The merger of the Swiss units of UBS, opens new tab and Credit Suisse could be completed as early as July 1, a senior executive at UBS was quoted as saying on Tuesday, Reuters reported. UBS, which acquired former rival Credit Suisse last year after the bank's collapse, had previously indicated the two units would be combined during the third quarter. Sabine Keller-Busse, president of UBS Switzerland, told the Neue Zuercher Zeitung newspaper in an interview that the plan was progressing "very well." "The merger could by done by July 1," she said.

Atos SE chose a bailout proposal from a group led by David Layani’s Onepoint, its top shareholder, beating out a rival bid from Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky for the troubled French IT company, Bloomberg News reported. Onepoint’s rescue plan for the troubled French IT company, which includes new equity and reduced debt, has the support of the board and the company will now seek to reach a final agreement with its creditors by July, Atos said in a statement on Tuesday.

The European Central Bank must stay cautious, and last week’s cut in borrowing costs won’t necessarily be followed by further rapid moves, according to President Christine Lagarde, Bloomberg News reported. “We’ve made the appropriate decision, but it doesn’t mean interest rates are on a linear declining path,” she said in an interview with leading European newspapers. “There might be periods where we hold rates again.” Euro-zone borrowing costs aren’t on a predetermined trajectory, the president reiterated.

Poland’s Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski expects the country will face the European Union’s procedure for its excessive deficit last year, Bloomberg News reported. Domanski told reporters on Monday he hopes the EU’s executive will be lenient in demanding budget cuts because the government needs to increase defense spending. “The procedure will be definitely launched,” he said on the sidelines of a financial congress in Sopot, northern Poland.

Britain’s next government will immediately face a funding crunch in town halls after councils warned of a £6.2 billion ($7.9 billion) hole in their budget plans over the next two years, Bloomberg News reported. The Local Government Association said council budgets will be stretched to the “limit” after many administrations ran into financial trouble in recent years.

A former Allianz fund manager pleaded guilty on Friday over his role in a meltdown of private investment funds sparked by the pandemic that caused an estimated $7 billion of investor losses, Reuters reported. Gregoire Tournant admitted to two counts of investment adviser fraud at a hearing before Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain of the federal court in Manhattan. He faces up to 10 years in prison at his Oct. 16 sentencing. Tournant also agreed to give up $17.5 million in ill-gotten gains, including bonuses that were inflated by his fraud.

Global payments processors Visa and Mastercard must face a new set of lawsuits over fees charged to retailers, after a London tribunal ruled on Friday that collective cases brought on behalf of merchants can proceed, Reuters reported. The two firms already face a long list of lawsuits in London over multilateral interchange fees, which retailers pay when consumers use a card to shop. Visa and Mastercard are each being sued by hundreds of claimants at London's Competition Appeal Tribunal, which is managing the various cases together.

Russia’s central bank Friday left its key interest rate unchanged for the fourth straight meeting, but signaled it may raise borrowing costs to tame a pickup in inflation driven by the diversion of manpower and other resources to sustain the invasion of Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported. In 2023, with inflation surging, the central bank raised its key interest rate five times before pausing as inflation appeared to cool. But prices have begun to rise more rapidly over recent months as the war entered its third year.

The European Central Bank lowered interest rates by a quarter point, beginning to reverse a historic series of rate increases and widening a policy gap with the Federal Reserve, which isn’t expected to follow suit for months, the Wall Street Journal reported. The ECB said it would reduce its key interest rate to 3.75% from 4%, its first rate cut in almost five years. Future interest-rate decisions will be based on incoming economic data, the bank said in a statement. The ECB’s rate-setting committee “is not pre-committing to a particular rate path,” the bank said.

A group of investors in Credit Suisse Group AG bonds that got wiped out when UBS Group AG rescued the bank in a Swiss government-brokered deal are suing the European country in a U.S. court, Bloomberg News reported. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal court in New York, seeks more than $82 million plus interest and is the latest legal fight taking place in the US and Europe related to the bond write-down. Holders of Credit Suisse’s additional tier 1 bonds effectively saw about $17 billion of their notes written down to zero after the sale.