Europe vowed to stay united against Russia's demand that they pay for its gas in roubles, as the threat of an imminent supply halt eased on Friday, Reuters reported. European capitals have been bracing for a disruption to gas imports as Russian President Vladimir Putin seeks retaliation over Western sanctions for the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine. Some buyers and governments were working on ways to potentially pay for gas in roubles as Moscow in recent days has raised the spectre of cutting gas supply if its payment terms are not met.

The European Union must discuss an import ban on Russian gas deliveries after Ukrainian and European officials accused Russian forces of committing atrocities near Kyiv, the German defence ministry said on Sunday, Reuters reported. "There has to be a response. Such crimes must not remain without a response," the ministry quoted Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht as saying in an interview.

The eurozone’s inflation rate jumped to another record high in March as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pushed energy and food prices higher, increasing pressure on the European Central Bank to raise its key interest rate, the Wall Street Journal reported. Russia accounts for around 40% of the European Union’s imports of natural gas, a key source of energy for the bloc. It also supplies around a quarter of the bloc’s oil imports. While supplies of oil and gas have continued to flow from Russia into Europe, market prices have risen, reflecting worries about future availability.

A company accused by German authorities of supplying authoritarian countries such as Turkey, Egypt and Myanmar with trojan software that could be used to eavesdrop on dissidents has shut down operations and filed for insolvency, the Bloomberg reported. FinFisher GmbH sold spyware to law enforcement and intelligence agencies that allows users to access address books, chat messages, photographs and videos on targeted smartphones as well as listen in on telephone conversations.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Thursday that Moscow would impose a moratorium on bankruptcies for a period of six months starting on Friday, Reuters reported. Read more.

Investors are bracing for more losses in Russian debt as expulsion from key indexes in the wake of President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine hits an already trampled market, Bloomberg News reported. Russia’s government and corporate bonds are set on Thursday to be removed from the closely-followed JPMorgan Chase & Co. suite of emerging-market bond indexes, known as EMBI, leaving some money managers whose funds track the gauge with little choice but to sell or write down their holdings.

Inflation continued to surge across Europe's biggest economies this month while growth took a hit, leaving households poorer as they picked up the bill for soaring energy costs in the wake of Russia's shock invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reported. Price growth hit multi-decade highs in Italy, France, Germany and Spain in March, intensifying a policy dilemma for the European Central Bank, which needs to fight the price surge but must also avoid choking off already fading growth.

A proposed multi-billion pound claim brought by thousands of asset managers, pension funds and financial institutions against major banks over alleged foreign exchange (forex) rigging has been blocked by a London court, Reuters reported. London's Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), which had been considering the case against JPMorgan, Citigroup, Barclays, UBS and NatWest since last July, ruled on Thursday the case was not suitable to proceed as a U.S.-style, opt-out class action.

European Union lawmakers were set on Thursday to back tougher safeguards for transfers of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, in the latest sign that regulators are tightening up on the freewheeling sector, Reuters reported. Two committees in the European Parliament have thrashed out cross-party compromises to be voted on. Crypto exchange Coinbase Global Inc. has warned the rules would usher in a surveillance regime that stifles innovation. The $2.1 trillion crypto sector is still subject to patchy regulation across the world.

Regulators are looking to update rules, which target companies abusing their market power and those setting up illegal cartels, to make them more efficient, EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Under the rules, known as Regulation 1/2003 and in force since 2004, the European Commission has taken on Alphabet unit Google, Apple, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Intel and imposed billions of euros in fines.