Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse said Thursday its net profit fell 24 percent last year to 1.4 billion Swiss francs (1.2 billion euros, $1.5 billion) despite its investment bank unit rebounding into profit.

The result was below the 1.7 billion francs penciled in by analysts surveyed by the Swiss financial news agency AWP.

EU leaders head into difficult talks on the bloc's 2014-20 budget Thursday under the watchful eye of a newly assertive European parliament hostile to any major spending cuts.

In November, they tried and failed to narrow sharp differences and while most expect a compromise to emerge this time, there is no certainty other than that the budget talks will be long.

The U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday it is seeking at least $5 billion in civil penalties from Standard & Poor's for losses due to inflated ratings of mortgage bonds.

Announcing a suit against S&P and its parent, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Attorney General Eric Holder said the powerful rating agency knowingly exaggerated the ratings on financial securities, misrepresenting their true credit risk.

Hungary's currency the forint fell Wednesday following a report that Economy Minister Gyorgy Matolcsy, seen as something of an economic maverick, is set to take over as governor of the central bank.

On Wednesday morning, the forint traded at 294.16 against the euro compared to 291.77 on Tuesday evening.

Dell's plan to take the computer giant private offers an opportunity to return to its start-up roots, but won't solve the fundamental problems facing the company and the PC sector, analysts say.

The Texas-based tech giant on Tuesday unveiled a $24.4 billion buyout deal giving founder Michael Dell a chance to reshape the former number one PC maker away from the spotlight of Wall Street.

Royal Bank of Scotland on Wednesday said it expected to pay "significant penalties" and face other sanctions from British and U.S. financial regulators over its role in the Libor rate-rigging scandal.

"RBS confirms that it is in late-stage settlement discussions with these authorities," the Edinburgh-based bank said in a statement.

A French court on Monday upheld a 70,000-euro ($95,000) fine imposed on low-cost airline EasyJet for refusing to allow three wheelchair-bound passengers to board its planes.

The airline had appealed the initial ruling delivered a year ago but the Paris court rejected the bid.

Egypt's foreign reserves fell by almost 10 percent to $13.6 billion in January, the Central Bank of Egypt said on Tuesday, below what it had in December described as a "critical minimum" of $15 billion.

"Foreign reserves fell heavily by $1.4 billion to $13.61 billion in January, from $15 billion in December," the bank said in a statement carried by the official MENA news agency. It gave no reason for the fall.

Swiss watchmakers posted record exports last year of 21.4 billion Swiss francs (17 billion euros, $23.5 billion), which was nearly 11 percent more than a year earlier, the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry said Tuesday.

"In an often unfavorable economic climate, the Swiss watch industry clearly managed to hold its own," the federation said in a statement.

Swiss banking giant UBS announced on Tuesday a net loss of 2.5 billion Swiss francs (2 billion euros, $2.7 billion) as fines from the Libor rate-fixing scandal weighed on results.

In the final quarter of last year UBS suffered a net loss of 1.8 billion francs when it booked provisions for the combined fines of 1.4 billion francs from regulators as well as restructuring costs.