VENTURE CAPITAL POST

The euro dived to its lowest since early 2003 against the dollar on Wednesday, dragging other European currencies with it on the back of the huge differences developing in market interest rates between Europe and the United States.

The largest U.S. banks and their foreign rivals are facing a tough two-step check-up of their financial health by the Federal Reserve, forcing the firms to get a far better grip on how they measure risk.

Iraq is discussing a possible bond issue worth nearly $6 billion with Deutsche Bank and Citibank as part of its efforts to cover a huge projected budget deficit this year, Finance Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said.

U.S. economist Stephen Ross was named winner of the Deutsche Bank Prize in Financial Economics on Tuesday for helping to create models that have helped markets assess prices for options and other assets for the past three decades.

Greece's new leftist-led government, isolated in the euro zone and under pressure from the European Central Bank, said on Friday it wanted no more bailout money with strings attached from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

Investigators at German financial watchdog Bafin have not discovered any signs of systemic efforts to manipulate currency benchmarks, rather, only individual efforts, banking supervisory head Raimund Roeseler said in a newspaper interview on Tuesday.

The chief executive of Deutsche Bank's (DBKGn.DE) retail arm Postbank (DPBGn.DE) strongly advocates having Deutsche sell a large portion of Postbank's shares on the stock market rather than to another bank, a German magazine reported on Saturday.

Australian bank Macquarie Group Ltd's aircraft leasing subsidiary is in exclusive talks to buy a portfolio of new planes from Dublin-based lessor AWAS for more than $4 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

Deutsche Bank AG (DBKGn.DE) said it would review its strategy in 2015 after a business magazine said it was considering major changes, possibly including the sale of its Postbank-branded (DPBGn.DE) retail unit and a revision of its profit targets.

Shares of Virgin America Inc, a low-cost airline partly owned by Richard Branson, soared more than 30 percent in their market debut, underscoring the buoyant mood in an industry that is emerging from a long spell of turbulence.

The euro edged higher and European stocks pulled back on Thursday as investors waited to see what message ECB chief Mario Draghi will send after the European Central Bank's monthly meeting, following another run of poor euro zone data.

European bank stress tests have found that Ireland's permanent tsb (PTSB) (IPM.I) had a capital shortfall of 800 million to 850 million euros at the end of 2013, a source familiar with the process said on Friday.

Grappling with an ailing euro zone economy and stagnant prices, the European Central Bank is hoping that help will come from something it cannot control: the value of the euro.

Shares in drugmakers AstraZeneca (AZN.L) and Shire (SHP.L) both fell more than 5 percent on Tuesday after the U.S. Treasury took steps to curb "inversion" deals that allow companies to escape high U.S. taxes by reincorporating abroad.

Singapore will be counting on its marquee Formula One race to help make up for a 30 percent drop in Chinese tourists this year.