Global growth

    THE pace of global business growth eased to its weakest rate in over a year at the end of 2014 as rates of expansion slowed in both the manufacturing and service industries, a survey showed Tuesday.

    JP Morgan’s Global All-Industry Output Index, produced with Markit, fell to a 14-month low of 52.3 in December from November’s 53.1 but has now held above the 50 mark that divides growth from contraction for more than two years.

    U.K. bank rules

    BRITAIN’S banks have asked the financial regulator to speed up finalizing new rules to protect their retail customers from riskier parts of their operations to enable them to meet a 2019 deadline.

    The Bank of England has ordered banks to “ring-fence” their branch activities to protect taxpayers from any future exposure to the sort of multi-billion pound bailouts required to rescue lenders during the 2007-09 financial crisis.

    Eurozone growth

    THE eurozone economy ended 2014 with its worst quarter for over a year, according to surveys of activity that highlighted continuing downturns in France and Italy and a stuttering performance by paymaster Germany.

    Britain, outside the currency union, experienced a similarly gloomy end to the year, with growth across services companies weakening to its slowest since mid-2013. That underscored a wider loss of pace in the economy.

    EU bank reform

    DRAFT European Union (EU) rules forcing banks to isolate their risky trading activities should be eased to take national measures into account and avoid harming markets, an EU document has proposed.

    The 28-country bloc is in the process of approving a law that would force banks to legally separate trading activities above a certain size so their collapse in any future market meltdown wouldn’t hurt customer accounts.