British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to pay $3 billion in fines to the U.S. Justice Department for misrepresenting drugs to consumers, reported Reuters on Monday, in what is believed to be the largest case of healthcare fraud in U.S. history.
Cash-strapped Egypt has signed a $1 billion deal with the Saudi-based Islamic Development Bank to finance its energy and food imports. Egypt’s economy has been hit by last year’s uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak, with deep cuts to its tourism and investment revenues.
The agreement between the Egyptian government and IDB was signed on Sunday in Cairo by Waleed Abdul Mohsen al-Wohaib, chief executive of the institution and Egypt’s international cooperation minister, Fiza Abu el-Naga.
The European Union seems to be a step closer to resolving its 30-month long crisis after its leaders agreed on plans to stabilise the region’s troubled banks. However, markets are increasingly impatient for a major market boost and central banks might be forced to act with the imminent global market slowdown.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has turned down an appeal from Israel for $1 billion in bridge loan funding to the Palestinian Authority (PA) government, reported the Times of Israel on Monday, after claiming that it did not wish to set a precedent of non-state entities receiving loans by proxy.
Bank chiefs found responsible for the collapse of their financial institutions should not be “allowed back into the industry again,” said the chairman of the U.K. Financial Services Authority (FSA) on Sunday, in the wake of new rate-fixing allegations that have engulfed Barclays and other banks.
Here are some highlights of the deals, and unbroken deadlocks, after the first day of the EU summit in Brussels: The 20th round of emergency crisis talks led by eurozone finance ministers and regulators.
After 13 hours of talks, EU leaders yesterday agreed to step up their rescue plans, promising more help for weaker euro economies such as Spain and Italy while expediting the financial integration of the euro bloc.
Small businesses are traditionally the backbone of the US economy but since the start of the financial crisis 5 years ago, funding has trickled to a slow and small businesses in need of money are left without access to accredited investors. However, will the rising popularity see a revival of the small business, and ultimately the US economy?
Iran’s biggest oil tanker operator, NITC, has sent its super-tankers for a makeover, reported the Financial Times on Thursday, with the freshly-painted tankers now having new names, new flags and new home ports, in order to avoid being tracked by Western officials.
Both Italy and Spain are refusing to back a 120 billion euro ($149 billion) European Union growth package, wrote numerous reports emanating from the EU Summit in Brussels on Thursday, with the two countries threatening to block “everything” unless they received immediate eurozone aid to bring down their borrowing costs.
The Bank of China opened its first bank branch in Taipei yesterday to much media fanfare as decades of tension cool. China’s third largest bank has a global banking network, but it is the first time that any mainland Chinese bank has received approval from Taiwan’s financial regulators for commercial banking licenses.
With the aim of forging closer ties with Taiwan, Bank of China yesterday became the first Chinese lender to set up a branch in Taiwan, with the opening ceremony attended by Taiwanese officials and top banking executives.
