A US financial watchdog chief said his agency repeatedly failed for at least a decade to pursue allegations of wrongdoing by Wall Street figure Bernard Madoff, the alleged perpetrator of a $50bn (€35.63bn) pyramid scheme.

A US judge has thrown a lifeline to investors who may have been duped in one of Wall Street’s biggest alleged frauds.

A New York bankruptcy judge has approved a plan by Lehman Brothers to sell its investment banking and trading businesses to the British bank Barclays.