Bloomberg Europe’s largest banks kicked off earnings season with pledges to return more than $12 billion to shareholders, following an interest rate bonanza that’s bolstering lenders from Milan to Stockholm. UBS Group AG Chief Executive Officer Ralph Hamers vowed to return more than $6.7 billion to shareholders this year, after income from lending to wealthy clients surged in the …

  Bloomberg Citigroup Inc is hiring Cyril Besseddik from JPMorgan Chase & Co. to lead coverage of health-care companies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa for its investment bank. Besseddik is set to join Citigroup’s banking, capital markets advisory group in May and will be based in London, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg News. He was …

  Bloomberg PayPal Holdings Inc. said it will cut 2,000 staffers as it contends with a macroeconomic slowdown that’s weighed on the firm’s business in recent quarters. The cuts, which will affect about 7% of employees, will take place in the coming weeks, Chief Executive Officer Dan Schulman told employees. “While we have made substantial progress in right-sizing our cost …