Stanley O'Neal, chairman and chief executive of Merrill Lynch, today unveiled a $4bn (€3.06bn) stock buyback plan and bumped up the bank's dividend by one-quarter. The plan came as Merrill's group net revenues for the three months to March 31 rose 3% compared with last year.

More than half of the group's revenues of $6.2bn were made in the bank's global markets and investment banking division, where revenues were also up 3%.