Ukraine and the International Monetary Fund have agreed on a $15.6 billion loan package aimed at shoring up government finances severely strained by Russia’s invasion and leveraging even more support by reassuring allies that Ukraine is pursuing strong economic policies and fighting corruption, the Associated Press reported.

Privately held retailer Scotch & Soda, which is based in Amsterdam, has filed a bankruptcy request for its Dutch operations, newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad (FD) reported on Monday, citing a company statement, Reuters reported. Scotch & Soda and owner Sun Capital could not immediately be reached for comment. The newspaper said the company statement cited "serious cashflow problems" that began during the COVID-19 pandemic and have continued amid high inflation and a consumer spending squeeze.

Switzerland’s tab for shoring up its reputation as a financial center could run to 12,500 Swiss francs ($13,500) for every man, woman and child in the country, Bloomberg News reported. To backstop the emergency sale of Credit Suisse Group AG to its Zurich rival UBS Group AG, the Swiss government pledged to make as much as 109 billion francs available — a hefty burden for the country of 8.7 million people. On top of that, there’s a guarantee from the Swiss National Bank of 100 billion francs that isn’t backed by a government guarantee, according to the deal announced Sunday evening.

Some holders of Credit Suisse Group AG's so-called additional tier 1 (AT1) bonds have approached a law firm to assess whether they have a case against the Swiss authorities’ decision to wipe out their holdings as part of the UBS Group AG deal, Reuters reported. George Zelcs and Chris Burke, partners at Korein Tillery, a boutique law firm specializing in complex litigation, said fewer than a dozen non-U.S. bondholders had approached them to discuss options. The firm has not yet been hired.

Days before a hastily convened press conference late on Sunday that would make the world's front pages, Switzerland's political elite were secretly preparing a move that would jolt the globe, Reuters reported. While the nation's central bank and financial regulator publicly declared that Credit Suisse was sound, behind closed doors the race was on to rescue the nation's second-biggest bank.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's spokesperson on Tuesday urged lawmakers to back a major element of the new deal over post-Brexit trading arrangements in Northern Ireland, adding it was a good deal amid criticism from some Conservatives, Reuters reported. An influential group of eurosceptic Conservative lawmakers on Tuesday warned that the newly agreed 'Stormont brake" mechanism to prevent Northern Ireland being subject to unwelcome European Union laws was "practically useless".

Credit Suisse and UBS could benefit from more than 260 billion Swiss francs ($280 billion) in state and central bank support, a third of the country's gross domestic product, as part of their merger to buffer Switzerland against global financial turmoil, documents outlining the deal show, Reuters reported. Swiss authorities announced on Sunday that UBS had agreed to buy rival Swiss bank Credit Suisse in a shotgun merger aimed at avoiding more market-shaking turmoil in global banking.

The Bank of England sought to clarify its rules regarding the order in which shareholders and creditors should bear losses in the event of insolvency, in the wake of the controversial write-down of Credit Suisse Group AG’s riskiest bonds, Bloomberg News reported. The central bank said in a statement on Monday that additional tier 1 instruments, the securities rendered worthless as part of the UBS Group AG takeover, rank ahead of common equity tier 1 (CET1) and behind tier 2 (T2), a mix of reserves, hybrid instruments and junior debt.

The European banking system is well-equipped with capital and the probability of contagion due "very small", ECB's policymaker Yannis Stournaras said on Monday. "We don't see substantial vulnerabilities. So, the probability of contagion is very small today. The banks are well capitalised," Greek central bank chief Stournaras said. Stournaras added that Europe has all the instruments ready, if needed, to intervene.

German retirees' pensions will rise significantly this summer for the second consecutive year, the government said Monday, though the increase will still fall short of the current inflation rate, the Associated Press reported. The Labor Ministry said pensions will increase by 4.39% in the former West Germany on July 1 and by 5.86% in the formerly communist east. That will follow increases last year of 5.35% in the west and 6.12% in the east. Rises in German pensions are linked largely to wage developments.