COMMERZBANK

Germany's Commerzbank is facing raids over a mass tax fraud known as 'cum-ex'

Merger talks between Germany's top banks, Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank have failed.

Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, Germany's two biggest banks, want to merge to survive.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp. and units of Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC Holdings PLC and Wells Fargo & Co. were named in the lawsuits.

Martin Blessing was credited with bringing Commerzbank back to stability after the financial crisis.

"It's all consistent with a global economy which clearly is struggling to make any significant headway," Commerzbank economist Peter Dixon said.

The U.S. Federal Reserve could signal the timing of its first interest-rate increase in more than eight years Wednesday.

Among the violations being investigated are Commerzbank's transactions for the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines.

News of the probe comes little more than a week after French banking firm BNP Paribas pleaded guilty to felony charges in a U.S. court.

German bank Commerzbank has agreed on a level of job cuts crucial to an ambitious years-long restructuring, said negotiators.

ING is the latest European financial services company to lay off thousands of employees amid the region's debt crisis.

European markets rose Friday as investor sentiment turned positive following the announcement of another round of quantitative easing by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Most European markets rose Wednesday with investors awaiting Germany's Constitutional Court to approve the euro zone's new bailout fund to help reduce the debt stress faced by the countries in the region.

The most important court decision of 2012 will take place Wednesday in Germany, when the red-robed justices of the German Constitutional Court hand down a decision for which it is no hyperbole to say it could change the course of history. The Court is expected to rule over whether Germany is barred from contributing to the European Stability Mechanism, Europe's all-purpose bailout fund of which the German state is the major planned benefactor.

While pundits and analysts dissected a myriad angles regarding the ECB's proposal, one lesser-considered issue has been how, following the announcement of the plan Thursday, it increasingly seemed Spain was being given the short end of the stick, while Italy was being favored, by the announcement.

The European markets continued the upward rally Friday, a day after the European Central Bank (ECB) announced the widely anticipated bond-buying program aimed at lowering the struggling euro zone countries' borrowing costs.

Late Monday, word leaked out that Draghi is now saying the ECB should pursue a policy of monetizing sovereign debt of periphery countries -- that is, printing reams of new euro to buy bonds issued by those governments -- even though such a policy path exceeds the central bank's mandate and has been adamantly opposed by the German political establishment.

European markets rose Thursday as investors were hopeful ahead of the meetings between the Greek and other euro zone leaders this week to discuss measures to tackle the economic and financial instability affecting Greece.

European markets fell Wednesday as investors were disappointed to note that Japan returned to trade deficit in July, which was another indication of the weakening global economic condition.

Watch live coverage of the friendly between Germany and Argentina in Frankfurt, plus a full preview, probable lineups and prediction.

European markets fell Friday as investor confidence was weighed down following disappointing trade data from China giving further indication that the global economic condition is faltering.