Bloomberg Egypt’s external finances improved following the Nov. 3 decision to float the pound, the central bank said, as inflows from investments, remittances and exports picked up. The balance of payments surplus grew to $5.1 billion in the October to December period, from $1.9 billion in the previous quarter, the regulator said in a statement on its website. The …

  Bloomberg The European Central Bank doesn’t plan to announce a new round of free long-term loans to financial institutions after its policy meeting, according to people familiar with the issue. Targeted longer-term refinancing operations (TLTROs) won’t be renewed for now, the people said, asking not to be named because the Governing Council’s deliberations are private. That stance could still …

    NEW YORK / AP If the tech industry is drawing one lesson from the latest WikiLeaks disclosures, it’s that data-scrambling encryption works, and the industry should use more of it. Documents purportedly outlining a massive CIA surveillance program suggest that CIA agents must go to great lengths to circumvent encryption they can’t break. In many cases, physical presence …