Europe

Deutsche Bank has received from the US authorities the request to pay $ 14 bn to close the case into mortgage-backed securities. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the facts are previous to the outbreak of the 2008 crisis that led to the failure of Lehman Brothers. Certainly, if the figure is confirmed, it would not only among the highest paid to resolve similar issues but it would much over analysts’ expectations of the German group.

The European Commission has announced that it started to work on the first EU list of "non-cooperative tax jurisdictions." It is a first step in a complex process that involves consultation of individual European states. At the time a preliminary assessment of all third countries implemented based on a set of key indicators was presented, the Commission explained in a statement.

The EU summit will begin tomorrow in Bratislava, but some key issues have already appeared on the table: "We need to protect our external borders but we must take joint responsibility", is the statement released to press by the German Chancellor Angela Merkel after the meeting with French President François Hollande in Paris.

The banking sector in Europe could more easily see the merger and acquisition (M & A) only among the small and medium-sized banks, not the big banks, such as Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, which were recently riding rumours of a merger.

"Mergers and acquisitions among mid-tier EU banks are more likely than large-scale deals such as between Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, whose recent discussions were reported in the media," Fitch said.

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) left unchanged its monetary policy: the 3-month Libor remains between -1.25% and -0.25% while the deposit rate is at -0,75%. "The negative interest rate and the SNB’s willingness to intervene in the foreign exchange market are intended to make Swiss franc investments less attractive, thereby easing upward pressure on the currency", the SNB wrote in the note. For 2016 as a whole, the SNB now expects growth of approximately 1.5%.

The institute also reaffirms its intention to remain active on the currency market if necessary. The decision does not represent a surprise: they were expected by all experts polled by Reuters last week.

The German Real Estate market is in a boom phase. The reason, according to a study by Postbank, must be sought in the fact that investors are taking away the savings from the stock and bond market to invest in real estate.

Although most Germans seems to prefer the rent to the purchase of the house, the sector of real estate has become an increasingly attractive option. This not only because the cost of rent has suffered significant tweaks to the upside, but also for the obvious benefits that come from a battered economy that continues pushing the monetary policy banks to keep interest rates at historic lows.

The Italian Revenue Agency has specified that the effectiveness of the waiver stops at February 22, 2015, exactly one day before the signing of the agreement between Bern and Rome.

The waiver is a permission granted by the Italian current account to his Swiss bank to disclose its financial data to the administration of residence as part of the voluntary disclosure. The communication of information were intended to assign the right sanctions and failure doubling declaratory terms to taxpayers with accounts in collaborative spontaneously countries.

The unemployment rate remains substantially stable in July in UK, even after Brexit, that has not slowed the pace of creation of jobs, according to the data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

In July the number of people who applied for unemployment benefit in Britain rose to 2,400 units, compared to 3,600 the previous month. The figure is worse than expected by analysts which estimated an increase of 1,800 units.