UBS AG’s decision to cut 5 percent of its workforce brings to more than 40,000 the number of jobs cut by European banks in the past month as the region’s worsening sovereign debt crisis crimps trading revenue. UBS, Switzerland’s biggest bank, said yesterday it will eliminate 3,500 jobs, mainly from its investment bank. It follows HSBC Holdings Plc, which announced 30,000 cuts on Aug. 1, Barclays Plc, which is cutting headcount by 3,000, and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, which is eliminating 2,000 posts. Credit Suisse Group AG announced 2,000 reductions on July 28.

Some of France’s wealthiest individuals, including the L’Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, have called for a tax on the rich in a gesture of national solidarity as the government prepares to announce swingeing cuts to bring public finances under control, the Financial Times reported. The proposal follows a similar demand in the US from billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who earlier this month criticised the fact that his tax rate was lower than many of those who worked for him.

The euro zone's rescue plan to end its sovereign-debt crisis will weaken the foundations of the currency union and could increase states' tendency to build up debts, Germany's Bundesbank warned Monday, taking a hard stance against an agreement that German Chancellor Angela Merkel still has to persuade her government to support, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Germany said on Monday that a deal Finland struck with debt-wracked Greece for Athens to provide collateral in exchange for loan guarantees required the consent of all 17 eurozone members, Agence France-Presse reported. The agreement "must be approved by the other eurozone member countries," a finance ministry spokesman told a regular government press briefing. "Such a bilateral accord may not be agreed to the detriment of the others," he said, referring to the other countries coming to the aid of Greece.

Italy, under pressure from financial markets and the European Central Bank to overhaul its economy, is trying to tackle one of its most persistent economic flaws: the lack of opportunities for young people, The Wall Street Journal reported. Italy's Parliament is due to start debating a package of reforms aimed at speeding up growth in late August that includes a tentative move to relax layoff rules. That, the government hopes, will encourage business to take more risks on hiring new, young workers.

The most recently available figures from the Central Bank note almost 50,000 mortgages were in arrears for more than three months last March. The majority of them were over six months behind in their payments, the Irish Times reported. Even allowing for no increase in the rate of people falling into arrears, it is likely that by the end of September this number will have exceeded 60,000, and this doesn’t include those people who have agreed some form of restructuring with their lender. Meanwhile, property prices continue to fall, putting more homeowners into negative equity.

Bondholders of bankrupt Czech lottery firm Sazka are demanding changes to its sale conditions, which they say will put off buyers and therefore won't maximise returns, the investors' law firm said on Monday. Dewey & LeBoeuf said it represented investors holding more than 25 percent of Sazka's outstanding 195 million secured amortising bond due in 2021.

Greece’s four largest banks agreed to take up a €50m convertible bond to help recapitalise Proton Bank, a small lender, the central bank announced this weekend, in what is being seen as an attempt to avert a run on the country’s fragile banking system, the Financial Times reported. The deal came ahead of an expected announcement this week that several Athens lenders plan to seek emergency liquidity assistance from the Greek central bank, senior bankers said.

Divisions deepened among European leaders on how to deal with the euro debt crisis yesterday as turmoil in financial markets continued and fears grew about the banking sector, the Irish Times reported. The Belgian finance minister Didier Reynders added his voice to calls for common eurobonds. Mr Reynders said the euro zone had to prove it had “deep pockets” to reassure investors that euro zone banks were safe.

The Swedish debt agency said Friday that it has found 5.1 million Swedish kronor ($796,291) so far in its probe of assets belonging to the troubled Swedish car maker Saab Automobile AB, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The firm, owned by Netherlands-listed Swedish Automobile NV, has struggled with its finances for months and failure to pay suppliers has left it without the components it needs to produce its cars.