset writedowns in its quarterly results this week, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing a person familiar with the matter. The Journal said in its online edition that the writedowns would take the total since October to more

Two years after the establishment of the first Community list of airlines subject to an operating ban in the European Union, the European Commission is imposing a ban on all operations of an additional Ukrainian airline (Ukraine Cargo Airways) as well as on all operations of the Congolese carrier Hewa Bora Airways. At the same

The Annual General Meeting of Bank of Cyprus Public Company Ltd that will be held at the Bank of Cyprus Group Headquarters on Wednesday, 14 May 2008 at 4.30pm will among others accept the resignation of the Chairman, Eleftherios P. Ioannou who having reached 75 years of age retires in accordance with the Company’s Articles

European shares fell by midday after U.S. conglomerate General Electric posted disappointing quarterly earnings and cut forecasts, while banks dropped on lingering concerns over a global credit crunch. GE reported a 6% drop in profit as a slumping U.S. economy and credit crunch drove down earnings at its financial, industrial and healthcare units. It also