Swiss banks will pay significant fines to avoid U.S. penalties under a deal announced Thursday which forces them to begin disclosing the offshore accounts of American clients.

The U.S. Department of Justice said the agreement with Switzerland will advance Washington's campaign against tax avoidance by U.S. citizens hiding funds offshore.

Oil prices fell in Asian trade Friday as fears eased of an imminent Western military strike against Syria for its alleged use of chemical weapons, analysts said.

New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in October, was down $1.16 at $107.64 a barrel in afternoon trade, and Brent North Sea crude for October shed 80 cents to $114.36.

President Barack Obama is facing the prospect of a fiscal fight with Congress, with both sides having three weeks to break funding impasses or risk government default.

Two crucial votes are on the horizon for the divided and gridlocked Congress, including approval of a federal budget for fiscal year 2014, which begins October 1.

The European Central Bank, under fire for being largely a men's club, plans to double the number of women in its top ranks, executive board member Joerg Asmussen said Thursday.

"By the end of 2019, we want 35 percent of our middle management and 28 percent of our upper management to be women," Asmussen told the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

The Turkish lira steadied against the dollar and shares firmed in early trading on Thursday, as analysts took the view that U.S. monetary authorities would not tighten their policy immediately.

One factor driving this sentiment was tension over the situation in Syria.

German unemployment registered a surprising rise in August, due to a scaling back of job creation schemes, official data showed on Thursday.

The number of people registered as unemployed in Europe's top economy rose by 7,000 in seasonally adjusted terms this month, the Federal Labor Office said in a statement, while analysts had been expecting a drop of around 5,000.

Spain's two-year, job-wrecking recession eased in the second quarter of 2013, official data showed Thursday, as Madrid anticipated an imminent, export-powered end to the downturn.

Activity in the eurozone's fourth largest economy shrank by 0.1 percent in the April-June period when compared to the previous quarter, the National Statistics Institute said in a report.

New York's financial regulator is investigating insurer Lloyds of London for suspected violations of U.S. sanctions forbidding dealings with Iran, a source told Agence France Presse Wednesday.

The state's Department of Financial Services is seeking information on Lloyds' own internal probe into whether it issued insurance contracts for companies trading commodities with Iran.

Lending to businesses in the debt-mired eurozone contracted sharply in July, data published by the European Central Bank showed on Wednesday, a potential source of concern for economic recovery.

Private sector loans dropped by 1.9 percent in July in a year-on-year comparison, the ECB said, after already contracting by 1.6 percent in June.

Oil prices soared in Asia on Wednesday as Western powers prepared for possible military action against Syria over the regime's alleged use of chemical weapons.

Analysts say a military strike targeting President Bashar al-Assad's regime could further ratchet up tensions in the oil-producing Middle East, already wracked by the festering political crisis in Egypt.