CNBC reports that German Insurer Allianz today confirmed that it will writedown $1.4bn of assets from subsidiary Dresdner Bank in the first-quarter. Allianz said that the writedowns, which now total some $3.9bn since the current market turmoil began, could affect its ability to reach its medium-term goals. The insurer will publish its full-set of first-quarter numbers on May 9th.

On a more positive note, Bloomberg reports that Commerzbank CEO Klaus-Peter Mueller has said that the markets may loosen up come the summer. Speaking in a Bloomberg  TV interview earlier this week, Mueller said: 'We see the first signs of recovery, of waking up. We will probably see some relaxation toward the middle of the year'.

The Financial Times reports that Macquarie Bank has 'more of its shares on loan than any other Australian-listed company, a sign that short sellers have taken a big gamble that the investment bank's share price will tumble'.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Morgan Stanley told clients Monday that they should expect more capital raising, dividend cuts and deleveraging from some of America's largest banks. The Wall Street firm has warned investors against chasing the current rally in financial stocks.

Reuters reports that Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) is upset over a Citi research note which suggests that the Canadian bank is facing potential additional writedowns of up to $8bn on exposures of some $40bn. RBC said that the report contained 'significant errors in fact and significantly overstates both the risks and the amount of any potential writedown RBC might incur'.

Bloomberg reports that Merrill Lynch has hired ex-Goldman man Thomas Montag to become global head of trading. Montag, 51, starts in August. The news agency quotes Sandler O'Neill & Partners analyst Jeff Harte, who said: 'Montag's willingness to go to Merrill and really try and fix things there on the trading side is a vote of confidence. This is a guy who's very respected and comes from Goldman, which, at least for now, is still looking like the best-managed investment bank out there'.

Reuters reports that BlackRock boss Larry Fink bagged $41.87m in comp last year, up 27% on 2006. Fink took a base salary of $500,000, got over $16m in bonus and was awarded $25m in stock and options.

Finally, The Wall Street Journal reports that, according to Euromoney magazine, Deutsche Bank has a 21.70% market share of the global FX market, coming in ahead of UBS (15.8%), Barclays Capital (9.12%), Citi (7.49%) and Royal Bank of Scotland (7.3%).

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