Economics / Markets

Shares in European financials have dropped in late trading as the latest European Banking Authority stress tests said the industry must raise €115bn in capital by June 2012.

The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee has once again kept interest rates on hold at 0.5% and left QE unchanged at £275bn, but the European Central Bank has cut rates back to their historic low of 1%.

Standard & Poor's has said it may downgrade the European Union's AAA rating and make further cuts to eurozone banks' credit ratings if a review of eurozone countries prompts mass sovereign downgrades.

Economic growth in the UK will be subdued and output will fail to reach 2008 levels until 2013, according to the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR).

Banking and asset management giant Investec has exited the FTSE 100 as part of the latest re-shuffle of the UK's leading share index.

Pressure was building on David Cameron last night as senior backbench Tory MPs called for the Prime Minister to approve a referendum on a new euro treaty and to wring "clear gains" from a European summit scheduled for Friday.

Chancellor George Osborne has announced the 2012 Budget will be held on Wednesday 21 March.

Patrick Evershed and New Star have agreed a confidential settlement, bringing to an end the former fund manager's claim for unfair dismissal.

Britain will sign up for fiscal discipline in the eurozone, but not at the expense of its industries or independence, Prime Minister David Cameron has declared.

Ratings agency Standard and Poor's (S&P) said France and Germany are among 15 nations that have been put on "credit watch" due to fears over the impact of the debt crisis.