Headlines

France's competition watchdog has raided auditing firms as part of an anti-trust investigation, it said on Wednesday, while La Lettre financial publication said the "Big Four" firms Deloitte, KPMG, EY and PWC were among those targeted, Reuters reported. Autorite de la Concurrence, as the watchdog is known, on Tuesday carried out "unannounced inspections to visit and seize documents" at several companies offering services of auditing and financial reporting certification, it said in a statement. Deloitte said it had no comment to make, when contacted by Reuters about the matter.

Brazil's federal police served search and seizure warrants against businessmen Daniel Vorcaro and Nelson Tanure on Wednesday as part of an investigation into alleged fraud at Banco Master, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The raids are part of the second phase of a police operation launched ‌in November, which at the time led to Vorcaro's arrest on the same ​day the Brazilian central bank ordered Banco Master's liquidation. Vorcaro was later released, but had to wear an ankle monitor.

China announced on Wednesday the world’s largest trade surplus ever, even adjusting for inflation, as a tsunami of exports flooded markets around the world last year, the New York Times reported. China’s surplus, the value of goods and services it sold abroad versus its imports, reached $1.19 trillion, an increase of 20 percent from 2024, according to data released by the country’s General Administration of Customs. The number had already exceeded $1 trillion through November.

China’s auto exports surged 21% in 2025, driven by rising shipments of electric vehicles, while domestic demand slowed, an industry association said Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. Confronted with grueling competition in an overcrowded domestic market, Chinese auto manufacturers have stepped up sales around the globe. As they expanded further into overseas markets last year, exports of new energy vehicles such as EVs and plug-in hybrids doubled from the previous year to 2.6 million units, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

The European Parliament is considering putting on hold the European Union's implementation of the trade deal struck with the United States in protest over threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to seize Greenland, Reuters reported. The European Parliament has been debating legislative proposals to remove many of the EU's import duties on U.S. goods - the bulk of the trade deal with the U.S. - and to continue zero duties for U.S. lobsters, initially agreed with Trump in 2020. It was due to set its position in votes on January 26-27, which the MEPs said should now be postponed.

Italian administrators overseeing Europe’s largest steelworks have sued its former owner ArcelorMittal, seeking €7bn in damages, as the plant struggles for survival, the Luxembourg Times reported. According to a complaint filed with a Milan court this month and seen by the Financial Times, Acciaierie d’Italia is seeking compensation for what it alleges was ArcelorMittal’s “mismanagement” of the steelworks, formerly known as Ilva.

Moldova’s central bank governor said the country is preparing for a big international lender to enter its banking system following reforms to the sector, which was rocked by a scandal that left the nation on the verge of bankruptcy a decade ago, Bloomberg News reported. “I’m sure that we’ll see some big international names in Moldova sooner rather than later,” said Anca Dragu, governor of the National Bank of Moldova. “In terms of financial stability, we are doing fine and the banking sector looks pretty strong.

The biggest harbinger that things were about to fall apart in Iran didn’t come from the thwarted anger of the country’s opposition or the frustrated hopes of young people hungry for more personal freedom. It came from the collapse of a bank, the Wall Street Journal reported. Late last year, Ayandeh Bank, run by regime cronies and saddled with nearly $5 billion in losses on a pile of bad loans, went bust. The government folded the carcass into a state bank and printed a massive amount of money to try to paper over all the red ink. That buried the problem but didn’t solve it.

Germany’s DZ Bank revealed it received regulatory approval from BaFin under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework, enabling it to offer meinKrypto, a digital asset trading platform targeted at retail clients through the cooperative banking system, CoinDesk.com reported. The announcement follows a broader trend in Germany, where traditional financial institutions are entering the crypto space under the MiCA regime. DekaBank, another cooperative group player, debuted crypto trading and custodial services for institutions in early 2025.