(Reuters) - European banks and finance officials are discussing a proposal to replace existing Greek debt with a different type of bond to get around ratings agencies' reservations about a planned rollover, two senior European banking sources said on Friday. The proposal foresees a voluntary rollover of debt into securities of a different and not comparable credit composition to avoid agencies moving Greece to default status, the sources told Reuters on Friday.

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(Reuters) - EU leaders appointed Italy's Mario Draghi as the next president of the European Central Bank on Friday and said another Italian would step down from the ECB's Executive Board early to smooth the process. In draft conclusions agreed at a summit in Brussels, EU leaders "appointed Mr Mario Draghi president of the European Central Bank from 1 November 2011 to 31 October 2019."

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(Reuters) - Asian nations moved to release emergency oil stockpiles on Friday as part of a rare global coordinated action by consumer countries to prevent high energy prices from stunting a stuttering economic recovery. The move, led by Washington and criticized by the oil industry as an unnecessary distortion of markets, suggests a fundamental shift on the part of industrialized nations toward intervention in commodity markets as an economic policy tool.

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(Reuters) - After a massive data breach last month, Citigroup did not offer its hacked clients the same degree of identity-theft protection that many other companies provide, drawing criticism from privacy advocates. Citigroup, which had over 360,000 credit card accounts exposed last month, sent letters to affected customers this month with advice on protecting themselves against identity theft.

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(Reuters) - The string of accounting problems and stock plunges at publicly traded Chinese groups has sparked deep concerns across the world's biggest audit firms, putting the so-called Big Four on alert from worries that their reputation could be brought down along with a growing list of stricken companies. Auditing Chinese firms preparing to go public on overseas exchanges is a lucrative business and one that plays into the strengths of the top, international auditing partnerships known as the Big Four: KPMG, Ernst & Young, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

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(Reuters) - President Barack Obama will launch an initiative on Friday to develop new manufacturing jobs by teaming government up with companies and universities to invest more than $500 million in advanced technologies. Obama will visit Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh to launch the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, which aims to speed development of a new generation of American-made high-technology products.

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(Reuters) - Stocks tumbled on Thursday, with major indexes falling more than 1 percent and a volatility gauge spiking, as weak data on the labor market combined with a sharp decline in oil prices triggered a selloff. Energy stocks took a hit after the International Energy Agency said it would release crude oil from its strategic reserves. U.S. crude oil futures fell 5 percent to $90.85 a barrel. The S&P energy sector .GSPE dropped 3.3 percent while Chevron Corp (CVX.N) fell about 4 percent to $97.16, the biggest decliner on the Dow. Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) was off 3.2 percent at $77.30.

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(Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose last week, suggesting little improvement in the labor market this month after employment stumbled in May. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits climbed 9,000 to a seasonally adjusted 429,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists had expected claims to come in at 415,000. The report covers the survey period for the government's closely watched data on nonfarm payrolls for June, which will be released on July 8.

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(Reuters) - The London Stock Exchange faces a nail-biting fight for Canadian peer TMX Group after aggressive rival bidder Maple trumped its sweetened offer by a whisker overnight. The British bourse, which had hoped to win over Canadian shareholders of TMX by boosting its agreed $3.3 billion all-share bid with a $673.5 million special cash dividend on Wednesday, saw Maple retaliate just hours later.

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(Reuters) - Oil prices crashed more than $8 to a four-month low on Thursday after the world's consumer nations said they would band together to aid the global economy by releasing emergency oil reserves for the third time ever. Oil prices fell to their lowest since the eruption of Libya's civil war in February stemmed exports from the OPEC member, putting a strain on global oil supplies. The International Energy Agency said it would help ease the strain by releasing 60 million barrels of government-held stocks, immediately increasing global supply by nearly 2.5 percent.

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