Wednesday Papers: Investment banking boosts UBS earnings - other news

Financial Times

* UBS reported better second-quarter profits than expected as resilient investment banking revenues and improved private banking boosted the Swiss group’s performance; net group earnings amounted to SFr2.01bn, down 9% on the first quarter; investment banking earned SFr1.31bn before tax, up 9% on the previous quarter.

* Deutsche Bank on Tuesday reported net income of €1.2bn for the second quarter, slightly beating expectations; at its investment banking unit, net revenues fell from €4.6bn a year ago to €3.6bn; pre-tax profits for the quarter for the unit fell from €823m a year ago to €779m.

* CB Richard Ellis Group, the world’s largest real estate consultancy, has reported the strongest growth in revenue and earnings since 2007; property sales rose globally by 61 per cent year-on-year, led by a 93 per cent improvement in sales in Europe and 67 growth in Asia Pacific.

* Private investors who lost millions in an alleged German Ponzi scheme are threatening legal action against the UK’s Barclays and HSBC as well as Rabobank of the Netherlands, alleging that the banks may have acted irresponsibly.

* CIT Group, the commercial lender that was a casualty of the credit crisis, earned $142.1m, or 71 cents a share, in the second quarter, compared with $97.3m, or 49 cents a share, in the first quarter.

* The Big Four accountants’ dominance of the audit industry is facing mounting international scrutiny after the UK’s House of Lords launched a review into the firms’ role in the financial crisis.

* Banco Popular's profits for the three months to the end of June stood at €150.5m, compared with €217.8m for the same period last year.

* Greece has taken more measures than necessary to cut its deficit this year from 13.6 per cent to 8.1 per cent of GDP, according to finance minister George Papaconstantinou.

* Germany’s bank regulator has dismissed concerns that the country is unhappy with international proposals revealed this week to strengthen lenders against a financial crisis.

* BP’s new chief executive, Bob Dudley, has promised to shake up the company’s culture to improve safety and reliability.

* Investors in farmland are targeting countries with weak laws, buying arable land on the cheap and failing to deliver on promises of jobs and investments, according to the draft of a report by the World Bank.