The Hague / AFP Dutch bank ING, the country’s biggest lender, said on Wednesday that its second-quarter operating profits rose by more than a quarter as it boosted lending. Underlying net profit, which strips out one-off items, rose by 26.7 percent to 1.4 billion euros ($1.6 billion). Net profit more than quadrupled to 1.3 billion euros, but the huge increase ...

  London / Bloomberg Three of the UK’s biggest banks face extra charges of about 1.5 billion pounds ($2 billion) after the Financial Conduct Authority said it will probably delay a deadline on payment protection insurance complaints by a year, according to Citigroup Inc. Lloyds Banking Group Plc may have to set aside an additional 750 million pounds to cover ...

  The US is running out of places for people to live. Rent is a bigger and bigger part of our cost of living. Here is an index of rental prices divided by median household income: Lots of people have been wondering what to do about this problem. One proposed solution is to deregulate housing and encourage denser development. This ...