Barclays Bank

Barclays' pre-tax profit for Q1 soared by 47% on the same period last year to £1.82bn, helped by a reduction in bad debts.

Barclays Bank has launched an exchange-traded note (ETN) providing exposure to the Eurostoxx 50 volatility index on the Xetra exchange in Germany.

Société Générale and Barclays have launched a combined total of 28 exchange-traded notes (ETNs) on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

Gordon Brown believes the large economies are close to agreeing a global tax on banks which would cost the financial sector billions of pounds a year - but he played down expectations of a final deal at the next G20 meeting in June.

State Street Global Advisers (SSgA) has partnered with Nuveen Investments to improve its municipal bond ETF offering and other similar investment strategies.

Part-nationalised banks led declines on the FTSE in late Tuesday trading amid concerns about what the Government plans to do with its stakes in them after the General Election.

Around one fifth of ISA investors plan to use ETFs in the next tax year to provide instant diversification and low cost market access, Barclays Stockbrokers says.

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has been slapped with a £28.6m Office of Fair Trading (OFT) fine for breaching competition rules.

Merchant Capital has launched its first kick out plan since establishing a structured product business earlier this year.

Lloyds Banking Group is expecting to make a profit in 2010 after making losses of £6.3bn last year.