London - Nationalized British mortgage lender Northern Rock Thursday withdrew some of its savings products for new clients following a consumer rush on safe placings for their deposits, the bank said.
The measure was aimed at preventing having an unfair advantage from state ownership, it said. British savers have sought out Northern Rock, and more recently other government-backed institutions, as "safe havens" to place their deposits.
These include the Abbey National, in the process of being taken over by Spain's Santander bank, and Bradford & Bingley, whose savings and mortgage business was nationalized last Monday in a deal that saw the bank's "non-toxic" business sold to Santander.
Zurich - Swiss banking giant UBS said Thursday it managed to produce a "small profit" in the just-ended third quarter of 2008 and that its financial position is steadier with no further asset writedowns foreseen.
The brief statement came ahead of an extraordinary general meeting at which shareholders will vote on new appointments to the board of directors.
UBS chairman Peter Kurer in his remarks said 2009 would be a profitable year. He said the bank's risk positions in US mortgages had been "significantly reduced" chiefly after selling mortgage- related securities.
Brussels - The European Commission on Wednesday gave the green light to the purchase by Germany's Deutsche Bank of parts of Dutch ABN Amro from troubled Benelux giant Fortis, judging that it would not harm competition in Europe.
The decision comes a year after the commission ruled that Fortis could buy up parts of ABN Amro as long as it sold off certain key ventures, and three months after Deutsche bid some 709 million euros (1 billion dollars) for the parts.
But it comes too late to save Fortis, which the Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg governments part-privatized at the weekend in a bid to save it from a collapse triggered by the global financial crisis.
Brussels - The European Union on Wednesday launched a probe into the five-billion-euro German state aid package granted to troubled bank WestLB, but said that the probe did not necessarily indicate any suspicion of wrongdoing, officials said in a statement.
The EU's executive, the European Commission, has opened "an in- depth investigation into state support measures in favour of the German bank WestLB. This is a first step towards finding a viable long-term solution, in close contact with the German authorities," a statement released in Brussels said.
Brussels - The European Union on Wednesday approved in record time Britain's nationalization of troubled financier Bradford & Bingley, the country's eighth-biggest mortgage lender, saying that it was in line with EU rules.
On Monday the British government decided to take the lender into public ownership and sell off its savings and deposits business to Spanish banking giant Santander in a deal which the buyer valued at 612 million pounds (1.1 billion dollars).
The move was made in consultation with experts from the EU's executive, the European Commission, which oversees the bloc's rules on competition and state aid.
