Financial

The Federal Reserve has made a $14bn profit on loan programmes that have provided hundreds of billions of dollars in liquidity to the financial system since the start of the crisis two years ago, according to Fed officials.

The internal estimate is based on the difference between the fees and interest on the lending facilities and the interest the Fed would have earned had it invested the funds in three-month Treasury bills.

Japan needs a more robust financial services industry to help boost the world's second-largest economy, the new head of the financial regulator said on Tuesday.

Katsunori Mikuniya, a 58-year-old veteran bureaucrat with a reputation for expertise in capital markets, also said he would work to improve Tokyo's standing as a global financial centre.

"The population is set to age and shrink further," Mikuniya said at his first news conference as commissioner of the Financial Services Agency (FSA).