FINANCE & BANKING

Something's gone horribly wrong at America's biggest bank, JP Morgan. It seemed to emerge from the big financial crash of 2008 pretty much unscathed, but now it's announced massive trading losses of £1.2bn.

Spain’s banking sector crisis intensified this week after the government stepped-in to effectively nationalise one of its biggest lenders.

The Royal Bank of Scotland has confirmed it will repay to the treasury, the last of the £163bn in emergency loans it received from the US and UK governments. This prompted RBS CEO Stephen Hester to say, the bank was now on the road to recovery.

Nokia has announced an operating loss of 1.1 billion euros, for the first three months of this year.

China has experienced its slowest pace of growth in nearly three years. And analysts aren’t surprised by the figures announced today for the world’s second largest economy.

Europe's sovereign debt markets were back in focus Wednesday after poorly-received bond sales from Spain and Portugal lifted borrowing costs and hit stock markets across the region.

Despite all the messages of doom and gloom the British Chambers of Commerce reckons the UK won't slide back into recession this year.

European markets kicked off the final week of the first quarter on a positive note this morning after a surprise jump in business confidence from the region's largest economy. The closely-watch IFO index of German business sentiment rose to an 8-mont

Staff who work at Goldman Sachs in Japan are fighting back against their employers over - quote - the 'intimidation and harassment' they've faced.

UK Business Secretary, Vince Cable has signalled the end of 'direct support' to the car industry after the economy 'has recovered'.

The Bank for International Settlements, a global bank that acts as intermediary between central banks, has announced today that Governments face an increasingly difficult task to combat 'inflationary pressures', which it says could 'reappear earlier than anticipated'.

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has announced that financial services growth remains 'muted' in its quarterly PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) survey.

The Bank of England has told its banks to cut bonuses and reduce dividends to provide for a 'considerable' risk in the Eurozone.

Hector Sants, Chief executive of the FSA. has announced continuing reform under his tenure at the regulator's Annual General Meeting.

'Rule Britannia' is the message that one brokerage, Nomura is giving these days, after Prudential’s failed bid for AIA, highlights the need for ‘British’ businesses to target a ‘British market’.

RBS, the Royal Bank of Scotland has lined up three bidders for Worldpay and expects to sell more businesses and branches later this year.

"You've failed" was the message angry Prudential shareholders gave to Prudential management as underlying costs of the failed bid for AIA came to light today.

Jupiter Asset Management, the UK's best known fund manager is planning an IPO on Monday week, which it hopes will stabilise and reestablish the company as a FTSE 250 firm worth £718 million.

Britain's new coalition government needs to think medium-term says OECD, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The Office of Fair Trading has said that it had launched a joint consultation with the Competition Commission to create a good practice guide for parties presenting evidence in merger inquiries.

Beware of Greeks bearing gifts? It has been touch and go this past month or so as to whether or not a wooden horse would make a suitable coffin for the euro. The EU itself has been shaken at its very core by a rift between President Sarkozy of France and Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel when, was been reported, the French President banged his fist on the table and threatened his country would pull out of the euro if Germany did not give its full backing to a rescue/bailout package for Gre...

A consortium of wealthy fans are reportedly divided over the way they should lead Manchester United should their £850m bid succeed.

The Confederation of British Industry has called for an immediate freeze in the public sector pay bill for the next two year and has said that public services need to be "re-engineered" in order to get the deficit down.

The Office of Fair Trading has said that it will examine the ownership and control of economic infrastructure in Britain such as airports, ports, car parks and household utilities.

Prudential have gained along along with the FTSE 100 today after it emerged that their deal with AIA has been put on hold by the FSA.