Chancellor George Osborne and Bank of England governor Mark Carney are mounting a joint exercise with the US to gauge the transatlantic response to the collapse of a huge multi-national bank.

US treasury secretary Jacob Lew said the department is finishing work to limit the benefits companies gain from moving their addresses overseas even if his action won’t be enough to stop the practice known as inversion.

President Barack Obama plans to go on the offensive against companies that use cross-borders mergers to escape US taxes, accusing them of essentially renouncing their citizenship to shield profits.

US secretary of state John Kerry has said the United States and China had a frank exchange on the issue of cyberhacking during this week’s strategic and economic dialogue in Beijing.

China’s finance minister has said the country is not planning any new stimulus measures and it is up to the United States to drive the global economy.

China has signed a long-awaited, 30-year deal to buy Russian natural gas worth $400bn.

The International Monetary Fund has approved a two-year, $17bn loan package for cash-strapped Ukraine as it seeks to regain stability following Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

Senate leaders took command of efforts to avert a US Treasury default and end the partial government shutdown last night after a last big effort by Republicans abruptly collapsed.

US Senate leaders have taken the helm in the search for a deal to end the partial government shutdown and avert a federal default.

Republicans are ready to offer the government a temporary debt limit extension, the leader of the US House of Representatives says.

The US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has urged Congress to raise the government’s borrowing limit before October 17, warning that a Republican idea to prioritise payments with cash on hand could cause “irrevocable damage” to the economy.

Barack Obama is hosting senior Republicans today to seek an opening in an impasse that has shut down much of the government and threatens a catastrophic federal default.

Federal Reserve Bank of Boston president Eric Rosengren, a consistent backer of record stimulus who votes on policy this year, said the Fed refrained from tapering its bond purchases last month because growth was lower than forecast and fiscal policy posed a risk to the outlook.

US regulators say a group of firms that are not banks should be deemed potential threats to the financial system that need stricter government oversight.

US President Barack Obama will today send Congress his 2014 budget, in an effort to achieve an elusive “grand bargain” to tame runaway deficits that have soared above 1 trillion dollars (€761bn) for each of the past four years.

European countries have been urged to ease off austerity measures and adopt more growth-friendly policies by US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew.

The Arab League will call on the UN Security Council to pass a resolution creating a joint peacekeeping force for Syria.

The Arab League will call for the UN Security Council to create a joint peacekeeping force for Syria, the latest effort by the regional group to end the 11-month old crisis that has killed more than 5,000 people.

President Barack Obama’s new budget was unveiled today as a $3.73trn spending blueprint that pledges $1.1trn in deficit savings over the next decade through spending cuts and tax increases.