The minutes of the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee's October meeting have been published - they indicate that an increase in the country's baseline interest rate is on the cards for December.
This meeting was set against the backdrop of improving economic data in the US, and turbulence in the wider global economy.
It notes that the US had been largely unaffected by economic problems in other regions.
However, officials have stressed that no decision was made at the meeting, and a number of the attendees objected to a rate hike.
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Irish Life has announced that it plans to create 150 new jobs in Ireland during 2016 as part of a five-year growth strategy which was recently approved by its parent company, Great-West Lifeco.
Chief executive Bill Kyle told The Irish Times that these positions will result from growth of Irish Life's defined contribution pensions activities, and its asset management and retail businesses.
The company currently employs 2,300 people in Ireland.
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The Bank of Japan has maintained the current pace of its monetary stimulus programme, despite coming under pressure to increase its bond buying activities after the publication of a series of poor economic indicators.
Its central bank has maintained that while the country has struggled due to turmoil in emerging markets affecting its exports, Japan will continue to experience a moderate recovery.
The decision to continue to pursue the current policy was made by an eight to one vote.
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Regulators in New York have fined Barclay's over the bank's illegal forex policy which would not process trades which were not profitable for the bank.
The New York Department of Financial Services published a cache of emails which show a managing director directing staff to "stonewall" any questions asked about foreign exchange trades.
The 'Last Look' system introduced an hour between customer orders being received and these transactions being processed.
This allowed the bank to root out and void transactions which would be unprofitable due to movements in currency markets.
Barclay's has also been required to fire one unnamed senior individual who worked in its electronic global foreign exchange trading business.
