Norway’s trillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund is proposing to drop oil and gas companies from its benchmark index, which would mean cutting its investments in those companies, the deputy central bank chief supervising the fund told Reuters. If accepted by the finance ministry and adopted by parliament, the fund would over time divest billions of dollars […]

New EU regulation being phased in early next year will provide a “shake-out” to the investment banking industry, the chairman of RBS told CNBC Wednesday. The rules due to kick off on January 3 “will have some impact on investment banking revenues,” Howard Davies told CNBC at the sidelines of a UBS conference in London. […]

Volkswagen Group said on Thursday it plans to spend 10 billion euros ($11.8 billion) by 2025 to develop and manufacture all-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles as it seeks to comply with upcoming stringent rules in China. The group, which includes Volkswagen AG and Audi AG, intends to launch 15 of the so-called new energy vehicles […]

European equities were expected to open higher Thursday morning as investors monitor earnings and key data releases. The FTSE 100 is seen up by 19 points at 7,383; the DAX is set to open higher by 35 points at 13,020 and the CAC 40 is expected to open up by 16 points at 5,322, according […]

British bakery Greggs has apologized for substituting Jesus for a sausage roll in a promotional image for its Christmas advent calendar. The image seemed to cause a stir online. Simon Richards, chief executive of center-right pressure group The Freedom Association, called for a boycott of Greggs’ “sick anti-Christian” calendar. Tweet Another said he was “glad” […]

The current levels of global debt are concerning and demand action from policymakers, the former president of the European Central Bank (ECB) told CNBC on Wednesday. “Despite the fact that real growth is active, I wouldn’t say buoyant, but very satisfactory, we have some indicators on global leverage that are not that reassuring, in particular […]

U.S. buyout fund Cerberus has taken a 3 percent stake in Deutsche Bank, Germany’s flagship lender said on Wednesday. The investment makes Cerberus the fourth-largest shareholder after China’s HNA group, Qatar and money manager Blackrock . The move comes after the investor built a 5 percent stake in the country’s second-largest listed bank, Commerzbank, in […]

Russia and Venezuela have signed a debt restructuring deal under which Caracas will pay Moscow back $3.15 billion over a 10-year period, Russia’s Finance Ministry said on Wednesday. Debt repayments would be minimal in the first six years, the ministry said. Venezuela borrowed from Russia in late 2011, but failed to keep up withpayments on […]

A global liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply glut may soon be offset by a rapid uptick in demand, Oil Search CEO Peter Botten said Wednesday. “The market has fundamentally changed in the past few years,” Botten said at the Abu Dhabi Petroleum Exhibition Conference (ADIPEC). “It has clearly been driven by oversupply but this won’t […]

German banks are preparing for a so-called “hard Brexit” and the spoils of the U.K.’s departure from the European Union could be shared by other European cities, according to German banking and finance officials. German central bank executive board member Andreas Dombret said that German banks were planning for a hard Brexit — that the […]