Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's party has presented a bill in parliament to separate retail and investment banks in a move that, if approved, would force a radical overhaul of the country's banking sector, Reuters reported. The proposal by the Brothers of Italy (FdI) party comes in the wake of the collapse of U.S. tech lender Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and the emergency takeover of Credit Suisse by banking rival UBS, which raised fears of systemic stress that could lead to more bank failures.

The opening months of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year drove an increase in oil and natural-gas prices that brought a windfall for Moscow. Those days are over, the Wall Street Journal reported. As the war continues into its second year and Western sanctions bite harder, Russia’s government revenue is being squeezed and its economy has shifted to a lower-growth trajectory, likely for the long term. The country’s biggest exports, gas and oil, have lost major customers. Government finances are strained. The ruble is down over 20% since November against the dollar.

The Czech central bank sought to correct investors’ expectations about when it may start easing monetary policy, calling bets on summer rate cuts “premature.” The koruna gained, Bloomberg News. The bank held the benchmark rate at 7% on Wednesday, where it has been since new leadership halted rapid hikes last summer. Policy makers also maintained a commitment to prevent major currency swings, which has helped the koruna outperform its regional peers in the past year.

French authorities on Tuesday searched the Paris offices of five banks, including Societe Generale, BNP Paribas and HSBC, on suspicion of fiscal fraud, part of a broad European probe into the dodging of dividend tax payments, Reuters reported. Societe Generale confirmed the searches, declining further comment. The other banks concerned did not immediately reply to requests for comment. The French prosecutors' actions are the latest to hit global banks over the dividend tax fraud scheme as similar investigations have been conducted in Germany and other European countries.

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said on Tuesday that creditor hierarchy was a "cardinal principle" and in Britain additional tier one (AT1) bondholders would not be treated as they were in the emergency takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS, Reuters reported. "In any resolution we will always abide by the code of hierarchy because that's a cardinal principle," he told a committee of lawmakers.

Global financial regulators should take a closer look at credit default swaps after relatively small transactions in the market amplified last week’s banking turmoil, according to the European Central Bank’s top oversight official, Bloomberg News reported. The Financial Stability Board, which brings together authorities from around the world, could review “how these markets really work,” said Andrea Enria, who leads the ECB’s Supervisory Board.

French unions are holding a 10th day of nationwide protests Tuesday to try to force President Emmanuel Macron to hit the brakes on his unpopular pension reform and open fresh talks, Bloomberg News reported. As concerns grow over mounting violence, labor organizations have blamed the government for creating an explosive situation. Marches last Thursday ended in chaos, with hardcore fringes clashing with riot police. Further scuffles have taken place in the days since.

Sight deposits held by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) jumped last week, data showed on Monday, suggesting that both Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) and UBS (UBSG.S) may have taken big chunks of emergency liquidity to secure their merger, Reuters reported. Sight deposits - cash held by the SNB for commercial banks overnight - jumped to 567 billion Swiss francs ($619 billion) from 515 billion francs a week earlier.

The Swiss government was compelled to intervene to save Credit Suisse Group AG as the troubled bank wouldn’t have survived another day of trading amid a crisis of investor confidence, Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter said, Bloomberg News reported. “CS would not have survived Monday,” Keller-Sutter said in an interview with Zurich newspaper NZZ.

For a bank, a loss of confidence is a fatal blow. After that occurred at several banks in the United States and Switzerland in the past few weeks, policymakers in the eurozone have been trying to shore up confidence in the region’s banking sector, the New York Times reported. At a conference in Frankfurt last week, representatives from the European Central Bank spoke confidently of the strength of the financial regulations and the intensity of the banking oversight in the 20-country bloc that uses the euro currency.