The Swiss banking giant, UBS, has reported a net profit of 1.66bn Swiss francs ($1.65bn, £1.1bn) for the three months to the end of September. The number was boosted by a major one-off tax credit of 825m francs.

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The US dollar has hit a 15-year low against the yen after the G20 nations agreed to avoid a currency war. The weekend talks, in South Korea, saw the group of 20 major advanced and developing nations, agree to avoid competing to lower

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The Singapore stock exchange (SGX) has unveiled a multi-billion dollar bid for the company that owns the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) in Sydney. If approved, the $8.3bn takeover would mark the first stock exchange merger in the Asia Pacific region.

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US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has opened the way to a new round of quantitative easing. “There would appear, all else being equal, to be a case for further action,” he said, in a speech to the Boston regional federal reserve.

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The US trade deficit was wider than expected in August, figures have shown, in the wake of record imports from China. US Commerce Department figures showed the gap between imported and exported goods grew by 8.8% to $46.4bn (£29bn).

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The owner of Friends Provident, Resolution, has said it will buy the insurance business of healthcare provider Bupa in a £102m deal. Resolution will acquire Bupa Health Assurance, which mainly provides income protection, critical illness and life insurance to companies and

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The European Commission has proposed tightening the rules for deep-water drilling in the oil industry. The move follows April’s devastating BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Europe has more than 900 offshore wells, although only Norway

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Computer maker Hewlett Packard (HP) has named Leo Apotheker, former boss of business software maker SAP, as its new chief executive and president. He replaces Mark Hurd, who stepped down from his positions as president and CEO after an investigation into claims made against him

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Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao says his country will continue to support both the euro and European government bonds. “I have made clear that China supports a stable euro,” he said. He also promised not to cut China’s investment in European bonds,

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Artwork from collapsed investment bank Lehman Brothers and other memorabilia have fetched £1.6m at auction. The firm’s administrator, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), ordered the sale at Christie’s in London to raise funds for the bank’s creditors.

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