Deutsche Bank is facing resistance from top Qatari shareholders to its planned merger with Commerzbank.

Europe urgently needs a €150bn bailout fund to recapitalise its beleaguered banks, particularly those in Italy, said Deutsche Bank’s chief economist in an interview with Welt am Sonntag.

Louis Dreyfus Commodities has said that its 53-year-old Swiss billionaire chair is pregnant with twin girls. Margarita Louis-Dreyfus is due in early April and will only take a “brief break” from work, before returning later that month.

The head of Switzerland’s central bank Philipp Hildebrand has quit in the wake of a public uproar over his private currency deals.