Paris: France risks losing its top AAA grade as Europe’s debt crisis prompts a wave of downgrades that threatens to engulf the region’s highest-rated borrowers, with Belgium also facing a possible cut.

Ian King, Bloomberg

Dutch bank ING yesterday said it was giving up the right to trade any of its businesses as Barings - nine years after it salvaged the UK’s oldest merchant bank from insolvency.

Dutch bank ING today said it was giving up the right to trade any of its businesses as Barings – nine years after it salvaged the UK’s oldest merchant bank from insolvency.