Financial Services

Fortis, the stricken Belgo-Dutch financial group, saw its first-half profits tumble by 41 per cent as a second wave of writedowns further depleted its stretched balance sheet

Intercontinental Exchange, the electronic exchange group, on Monday reported the second strongest quarter in its history, benefitting from volatile energy markets as companies sought to hedge against spiralling oil prices by buying futures contracts or increasing their use of over-the-counter trading

Stephen Green, chairman of Europe’s largest bank , said the first half of this year had been the most difficult for ’several decades’ as HSBC reported a 28% fall in pre-tax profits amid continued losses from the turmoil in markets

Hostilities between inter-dealer brokers could be on the wane with GFI of New York and Tullett Prebon of London discussing a merger

Commercial banks are moving swiftly to strengthen and expand their operations to service the companies responsible for soaring trade levels between India and China.

A new system to overhaul insider trading investigations is due to be agreed as early as this week in the latest response from US regulators to growing concerns about the extent of illegal activity on global markets

The growing sophistication of investors, the surge in electronic trading and the use of overseas accounts to trade US stocks means investigators charged with detecting market abuse have to constantly adapt their strategies

Fears of a systemic financial crisis in Iceland have dissipated after the country’s three main banks announced second-quarter results showing that they are suffering amid the downturn – but not too badly

Union Bank of India, a mid-sized state-owned lender, has plans to expand into investment banking to tap a growing global market in which increasingly aggressive Indian companies are acquiring foreign rivals

Companies across Europe have begun to cut jobs, scale back production and reduce hiring to slash costs as they brace for a recession or sharp economic slowdown at the end of the year