BRUSSELS (AFP) – Europe cannot offer Portugal a bridging loan and long-term financial aid remains dependent on radical changes to its economy, the head of the European Commission said Wednesday. “It is not possible to provide bridging loans,” former Portuguese prime minister Jose Manuel Barroso told reporters in Brussels as […]

By Emily Kaiser WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The world’s banks face a $3.6 trillion “wall of maturing debt” in the next two years and must compete with debt-laden governments to secure financing, the IMF warned on Wednesday.   Many European banks need bigger capital cushions to restore market confidence and assure […]

  By PALLAVI GOGOI, AP Business Writer NEW YORK – JPMorgan Chase & Co. reported a 67 percent jump in first-quarter earnings Wednesday on solid growth in investment banking fees and a drop in losses from credit cards. The bank’s mortgage business continued to be weak. The New York bank […]