Paul J. Davies

That is the total size of bad loans held by Italian banks in recent months, according to credit rating agency DBRS. Banks have cut their bad debt this year to the lowest levels since early 2010, over a decade ago and before the explosion of the eurozone debt crisis. Italian banks have been busy se

Price spikes post-World War II and the 1970s show how inflation can dominate stock market returns.

Cryptocurrencies found some respite, edging higher after this week’s crash had helped erase almost 40% from bitcoin’s price compared with a peak of almost $65,000 in mid-April.

Debt-repayment problems are increasing among borrowers in the rapidly growing market for private credit, where specialist funds make loans directly to smaller companies often without banks involved.

Shares of electronic payments company Wirecard jumped in April after news of an investment by SoftBank, but the commitment ended up coming from the personal accounts of a group of SoftBank employees and an outside investor.

Bank reserves are normally obscure, even to bankers and professional investors. But this week, they hit the news when a shortage of them caused a key measure of borrowing costs—known as the overnight repo rate—to spike.

The most important performance number in the private-equity world is at risk of being massaged in a way that undermines the industry’s credibility.

Big private-equity firms can now behave like old-fashioned investment banks, using their own balance sheets to move quickly, make big bets and earn fees from partners. But as they become more powerful on Wall Street, there are greater risks of conflicts and scrutiny.

The emirate believes using the technology to conduct its business will make it more efficient and burnish its business-friendly image.

European banks including BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse have reported a good first quarter in trading, helped by fixed-income. For some of them, that doesn’t look part of the plan.