Ukraine’s Asvio Bank has signed an agreement to take over the assets and liabilities of the insolvent Motor-Bank, the Kyiv Post reported. The deal, signed on April 3, follows a competitive auction organized by Ukraine’s Deposit Guarantee Fund to find a stable home for the failed lender’s clients. The deal is one of several banking acquisitions in Ukraine in 2026 and represents another effort by the State Deposit Guarantee Fund to turn a failed bank into a market asset.

German industrial production declined unexpectedly in February, with the energy-price shock from the conflict in the Middle East expected to hamper output further, the Wall Street Journal reported. Production fell 0.3% on month in February, after an upwardly revised flat reading for January, Germany’s statistics agency Destatis said Thursday. A consensus of economists polled last week by The Wall Street Journal instead expected a 0.5% increase in February.

More than 2,000 UK road haulage companies entered insolvency between 2021 and 2025, almost double the total recorded in the previous five-year period, according to parliamentary data. The figures show 2,051 insolvencies in 2021–2025, up from 1,068 in 2016–2020 in the SIC 49410 category, freight transport by road. Put another way, the UK lost road haulage firms at an average of almost eight insolvencies a week over those five years.

MIDI was forced to accept a €43 million deal to return Manoel Island after the government’s legal threats brought it to the brink of insolvency, MIDI told its shareholders in a circular issued on Monday, TimesofMalta.com reported. The starkly worded circular traces MIDI’s account of how negotiations for the return of Manoel Island progressed, detailing how it found itself holding a weak hand as a result of the government’s legal threat to scrap the entirety of the concession signed in 2000.

The oil shock set off by the war in Iran is already rippling through Asia, where factories are curbing production to save energy and some gas stations are telling drivers they can fill up only partway. Economists say it is a sign of things to come for countries in Europe and Africa that also rely on imports from the Middle East, the Wall Street Journal reported. Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has left the global oil supply 10% below what was needed before the war, according to Oxford Economics.

Despite European funds, foreign direct investment (FDI) in Spain fell to €30.76 billion in 2025 — down 21.8% on the previous year and the lowest figure since 2021, according to Spain's Ministry of Economy, EuroNews.com reported. The drop contrasts sharply with the peak reached in 2024, when FDI reached €39.35 billion. In net terms — after deducting disinvestments — the decline was 10%.

The EU is assessing “all possibilities” including fuel rationing and releasing more oil from emergency reserves as it braces for a “long-lasting” energy shock from the Middle East war, the bloc’s energy commissioner has said, the Financial Times reported. “This will be a long crisis . . .

Greek Prime ​Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis reshuffled his cabinet on Friday, as he seeks to limit ‌the fallout from a growing scandal over alleged fraud related to European Union farm funds, Reuters reported. Last year European prosecutors accused dozens of Greek stockbreeders with faking ownership of pastureland to claim millions of euros in EU subsidies, allegedly ​with the help of state employees and conservative politicians.