Berlin / Reuters Restoring German banks’ financial ties with Iran will take time given debt owed to Berlin and transparency concerns, the head of the German banking association said, dampening expectations before a business summit in Tehran. Iran owes Germany about €500 million ($569 million) under so-called Hermes covers, a German government arrangement that protects German companies if foreign …

    Madrid / AFP Spain’s state-rescued lender Bankia has posted a 3.3-percent fall in first-quarter net profit due in part to lower interest rates and fierce competition which hurt its margins. The bank reported a net profit of 237 million euros during the first three months of the year, below analysts’ forecasts of 246 million euros, according to a Factset …

  Bloomberg Italy’s Atlante, the government-orchestrated banking fund, raised € 4.25 billion ($4.9 billion) from 67 domestic and foreign institutions to help the country’s lenders build capital and reduce bad debt. Atlante, which targets a 6 percent annual return from investments, will invest as much as 70 percent of its money in capital increases by Italian banks, Quaestio Capital Management, …