A Belgian investigating judge has charged a Swiss private banking branch of HSBC with massive organised fiscal fraud.

Portugal’s government bonds advanced, with 10-year yields dropping below 5% for the first time since August 2010, as a recovery in the region’s most indebted economies attracted investors.

HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe’s largest bank by value, said third-quarter pretax profit rose 30% as the lender cut costs and focused on its most lucrative markets.

A Chinese manufacturing index rose to a six-month high in September, signalling that a rebound in the world’s second-largest economy is gaining steam.

An apparently insignificant money-laundering case taken against several Colombian men became one of the most important leads for US investigators pursuing a case against an international banking group, write Carrick Mollenkamp and Brett Wolf

HSBC Holdings plc said a $1bn (€760m) increase in its wages bill in Brazil, China and other emerging markets was the price of avoiding the stagnant growth which has dogged some rival lenders more dependent on Europe.

FINANCE Minister Michael Noonan’s forecast for faster economic growth this year may prove too optimistic, according to a Bloomberg News survey.

HSBC Holdings Plc has amended its settlement with investors in an Irish fund who lost their money in Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme after its original offer was rejected by a US judge in September.

STANDARD Chartered Plc, the British-based bank that makes more than three-quarters of its profit in Asia, said it won’t join any pact to restrain bonuses for 2010.

AT Davos, it seems, sorry is the hardest word.

Investors sent stocks lower today as anxiety over the growing list of firms affected by investment manager Bernard Madoff and the potential losses to the financial sector took centre stage on Wall Street.

The list of investors who say they were duped in one of Wall Street's biggest pyramid schemes is growing, snaring some of the world's biggest banking institutions and hedge funds, the super rich and the famous, pensioners and charities.

BANK OF IRELAND PLC plans to sell two-year floating-rate notes in euros, according to a banker involved in the transaction.

Wall Street ratcheted its way through a fractious session today before finally closing lower on expectations of further fallout from the ongoing credit crisis.

POOR stock market returns triggered by the subprime credit crunch knocked 0.9% off the value of the national pension fund in the third quarter of 2007.

Wall Street ended a mildly erratic day slightly lower today after anxiety about widening credit problems offset investor optimism about a $2bn capital infusion into troubled mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp.

Wall Street ended a mildly erratic day slightly lower today after anxiety about widening credit problems offset investor optimism about a $2bn (€1.47bn) capital infusion into troubled mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp.

IRELAND is one of the least prepared countries in the EU for bird flu pandemic, according to Fine Gael, amid heightened fears the deadly virus may be spreading within Europe.

Disappointing retail sales data and a rise in oil prices pushed US stocks lower today as investors, once again worried about oil’s impact on consumer spending, took profits from the market’s July rally.

British house price inflation in February rose at its fastest pace since October, the government said, suggesting two interest rate rises have done little to diminish consumers’ appetite for debt.

HSBC Holdings PLC said it is to sell HSBC Canadian Direct Insurance Inc for $25.4m cad (€15.28m) cash to Canadian Western Bank.

THE nation’s two biggest financial institutions — AIB and Bank of Ireland — won’t be in Irish ownership in five years unless the two boards change their tune.

AIB Bank and Bank of Ireland may become takeover targets for National Australia Bank when a former Barclays’ Bank deputy chief executive takes over NAB’s European operations in August.

EXECUTIVES at HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe's largest bank by market value, and food retailer Tesco may be next to face outrage from their shareholders for being paid too much, investors said.

THE markets reacted as anticipated yesterday as uncertainty over the duration and, to a lesser extent, the outcome of the war on Iraq hit equities and the dollar, pushing gold, oil and the euro up.