(Reuters) - Bank of America Corp reported its biggest-ever quarterly loss -- $8.8 billion -- as low interest rates squeezed lending margins at the largest U.S. bank. The loss was widely expected after the bank said in June that it settled with mortgage bond investors for $8.5 billion and was taking more than $14 billion of other home loan-related charges in the quarter. But the bank's results, including its shrinking interest income, underscore the difficulties Chief Executive Brian Moynihan faces even if the bank moves past its mortgage problems. The bank's shares fell 1.2 percent in early trading.

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(Reuters) - "There is not even a chance we will do one day in jail," Danielle Chiesi declared early last year in an interview with Reuters. On Wednesday, the former high-school beauty queen and hedge fund trader is expected to learn how many days -- or years -- she will in fact spend behind bars for insider trading. Chiesi, 45, pleaded guilty in January to three conspiracy counts. She is the first major defendant to be sentenced in the government insider-trading probe, unveiled in October 2009 and centered on Galleon Group hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam.

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(Reuters) - America's leading mortgage lenders vowed in March to end the dubious foreclosure practices that caused a bruising scandal last year. But a Reuters investigation finds that many are still taking the same shortcuts they promised to shun, from sketchy paperwork to the use of "robo-signers."

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(Reuters) - A tax on euro zone banks and cheaper, longer-dated official loans are the least risky way to provide extra funding for debt-stricken Greece, a confidential paper drafted ahead of a European summit showed on Tuesday. With financial markets on edge two days before leaders of the 17-nation currency area hold a crucial meeting, other options that could trigger a selective or outright Greek default with far-reaching consequences remain on the table, the paper obtained by Reuters showed.

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(Reuters) - Apple Inc is expected to report another dazzling quarter on Tuesday, propelled by strong demand for its perennial bestseller iPhone and the new, thinner iPad 2 tablets. Apple shares rose nearly 2.5 percent on Monday to close at a record high of $373.80 on expectations that the company will beat analysts' forecasts for the fiscal third-quarter, which saw an easing of the supply constraints surrounding the iPad 2.

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(Reuters) - Stocks fell sharply on Monday, led lower by big banks like Citigroup (C.N) and Bank of America (BAC.N), as talks on raising the U.S. debt ceiling stalled and investors fretted over fiscal problems in Europe. The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI dropped 153.98 points, or 1.23 percent, to 12,325.75. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX dropped 15.99 points, or 1.21 percent, to 1,300.15. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC dropped 37.59 points, or 1.35 percent, to 2,752.21.

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(Reuters) - David Cameron defended his handling on Monday of a corruption scandal around Rupert Murdoch's media empire which has swept away Britain's top police chief and raised questions about the prime minister's own future. At a news conference in Pretoria, where he began what will be a curtailed visit to Africa, Cameron defended hiring former tabloid editor Andy Coulson, a figure at the center of the scandal, as his spokesman.

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(Reuters) - James Murdoch's future as chairman of British Sky Broadcasting (BSY.L) was thrown into doubt on Monday after minority investors called for a corporate governance health-check of its board in the wake of the News Corp phone hacking scandal. "We think they should review the composition of the BSkyB board and the influence exerted by those with ties to News Corp," one top 10 investor in the British satellite broadcaster told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

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(Reuters) - Some of the world's largest asset managers are cutting ties to credit rating agencies, potentially signaling the beginning of the end of their grip on global financial markets. Managers responsible for billions of euros of fixed income investments are reviewing relationships with the likes of Fitch Ratings, Standard & Poor's and Moody's Investors Service, whose calls on Portugal, Ireland and the United States have roiled central banks desperate to avert a collapse of the Euro zone.

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(Reuters) - Confusion over competing policy proposals reigned among officials and bankers on Monday as Europe struggled to put together a second bailout of Greece and prevent the region's debt crisis from spreading. French government spokeswoman Valerie Pecresse said she believed a summit of the euro zone's 17 national leaders scheduled for Thursday in Brussels would agree on a rescue of Greece, supplementing a 110 billion euro ($154 billion) bailout launched in May last year.

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