Building permits for apartments in Germany fell 31.5% in July from a year earlier, the statistics office disclosed on Monday, highlighting a slump in demand plaguing the construction and real estate industry, Reuters reported. The nosedive in permits comes amid calls from firms for stimulus from Berlin to support the industry ahead of a meeting next week with Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The statistics office attributed the decline in demand to high building costs and difficulties in getting financing, factors that have deepened stress across the broader sector.

Padel, the racket sport craze currently sweeping across much of the planet, has turned into a cautionary tale for investors in one of the countries that first fully embraced it: Sweden, Bloomberg News reported. Padel centers in the biggest Nordic country are being converted to warehouses and budget grocery stores after the racket sport’s pandemic boom turned into a bust. Almost 90 padel-related companies have filed for bankruptcy this year, according to data from credit reference agency Creditsafe.

Company insolvencies in England and Wales in August rose 19% year on year to the third highest level since monthly record started in January 2019, as firms grapple with rising costs and uncertain economic outlook, government data showed on Friday, Reuters reported. The Insolvency Service, a government agency, reported 2,308 corporate insolvencies last month, up from 1,728 in July. Companies were mostly declared insolvent through creditors' voluntary liquidations, in which a firms' directors agree to wind up the business without a formal court order.

A group of international bond investors is drawing up plans to sue Switzerland in the U.S. courts for expropriation over the losses they suffered after UBS agreed to take over Credit Suisse with state support, the Financial Times reported. The case is being brought together by law firm Quinn Emanuel and could be filed by the end of the year, the report said on Friday citing people familiar with the matter. In essence, the claim would be seeking compensation for the destruction of [investors'] property rights, a person with knowledge of the plans told FT.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire urged the European Central Bank not to raise interest rates again, joining a cohort of politicians reacting to Thursday’s hike in borrowing costs, Bloomberg News reported. “We are on the right track to reduce inflation,” Le Maire told Bloomberg Television on Friday in the western Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela, where he attended a meeting with euro-area counterparts on Friday along with ECB President Christine Lagarde.

The European Central Bank raised interest rates by a quarter percentage point to a record high but signaled that eurozone borrowing costs may have peaked, sending the euro tumbling, the Wall Street Journal reported. In a split decision, ECB officials raised the bank’s deposit rate to 4%, the 10th increase in a row and a vertiginous rise from below zero last year. At a news conference, ECB President Christine Lagarde signaled that Thursday’s rate increase might be the last, although she didn’t rule out further hikes if economic data disappoint.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said that a windfall tax on banks’ profits, which has worried investors, could be tweaked as long as the state receives the same expected inflow, Bloomberg News reported. “If we will need to amend the tax on banks, we will do it as long as the inflows will be unchanged,” Meloni told RAI1 television, adding that the value of expected receipts is just under €3 billion ($3.2 billion). Meloni commented on the tax on a popular TV show after the European Central Bank warned of potential negative side effects from the controversial levy.

The director of a Scottish firm who conned US oil and gas investors to invest through his company has been given a 14-year ban, the International Business Times reported. The Glasgow director took millions from UK investors, assuring them of investing it in American oil and gas companies through a Ponzi scheme. On September 8, the British Insolvency Service announced that 52-year-old Kenneth James Campbell from Glasgow was banned from being the company director of HGEC Capital Limited.

More than 8,000 businesses in Germany have gone bust this year, according to recent data released by the Federal Statistical Office, TheLocal.de reported. In August of this year, the number of regular insolvency proceedings filed increased by 13.8 percent compared to the same month the previous year. This follows a 23.8 percent increase reported in July 2023. The Wiesbaden-based agency said it was important to note that proceedings are included in official statistics only after the initial decision by the insolvency court, which often comes three months after the insolvency application date.

A judge has dismissed a bankruptcy petition lodged by tax officials against former England rugby union star Lawrence Dallaglio, The Independent reported. Judge Sebastian Prentis considered Dallaglio’s case at an Insolvency and Companies Court hearing in London on Wednesday. An HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) official told him that a “voluntary agreement” had been reached. The judge had, in May, given Dallaglio time to pay after being told that he owed about £700,000 in tax.