EU antitrust regulators on Wednesday fined Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Agricole and Credit Suissea total of €28.5m ($34.4m) for taking part in a bond cartel, with Bank of America Merrill Lynch getting the biggest financial penalty.

The Japanese financial and brokerage conglomerate Nomura announced it had suffered a 1.4bn dollars loss in the first quarter of this year due to pandemic slowdown which further worsened the $2.3bn hit caused by the collapse of US investment fund Archegos, Reuters reported. The loss unveiled by Nomura is the worst since the 2008 acute financial crisis. Nomura noted that it expects to book a further $570 million in charges this year, related to Archegos bankruptcy.

Credit Suisse Group is forced to take drastic measures to curb losses, mounted by a massive exposure to the troubled Archegos, Reuters reported. According to data, provided by media sources the leading Swiss bank had more than $20 billion of exposure to investments related to Archegos. The fund was forced to cut many of its long capital positions, including ones related to Credit Suisse, Wall Street Journal elaborated.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday pledged to aggressively tackle climate change using all the tools at her disposal, warning that a failure to do so effectively and promptly could undermine economic growth.

The popular Dutch bank ABN Amro announced it had agreed a deal worth some 480 million euro to settle a scandal which involved allegations in illegal activities including money laundering, Reuters reported. It is expected that the agreed amount will weigh down on the bank’s first quarter earnings report. ABN Amro said in a statement it had agreed to pay a fine of a total of 300 million euros and 180 million euros as disgorgement reflecting "the seriousness, scope and duration of the identified shortcomings" in combating money laundering.

US financial giant Citigroup announced it was restructuring operations and cutting consumer banking activities of its banking arm Citibank in 13 markets in Asia, Europe and the Middle East, BBC reported. The operations in those markets will be directed to four financial hubs in a move to improve market performance and boost returns. However Citibank confirmed it would continue to offer products and services to big clients and institutions.

The post-pandemic economic recovery allowed Bank of America to spur its credit activities and post a profit of 8.1 billion dollars for the first quarter of 2021, Reuters reported. The positive financial results came as the bank unfolded funds that had been kept stashed for emergency operations as the pandemic was seen deteriorating economy. But with those fears behind its back, Bank of America was allowed it to release billions from its loan-loss reserves.

The crypto currency Coinbase made a smashing debut and it saw its shares surge and marked value reaching as high as 86 billion dollars after touching briefly 100 billion, AP reported. Coinbase Global IPO is seen by some as an inflection point for digital currencies, as Coinbase’s fortunes are closely tied to Bitcoin, the most popular crypto currency. Bitcoin’s price topped $64,000 in mid-week trading, up from $29,000 at the start of the year, and Coinbase said recently that first-quarter revenue should total around $1.8 billion, exceeding its revenue for all of 2020.

The European Central Bank announced intentions to step up its operations aimed to curb borrowing costs, Reuters reported. ECB intervened on the bond markets to reduce rising tension over European banks. The bank further warned the European policy makers that a too early withdrawal of stimulus packages will pose serious risk for economies.

All efforts to restore the role UK’s capital as key global finance centre should be focused on digital upgrade of transactions and payment methods. The British capital is loosing a major share of finance and stock market business after Brexit came in effect. Leading think-thanks emphasized on the role of the digital pound as a tool to facilitate a transition to more advanced transaction practices, Reuters reported.