A German data watchdog has been investigating OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's Worldcoin project since late last year due to concerns over its large-scale processing of sensitive biometric data, the regulator's president told Reuters. Worldcoin, which launched last week, requires users to give their iris scans in exchange for a digital ID and, in some countries, free cryptocurrency as part of plans to create a new "identity and financial network".

Australia and Luxembourg-registered Kleos Space, which uses small satellites to detect and locate radio frequency signals to uncover illegal activity on land and sea, has filed for bankruptcy in Luxembourg, Advanced-Television.com reported. Trading in its shares in Australia had already been suspended on May 3. It already has 16 satellites in orbit (although there are problems with two) and numerous contracts in place. The business was formed in 2017 but suffered launch delays and problems with satellites. Kleos made a statement on July 26th that it had been unable to source fresh financing.

Most European banks emerged stronger from a stress test on how they would weather a sharp economic downturn, giving them a sound footing to continue paying dividends and buying back shares, Bloomberg News reported. On aggregate, the 70 lenders in the test saw their key capital-ratio slide by 4.59 percentage points to 10.4% under an adverse scenario, the European Banking Authority said in a statement on Friday. That’s less than the 4.85 percentage-point hit in the last exam two years ago, which covered fewer banks.

The number of company insolvencies in Switzerland rose 22% in the first six months of the year compared to the same period in 2021, SwissInfo.com. Some 581 construction firms went bankrupt between January and the end of June, out of 2,822 companies in all sectors, according to research group Dunn & Bradstreet. The financial and service sector industries saw one of the largest percentage rises in bankruptcies with a 31% increase in businesses going bust. Some 30% more hotels and restaurants also went out of business.

The European Central Bank raised interest rates for the ninth consecutive time on Thursday but dialled up the possibility of a pause next month as stubbornly high inflation and recession worries pull policymakers in opposing directions, Reuters reported. Fighting off a historic surge in prices, the ECB has now lifted borrowing costs by a combined 425 basis points since last July, worried that price growth could be perpetuated by both rising costs and wages in an exceptionally tight jobs market.

Nigel Farage, who helped mobilize the pro-Brexit vote in 2016, was marginalized in Britain, then consumed by the pandemic. No longer: For three weeks, Mr. Farage, has been back on the front pages of British papers, with an attention-grabbing claim that his exclusive private bank, Coutts, dropped him as a customer because of his polarizing politics. Early on Wednesday, after Farage’s allegations were largely vindicated, the chief executive of his bank’s parent, NatWest Group, resigned after she admitted improperly discussing his bank account with a BBC journalist.

The Bank of England forecast on Tuesday that it would make a net loss of just over 150 billion pounds ($193 billion) over the next 10 years as it unwinds its quantitative easing (QE) gilt purchases, up from 100 billion pounds projected in April, Reuters reported. That loss will need to be funded by the government, at a time when public finances are already under pressure from rising interest rates and inflation, and members of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservative Party want tax cuts before a likely 2024 election.

Steinhoff International Holdings NV shareholders had little choice but to vote to dissolve the shell of the scandal-hit global retailer on Wednesday, drawing a line under a 5-1/2 year saga that turned into a windfall for lawyers and advisers, Bloomberg News reported. Those who have held stock via listings in Frankfurt or Johannesburg stand to gain little after the creditors who control the company get paid. But outside parties have received €447 million ($495 million) since late 2017, according to annual reports, and managers have also continued to be remunerated.

City AM, the London-based business newspaper, is close to calling in administrators after a weeks-long search for a buyer failed to produce a solvent deal, SkyNews.com reported. Sky News has learnt that the directors of the title's parent company are preparing to appoint BDO, the accountancy firm, to commence an insolvency process in the coming days.

The Romanian Ministry of Economy announced that it sanctioned the tour operator Kusadasi with a fine and, in addition, withdrew its operating license following the inspection carried out after the agency filed for insolvency, Romania-Insider.com reported. Inspections found that the tour operator sold travel services whose total value exceeds the sum insured by guarantee instruments, thus breaching provisions of Art. 18, paragraph (1) of Government Ordinance nr. 2/2018.