Financial Times

* Mounting concerns over the eurozone have forced the cost of swapping euros into dollars to the highest level since May, sparking fears that European banks could run into funding difficulties as they need the US currency to repay loans.

* The European Union will announce plans to issue up to €13 billion in bonds in the coming days as it speeds up moves to raise money for the Irish bail-out.

* Apax Partners aims to raise a new €11 billion-plus fund next year – the biggest buy-out fundraising since the start of the credit crisis.

* US regional banks are preparing for consolidation as the hangover from the financial crisis and the sluggish economic recovery put pressure on underperforming lenders to raise capital or sell to a rival.

* Allianz is considering ways to expand its asset management business in China but the country’s insurance market remains “exceptionally difficult”, the German group’s top executive for the region says.

* Bank of America is blocking all payments intended for WikiLeaks, amid growing speculation that the whistle-blowing site will embarrass the finance industry next year.

* More than one in ten bankers and traders in the UK and Europe could receive no bonus this year, as banks slash their year-end pay-outs following weaker revenues.

* Vince Cable has admitted that a new tax on Britain’s banks is only a “possibility” ahead of a showdown between senior coalition figures and executives from the four biggest banks.

* CatCo Reinsurance Opportunities Fund, a specialist fund dedicated to investing directly in extreme catastrophe risks, has listed on the London Stock Exchange after raising $80 million from Qatari and UK investors in the first flotation of its kind.

* Lloyds and RBS, the UK’s two state-backed banks, are on their way to hitting government-set lending targets for 2010, in spite of claims that lenders are making it harder and more expensive for businesses to borrow.

The Times