Finance News Update, what you need to know

WORLD FINANCE UPDATE:

The Australian dollar is almost unchanged, struggling to gain ground after US stockmarkets ended last week lower.

At 0630 AEDT on Monday, the local unit was trading at 90.08 US cents, up from 90.03 cents on Friday.

And the Australian share market looks set to open lower following falls on Wall Street as tensions between the US and Europe and Russia continued with Crimea expected to vote to break from Ukraine.

At 0645 AEDT on Monday, the March share price index futures contract was down 18 points at 5,307.

ELSEWHERE:

WASHINGTON - The Federal Reserve says its balance sheet swelled to $US4.0 trillion ($A4.45 trillion) at the end of 2013 as it made massive asset purchases to support the US economy.

BEIJING - China's central bank has doubled the yuan's trading band to two per cent, loosening its grip on the currency and underscoring efforts to accelerate exchange-rate reforms.

WASHINGTON - Moody's has raised its rating outlook for the European Union to stable from negative, citing the improvement of its members' finances and falling risks from the eurozone debt crisis.

RIYADH - OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia's GDP grew by 3.8 per cent in 2013, say media reports quoting Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) governor Fahad al-Mubarak.

DUBAI - Dubai has reached an agreement with Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates' central bank to extend payment of $US20 billion ($A22.23 billion) of debt due this year.

NEW YORK - The US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is suing HSBC, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and 12 other global banking heavyweights for manipulating the Libor benchmark interest rate.

HONG KONG - Swiss banking giant UBS attempted to rig Hong Kong's benchmark interest rate, the city's de facto central bank says following a more than year-long investigation.

NEW YORK - Weibo, the Chinese microblogging service often compared with Twitter, has filed for a US stock offering seeking to raise $US500 million ($A555.71 million).

BERLIN - Germany's Allianz SE is to buy part of Italian insurer UnipolSai's property and casualty insurance business in a deal worth up to 440 million euros ($A681.22 million).