United Kingdom

Europe risks being the last region to pull itself out of recession unless it can present a united front on the economic crisis and bulk up stimulus plans, according to the head of Italy’s business lobby group. Emma Marcegaglia, president of Confindustria, told the Financial Times in a video interview that the Group of 20 summit in London next month was doomed to failure if Europe did not take a co-ordinated approach to ending the crisis and forget about side issues such as hedge fund regulation, the Financial Times reported.

At least 17 of the 20 major nations that vowed at a November summit to avoid protectionist steps that could spark a global trade war have violated that promise, with countries from Russia to the United States to China enacting measures aimed at limiting the flow of imported goods, according to a World Bank report unveiled yesterday. The report underscores a "worrying" trend toward protectionism as countries rush to shield their ailing domestic industries during the global economic crisis, The Washington Post reported.

Finance chiefs from the Group of 20 vowed to work together to clean up the toxic assets that helped trigger the financial crisis and led banks to rack up more than $1 trillion in losses, Bloomberg reported. Officials meeting near London this weekend outlined guidelines on how governments should rid banks of distressed securities that have devastated companies from Citigroup Inc. to Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc.

Citing a difficult economic climate and a decline in work flow, Baker & McKenzie LLP plans to initiate a formal redundancy consultation review at its London office later this month that seeks to eliminate between 60 and 85 jobs, Bankruptcy Law360 reported. In an internal e-mail to the firm’s London staff, office managing partner Gary Senior said the firm would launch the monthlong consultation process on March 31 and cut between 20 and 30 jobs from its legal practices, about half of which are likely to come from the corporate group.

Britain's Financial Services Authority warned bankers should be "very frightened" of the watchdog, promising intrusive oversight, but warned against forming a monolithic EU supervisory body. The FSA would judge firms on the outcomes of their actions not on simple box-ticking, its Chief Executive Hector Sants said in a speech to members of Britain's financial community at Thomson Reuters offices in Canary Wharf, London. "There is a view that people are not frightened of the FSA. I can assure you that this is a view I am determined to correct.

Responding to the report that DLA Piper's United Kingdom offices have recently shed 7 to 8 percent of their partnership, a prominent New York legal consultant said that cutting deadweight at the highest levels could help firms stay afloat amid the recession, Bankruptcy Law360 reported. On Wednesday, a leaked memo revealed that up to 8 percent of DLA Piper's partners have recently left its U.K. office, Legal Week reported. The memo said that since June the London office has hired only 37 employees but lost 145, according to the report.

When the leaders of 20 nations met in Washington in November to face down a grave economic crisis that imperiled them all, the air was filled with promises of a new era of global regulation intended to match a new era of global risk. Nearly five months later, those risks look greater than ever.

Borse Dubai, a government-owned exchanges group, is expected to close a $2.5 billion loan today, a vote of support for the emirate amid fears that the commercial hub of the Gulf could default, the Financial Times reported. The company, which controls Dubai's two equity markets and has stakes in the London Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, needs to pay off a $3.4 billion (€2.7 billion, £2.4 billion) loan next week, the first major test in 2009 of Dubai's ability to refinance $20 billion in loans that mature this year. Dubai's globalised economy has been hit hard by the credit crunch.

Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said the U.K. is in a “deep recession” that may force policy makers to create money and pump it into the economy after cutting interest rates to a record low, Bloomberg reported. “Further easing in monetary policy may well be required,” said King at a press conference in London after presenting the central bank’s revised quarterly forecasts Wednesday.

As the worldwide economic crisis continues, DLA Piper has launched a formal layoff consultation that will likely eliminate 140 jobs in its United Kingdom offices, Bankruptcy Law360 reported. "This is a difficult but necessary decision based on our reassessment of resource levels following the continuing deterioration of the market. This prudent action will align our capacity levels with existing client demands," DLA Piper managing partner and joint-CEO Nigel Knowles said in a statement.