American household wealth jumped in 2009 for the first time since a brutal recession struck the country, underscoring the impact of an economic recovery, data from the central bank showed Thursday. The net worth of US households -- the difference between their assets and liabilities -- stood at 54. 18 trillion dollars at the end of last year, a 5.

Nordic foreign ministers raised the pressure on Iceland on Thursday to reach a banking payback deal with Britain and the Netherlands, warning a failure could block IMF aid to the crisis-hit island. "Our message is that we want to help Iceland but on condition. . . that there is parliamentary support for the government in Reykjavik on Icesave," Danish Foreign Minister Lene Espersen told reporters after talks in Copenhagen.

Greece's third-biggest bank Eurobank EFG on Thursday announced a full-year net profit of 362 million euros (493 million dollars) in 2009, a fall of 44. 6 percent compared to last year. "In order to safeguard the quality of its balance sheet, Eurobank EFG increased its provisions, while at the same time it achieved a noteworthy deceleration in the formation of non performing loans in the second half of 2009," the bank's chief executive Nicholas Nanopoulos said in a statement.

China on Friday hit back at US President Barack Obama over his comments on the value of the yuan, saying the issue was not a political one and was not the solution to global trade imbalances. Obama on Thursday called on China to adopt a "market-oriented" exchange rate policy, increasing the pressure on Beijing to allow the yuan -- effectively pegged to the dollar since mid-2008 -- to appreciate.

The Swiss central bank on Thursday raised its forecast for economic growth in Switzerland this year to 1. 5 percent from the 1. 0 percent predicted in December but cautioned that the recovery was fragile. "The signs of an economic recovery are becoming more tangible . . . For 2010, the SNB is now expecting real GDP growth of about 1.

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Friday made a rare call for "firm steps" to stem the strength of the yen after the currency's recent advances hit exporters' earnings. Hatoyama said the current high value of the yen gave a misleading impression of the world's second-largest economy, adding: "Japan's economy and industries aren't necessarily strong," in comments cited by Dow Jones Newswires.

A court-appointed expert blamed Thursday the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers on its top management as well as audit firm Ernst & Young and banks Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase. The 158-year-old bank filed for protection in September 2008 in the largest US bankruptcy filing in history, leaving the future of 25,000 staff in jeopardy and sending a financial tsunami across the globe.

Some 24,000 customers may have been affected by the theft of data from a Swiss branch of banking giant HSBC three years ago, Alexandre Zeller, chief executive of HSBC Private Bank, said on Thursday. HSBC Private Bank (Switzerland) said 9,000 of them had since changed banks, leaving 15,000 of its remaining customers concerned by the leak.

Some 15,000 customers may have been affected by the theft of data from a Swiss branch of banking giant HSBC three years ago, Alexandre Zeller, chief executive of HSBC Private Bank, said on Thursday.

Dutch financial markets watchdog AFM said Wednesday it had fined insurance group Fortis Holding 576,000 euros (780,000 dollars) for market manipulation and withholding share price sensitive information. Four fines of 144,000 euros each were imposed on Fortis Holding last month for actions that followed its takeover of Dutch bank ABN Amro in 2007 in a consortium with the Royal Bank of Scotland and Banco Santander of Spain, the AFM said in a statement.