Britain’s biggest mortgage lender expects the housing market to slow in the coming year, as rising interest rates make loans more expensive for borrowers and property prices finally begin to fall, Bloomberg News reported. Charlie Nunn, chief executive officer of Lloyds Banking Group Plc, said the bank’s open mortgage book rose just 1% in the three months through June and now stands at £296.6 billion.

Germany's state Economic Stabilisation Fund (ESF) has cut its stake in Deutsche Lufthansa to less than 10%, the Federal Finance Agency said on Wednesday, citing stabler conditions at the group, Reuters reported. The ESF took a 20% holding in Lufthansa as part of a government bailout to keep the airline afloat through the COVID-19 pandemic, and had previously reduced the share to 14.1%. The further reduction came "against the backdrop of Lufthansa's stable corporate development", the agency said.

An Irish developer has had €7.7 million of debts written off under a court-approved personal insolvency arrangement (PIA), the Irish Times reported. Mr. Justice Alexander Owens approved the application made on behalf of Co Roscommon-based Ronan Meeley and an interlocking PIA for his wife, Niamh Meeley. Mr. Meeley (52), who is now employed as a hotel maintenance worker, had debts totalling €8.2 million arising from his construction and development businesses that entered receivership during the recession.

Irish developer Michael O’Flynn has been blocked by the High Court from raising any objections to the personal insolvency agreement of a neighbour John O’Driscoll over a guarantee on a €2.2 million loan, the Irish Times reported. The developer who contended that Mr. O’Driscoll from Ovens, County Cork, was allegedly not insolvent, failed in his bid to overturn a Circuit Court ruling that he had no right to be heard on the matter. In the High Court, Mr. Justice Alexander Owens upheld the Circuit Court ruling that because Mr. O’Flynn who had been invited by Mr.

Deutsche Lufthansa said that it was canceling more than 1,000 flights ahead of a one-day walkout by ground staff scheduled for Wednesday, just as families across Germany head off on their summer holidays, Reuters reported. Strikes and staff shortages have already forced airlines including Lufthansa to cancel thousands of flights and caused hours-long queues at major airports, frustrating holidaymakers keen to travel after COVID-19 related lockdowns.

U.K. satellite operator OneWeb plans to join forces with European rival Eutelsat in a deal the two companies hope will help them take on Elon Musk’s SpaceX, CNBC.com reported. The all-stock merger will see Eutelsat issue 230 million new shares and exchange them for all remaining shares of OneWeb, according to a press release Tuesday. Shareholders of OneWeb and Eutelsat will own 50% of the combined firm, respectively. The deal values OneWeb at $3.4 billion.

Italy is preparing a new stimulus decree worth up to 13 billion euros ($13.3 billion) to help families and firms deal with a surge in electricity, gas and petrol costs, deputy Economy Minister Laura Castelli said on Monday, Reuters reported. The new scheme, which comes on top of some 33 billion euros already budgeted since January, is expected to be one of the last major acts by Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who last week resigned paving the way for a snap national election on Sept. 25.

U.S. investors participating in credit-default-swap auctions are allowed to buy Russian sovereign debt, according to new guidance from the U.S. Treasury Department, potentially reducing losses for some investors who sold protection against a Russian default in the years leading up to the war in Ukraine, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported.

Moving in the opposite direction to much of the rest of the world, Russia’s central bank lowered its interest rate 1.5 percentage points to 8 percent on Friday, taking it even lower than it was before the country invaded Ukraine, the New York Times reported. The bank said inflation, which fell to 15.9 percent last month from about 17 percent in May, was slowing in the country because of “subdued” consumer demand and the strength of the ruble, which reached a seven-year high against the dollar last month. The rate cut was larger than economists had expected.