The Greek government and its international creditors began work on a mammoth new bailout Monday overshadowed by revelations that Greece's ex-finance minister Yanis Varoufakis had been secretly planning for a parallel system of liquidity.

As the European Commission confirmed that technical talks on Greece's third bailout had started in Athens, the embattled leftist government was put on the defensive by Varoufakis's claim to have "hacked" into his own ministry weeks earlier to create duplicate files for millions of Greek taxpayers.

A rise in German business confidence and signs of a pickup in lending in Europe gave a boost to the euro Monday.

The single currency jumped more than one percent against the dollar, hitting $1.1132, the highest level in two weeks, before easing to $1.1091 in late trade.

British Prime Minister David Cameron is to speak out against "corrupt money from around the world" being laundered through property in Britain in a speech to be made during a trip to Southeast Asia on Tuesday.

The Conservative Party leader is to announce a consultation on increasing transparency on property ownership, amid concerns from campaigners that rising property prices in Britain are fuelled by corrupt cash.

The dollar recovered slightly against the yen Tuesday, although gains were limited as investors remain on edge after a sharp plunge in Chinese markets hit risk sentiment, but the euro was supported by upbeat German data.

In Tokyo, the greenback fetched 123.55 yen, up from 123.24 yen in New York late Monday. although it is still off the 123.75 yen earlier in Asia.

Switzerland's largest bank UBS on Monday posted a 53 percent rise in second quarter profits, in its first results since agreeing to plead guilty to fraud as part of the Libor manipulation case. 

The bank brought in profits of 1.2 billion Swiss francs ($1.25 billion, 1.1 billion euros), with strong performances from its wealth management, corporate and investments units. 

Loans to the private sector in the euro area, a gauge of economic health, increased slightly year-on-year in June, but only at the same pace as a month earlier, the European Central Bank said Monday.

The volume of loans to private businesses and households increased by 0.6 percent in June compared with the same month in 2014, the Frankfurt-based central bank said.

Oil prices fell further in Asia Monday, hurt by a slump in the manufacturing sector in China, the world's top energy consuming nation.

A strong dollar and signs of increasing US oil production added pressure on prices, which have already been depressed by a global crude oversupply, analysts said.

German business confidence rose slightly in July, reflecting relief in Europe's biggest economy about the deescalation in the Greece debt crisis, the Ifo economic institute said Tuesday.

The Ifo institute's closely watched business climate index rose to 108 points, the first increase in three months, from a revised 107.5 points in June, beating analysts' expectations, Ifo said.

Foreign direct investment into Arab states dropped 8.0 percent last year with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia accounting for close to half the total fall, a report said Sunday.

Arab states attracted FDI worth $43.9 billion (40 billion euros) in 2014 compared with $47.5 billion the previous year, the Kuwait-based Arab Investment and Export Credit Guarantee Corp said in its report. 

Iran has assets of $29 billion in overseas banks that could be unlocked under a nuclear deal -- far less than reported estimates of over $100 billion, the country's central bank chief said.

Valiollah Seif told state television late Saturday that the holdings comprised $23 billion in foreign exchange belonging to the bank and another $6 billion of the Tehran government's money.