Finance

The Treasury and Finance Ministry has said it raised $2.5 billion in a green bond issuance maturing in 2030.

The ministry earlier this week mandated Bank of America, ING, J.P. Morgan, and Standard Chartered for the U.S. dollar-denominated green bond.

Small tax debtors are making use of the favorable provisions offered by the Finance Ministry, entering the 72- or 120-installment arrangements that have been instituted, or even the fixed arrangement.

An announcement of a major hike in the cost of top-up health insurance has caused an outcry in Slovenia and revived calls for ending this type of insurance, which is voluntary but required for virtually every type of health service bar emergency care and which is collected by private insurers.

BELGRADE - The National Bank of Serbia (NBS) Executive Board on Thursday raised the key policy rate by 25 bp to 6 pct, the NBS said in a statement.

The rates on deposit and lending facilities were raised to 4.75 pct and 7.25 pct, respectively.

An Easter supplement of BGN 70 (EUR 35) will be given to elderly people whose pensions for this month are below the officially established poverty line - BGN 504 (EUR 258), announced Prime Minister Galab Donev. Thus, an additional amount will be available only for half of the pensioners. They will receive the supplement next week as a separate payment from their monthly pensions.

Banks are stopping any further rises in mortgage rates, freezing interest rates at a date reportedly set for March 31.

This means that any increases made after last Friday or due to be made from now on in the interest rates that form the basis of reference for housing loans will not be applied.

The eurozone is near the end of the tighter monetary policy cycle, Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras said on Wednesday.

Addressing a conference organized by the Federation of Insurance Companies of Greece, the central banker said Greece was also close to obtaining investment grade.

Cyprus launched its first sustainable bond on Tuesday as governments took advantage of high demand for such assets following weeks of wild swings in bond markets.

Nicosia raised 1 billion euros from its first sustainable bond, the country's debt office said, becoming the latest European government to enter the market.

The Swiss attorney general's office says it has opened a probe into the events surrounding embattled bank Credit Suisse, which is to be taken over by rival UBS.

The merger between banks Credit Suisse and UBS could see up to 36,000 jobs being cut across the world, the SonntagsZeitung weekly reported yesterday.

The takeover by UBS of Credit Suisse was hastily arranged by the Swiss government on March 19 to prevent a global financial meltdown, following fears of contagion from the collapse of banks in the United States.