Business this week

America's Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the central banks of Canada and Switzerland launched a co-ordinated effort to bolster liquidity. After several months of turmoil, financial institutions are still reeling from the squeeze in money markets and access to credit has tightened. The Fed and its partners are introducing loans to depository institutions for a temporary period to ease their funding pressures. See article

Earlier, the Federal Open Market Committee cut America's benchmark interest rate by one-quarter of a percentage point, to 4.25%. It was the third rate reduction since August and comes amid much discussion about whether America is heading towards an economic recession.

Zurich, we have a problem

UBS's woes continued to mount. The Swiss bank reported further write-downs totalling $10 billion stemming from its exposure to the meltdown in America's subprime-mortgage market; it also said it would now probably make a loss this year, reversing the sunnier predictions that it made in October. Underlining the scale of its problems, UBS turned to two sovereign-wealth funds, one in Singapore, the other said to be a Middle Eastern state, for an emergency capital injection.

The tumult in the credit markets spread to Société Générale, France's second-biggest bank by value, which provided a $4.3 billion bail-out to its only structured investment vehicle.

Citigroup chose Vikram Pandit to become its chief executive officer following last month's departure of Chuck Prince. Sir Win Bischoff was named as chairman, a position that Mr Prince had held concurrently. Mr Pandit, who headed Citi's investment-banking division, promised a “front-to-back review” of all the bank's business aspects. It has had to write down billions of dollars because of its exposure to the subprime-mortgage market and contend with shareholders unhappy with the value of Citi's stock. See article

MBIA found some respite when it received a $1 billion boost in capital from Warburg Pincus, a private-equity group. The bond insurer is facing the prospect of losing its top-notch credit rating

The family way

James Murdoch sealed his position as heir to the News Corp empire when he was given responsibility for the media conglomerate's European and Asian operations, which include such British newspaper titles as the Times and the Sun, and the Star satellite-television service based in Hong Kong. The 35-year-old is the youngest son of Rupert Murdoch, News Corp's founder and boss.

Conrad Black received a six-and-a-half year prison sentence for defrauding shareholders at Hollinger International, a newspaper company. Three co-defendants received lesser sentences. Mr Black was found guilty of the charges by a jury in July, but maintains he is the victim of “corporate-governance zealots”. The prosecution had mooted a sentence of around 20 years. See article

Renault beat several of its rivals, including General Motors and Fiat, in the bidding for a 25% stake in AvtoVAZ, Russia's biggest carmaker. GM said it would now talk to GAZ, Russia's second-biggest carmaker, about a future partnership (a deal is not imminent). With car sales in Russia increasing by around 20% a year, some analysts expect the Russian market to overtake Germany's to become the largest in Europe over the next few years.

Lafarge, a French cement-maker, agreed to buy Orascom Construction Industries, an Egyptian rival, for euro8.8 billion ($12.9 billion). The deal highlights the building boom under way in Middle Eastern countries flush with petrodollars.

Sinopec, a Chinese state-owned oil company, signed an agreement with the Iranian government to develop Iran's Yadavaran oil field. The field will produce 85,000 barrels of oil a day at first, in four years' time. Under an energy deal, Iran will receive $100 billion over 25 years from China for oil and liquefied natural gas.

Penthouse Media agreed to buy Various, a company that operates more than 25 social-networking websites such as adultfriendfinder.com, its most popular venture.

A funny old year

Stockmarkets had another rocky week. They fell sharply following the Fed's decision on interest rates (many investors wanted a bigger cut), but rallied after a plan to boost liquidity was announced. Global markets have had a tumultuous year, which started with multi-billion dollar buy-outs and ends with multi-billion dollar write-downs.