Standard Life, Scotland’s largest insurer, agreed to acquire Aberdeen Asset Management for about £3.8bn (€4.4bn), a deal that would create the UK’s largest active manager.

Regulators in the US, Britain and Switzerland ordered five banks to pay about €2.6bn in fines in the first wave of penalties since authorities began a global probe into the rigging of key foreign-exchange benchmarks last year.

A powerful global financial regulator is to scrutinise benchmarks that are used in currency trading, a first sign that the market may be kept on a tighter leash after manipulation claims.

European Union antitrust regulators are examining the possible manipulation of currency rates, following a Swiss probe into whether banks colluded to manipulate the $5.3 trillion (€3.9tn)-a-day foreign exchange market.