Europe

Barclays was among six global banking groups to be downgraded by Fitch last night, with the ratings agency pointing to challenging financial markets.

EU TREATY VETO

The eurozone faces a "mild" recession in the first half of next year, restricting full-year economic growth in the region to just 0.1%, according to Ernst & Young.

Britons rank second in a list of non-US nationals most keen to tip America's regulators off about suspected financial crime, according to the first annual report on the Securities & Exchange Commission's whistleblower programme.

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ON EUROPE

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.

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

As the eurozone crisis reaches a crescendo, the Bank of England has revealed just how much exposure UK banks have to the region's most troubled economies.

Skandia's portfolio manager Lee Freeman-Shor has swapped Barings' James Buckley for former favourite Dirk Enderlein on the Skandia European Best Ideas fund.