At The Motley Fool, we know our readers like to be informed. We have scouted out today's most relevant news items and brought them to you all on one page. We hope you find this midday edition informative and useful.

UBS to cut 3,500 jobs
 In what seems to be a recent trend, UBS (NYSE: UBS) announced it would be cutting 3,500 jobs as part of an attempt to cut annual costs by $2.5 billion. The bank said increased regulation and a weaker economy were the main reasons for the cuts. The restructuring of the company will bring about $697 million in charges, which will be taken upon mostly by its investment bank. UBS reported last month that its second-quarter net profit had fallen by almost half, leading the bank to say it would not be meeting its three- to five-year estimates. Credit Suisse and other Wall Street firms have also slashed their workforce. Read more at The Wall Street Journal.  

Inside the Fed's lending 
 Bloomberg news revealed that the Federal Reserve had lent Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) $107.9 billion during the financial crisis to bail out the bank. Hedge funds pulled out $128.1 billion in two weeks during the crisis, putting pressure on the bank. This first comprehensive analysis showed how close the banks really were from collapsing. Morgan Stanley was the bank with the largest amount of Fed borrowing followed by Citigroup, which has a balance sheet twice as big. Morgan Stanley at the height of its borrowing reported its cash holdings as strong, though it was only referring to the daily cash fund needed to offset withdrawals. Neither Morgan Stanley nor its competitors Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) disclose the amount of assets held by hedge funds. Read more at Bloomberg .

Mortgage defaults may hurt Deutsche 
Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB) bought MortgageIT in 2007, knowing the company had lied to the U.S. government about its mortgages, the Department of Justice has said. The government first sued Deutsche Bank and MortgageIT in May, saying it had misled them by saying its mortgages were good enough for federal insurance while nearly one out of three defaulted. The bank had tried to dismiss the claim by saying the government did not have enough to prove it had assumed responsibility for the loans. But the government decided to pursue the lawsuit, saying that of the more than 39,000 loans made by MortgageIT between 1999 and 2009, more than 12,900 were in default by June. Read more at Reuters.

Boeing to get Delta deal 
Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL), in hopes of changing its single-aisle aircrafts, is expected to order 100 of Boeing's (NYSE: BA) extended-range 737-900 aircrafts. The purchase could amount to as much as $8 billion. Delta could make the official offer as soon as this week. The airline is trying to reduce its costs by flying more fuel-efficient planes that require less maintenance. Delta Air Lines has been a longtime customer of Boeing even though in this instance it had considered Airbus as a possible supplier. Read more at The Wall Street Journal. 

So there you have it, the top financial stories for this afternoon. If you are interested in getting all the news and commentary on these stocks, sign up to My Watchlist here -- it's free!