Some of the world's largest central banks came together on Sunday to stop a banking crisis from spreading as Swiss authorities persuaded UBS Group AG on Sunday to buy rival Credit Suisse Group AG in a historic deal, Reuters reported. UBS will pay 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.23 billion) for 167-year-old Credit Suisse and assume up to $5.4 billion in losses in a deal backed by a massive Swiss guarantee and expected to close by the end of 2023. Soon after the announcement late on Sunday, the U.S.

At least two major banks in Europe are examining scenarios of contagion in the region's banking sector and are looking to the Federal Reserve and the ECB for stronger signals of support, two senior executives close to the discussions told Reuters. The fallout from the crisis of confidence in Credit Suisse Group AG and the failure of two U.S. banks could ripple through the financial system next week, the two executives separately told Reuters on Sunday.

Virgin Orbit has begun drawing up detailed contingency plans for its insolvency days after halting its operations and furloughing its workforce, SkyNews.com. Sky News has learned that the commercial space satellite venture founded by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group is working with Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) and Ducera, two restructuring firms, on fallback plans in the event that it cannot secure new funding.

Credit Suisse said today that it would borrow up to $54 billion from Switzerland's central bank to shore up liquidity and investor confidence, after a slump in its shares had intensified fears about a global banking crisis, Reuters reported. The bank's announcement prompted a 24% rise in Credit Suisse shares and helped reverse some of the heavy losses on stock markets driven by investor fears over potential bank runs across the world.

The European Central Bank went ahead with a planned half-point increase in interest rates but offered few clues on what may follow amid market turmoil that roiled Credit Suisse Group AG, Bloomberg News reported. The deposit rate was lifted to 3% on Thursday — as officials have been flagging since their last meeting six weeks ago and as the majority of economists anticipated, but dropped language from its statement indicating where borrowing costs are headed.

Ukraine's central bank said on Thursday it would keep its main interest rate steady at 25% as inflation remained high so far this year, Reuters reported. The bank has kept the interest rate at 25% since June 2022 as it sought to keep inflation under control following Russia's large-scale invasion, which has disrupted supply chains and battered the economy.

The British government ramped up its efforts to get more people into work and make Britain an enticing investment destination as it announced on Wednesday an expansion of free child care, extended household energy subsidies and bolstered business investment incentives, the New York Times reported. Amid double-digit inflation, rising interest rates and widespread labor strikes, Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor of the Exchequer, detailed his plan to help Prime Minister Rishi Sunak keep the promise he made in January to expand the economy this year and pull it out of stagnation.

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank has shown the need to build a larger and more diverse financial system by bolstering the stock market and unlocking cash in pension schemes, Britain's finance minister Jeremy Hunt said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Following the collapse of its parent company in the United States, Silicon Valley Bank's UK arm was sold to HSBC over the weekend to avoid disrupting its customers in Britain. SVB was heavily focused on lending to the technology sector. Fallout from the collapse continued to roil banking shares in Europe on Wednesday.

Credit Suisse shares slumped by as much as 30% on Wednesday after its largest shareholder said it could not provide further support, prompting the Swiss bank's CEO to make new assurances on its financial strength, Reuters reported. Saudi National Bank, which holds 9.88% of Credit Suisse, said it would not buy more shares on regulatory grounds. Shares in Credit Suisse, which is battling to recover from a string of scandals that have undermined the confidence of investors and clients, were down about 17% in early afternoon trading, after shedding as much as 30% to a new record low.

Ukraine won a significant boost in its attempt to set aside a $3 billion defaulted bond after the UK Supreme Court ruled that judges need to consider the backdrop of Russia’s campaign of threatening behavior in the run-up to the annexation of Crimea, Bloomberg News reported. Britain’s top court declared that a judge should pore over Russian attempts to strong-arm Ukraine into issuing the bond, giving the green light to a full-blown London trial.