The European Central Bank’s most recent rate cut will help ensure that inflation doesn’t settle below its 2% target, Chief Economist Philip Lane said on Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported. The ECB last week lowered its key interest rate for the eighth time since June 2024 after figures showed the annual rate of inflation fell to 1.9% in May.

UBS finance chief Todd Tuckner voiced his disappointment on Wednesday over proposed new Swiss capital regulations, which he said was the beginning of a possibly long process that the bank intends to contribute to, Reuters reported. "Naturally, as to capital, we're disappointed," Tuckner said at a conference in Berlin, speaking days after the Swiss government proposed rules that could make the country's remaining big bank hold $26 billion more in core capital. "We are looking at every possible option to potentially mitigate the imposition of these extreme capital measures," he added.

Institutional investment in residential real estate in Ireland fell by 80 per cent in 2023 and 2024, according to the Central Bank, the Irish Times reported. “Inward capital flows and equity financing for new residential development have fallen markedly,” the bank’s director of financial stability Mark Cassidy said at the launch of the regulator’s latest Financial Stability Review. Changes to the global financial system from higher interest rates and increased uncertainty were of particular concern to the residential rental sector here, he said.

The Swiss government on Friday proposed stricter rules for UBS following its takeover of Credit Suisse, which could make it hold $26 billion more in core capital, confirming some of the bank's worst fears about incoming new regulations, Reuters reported. The key proposal, which the bank would have six to eight years to prepare for after it became law, is that UBS must fully capitalise its foreign units, in line with what many analysts, lawmakers and executives had been expecting.

Ireland’s manufacturing output fell sharply in April, a new sign that the eurozone economy is slowing after a strong start to the year as U.S. businesses stockpiled goods ahead of expected tariff increases, the Wall Street Journal reported. Factory production was 13.7% lower than in March, with the decline concentrated in what the Irish statistics agency calls the “modern” sector, which is largely comprised of the local operations of U.S. technology and pharmaceutical businesses.

The U.K.’s labor market cooled in the three months to April, offering reassurance to Bank of England policymakers despite the level still being well above that required to return inflation to target any time soon, the Wall Street Journal reported. Average weekly earnings excluding bonuses rose 5.2% from a year earlier, down from 5.5% in the three months to March, the Office for National Statistics said Tuesday. The unemployment rate climbed to 4.6% in the period from 4.4% in the prior quarter, the highest since May-July 2021.

A Northolt woman who invented a business to get a £50,000 Covid Bounce Back Loan backed by the government has been sentenced for fraud, BBC.com reported. Jagoda Rubaszko made up administrative service company which she falsely claimed had a turnover of £210,000. She then paid the loan into five separate bank accounts in Poland over a two-month period. Rubaszko was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment, suspended for 21 months, for fraud by misrepresentation at Isleworth Crown Court on 5 June. Read more.

The European Commission has proposed an 18th package of sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, aimed at Moscow's energy revenues, its banks and its military industry, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The new package proposes banning transactions with Russia's Nord Stream gas pipelines, as well as banks that engage in sanctions circumvention.