Bloomberg The Swiss National Bank (SNB) spent 86.1 billion francs ($88 billion) on interventions last year, a measure of its efforts to shield the economy from deflation. SNB President Thomas Jordan and his colleagues have repeatedly pledged to step in to prevent the franc from strengthening. They’ve done so even since they gave up a minimum exchange rate of 1.20 ...

Milan / AFP Italian banks Banco Popolare and Banca Popolare di Milano (BPM) have announced that they would merge, in a long-awaited deal that will create the country’s third-largest bank by assets. The deal will create a lender with more than 25,000 staff and four million customers, and could help drive consolidation among Italy’s fragmented bankingsector. The deal has been ...

TORONTO / Reuters Bank of Montreal (BMO), Canada’s fourth largest lender, has announced that it had launched the first biometric corporate card programme in Canada and US in partnership with Mastercard. BMO and Mastercard said the technology will enable cardholders to verify transactions using facial recognition and fingerprint biometrics when making online purchases. In a statement, they said the introduction ...