Germany aims to borrow 240.2 billion euros ($286 billion) this year, taking on just over 60 billion euros more debt than initially planned to help mitigate the impact of the coronavirus crisis, Bloomberg News reported. Heavy government spending is set to continue as the country grapples with a fresh wave of the pandemic.

The European Central Bank finally delivered on its promise to boost the pace of emergency bond-buying to combat the economic threat from higher yields, Bloomberg News reported. Net purchases settled last week climbed by 21.1 billion euros ($25.2 billion), the most since the start of December. That figure is reduced by redemptions -- the gross value of purchases will be disclosed on Tuesday. German bonds held marginally higher on the day, with 10-year yields dropping one basis point to minus 0.31%.

Mark Branson, the head of Switzerland’s financial markets regulator, is to become president of Germany’s finance watchdog BaFin, the finance ministry said on Monday, as part of a shake-up at the regulator after the Wirecard fraud, Reuters reported. Current BaFin president Felix Hufeld is leaving at the end of the month after coming under pressure for failing to spot wrongdoing ahead of the collapse of the payments company. The implosion of a former blue-chip hailed as a German success story and once worth $28 billion has embarrassed the government and damaged the country’s reputation.

Germany is mulling around 70 billion euros ($83 billion) in extra debt spending this year to fight the fallout from the coronavirus crisis, Bloomberg News reported. Finance Minister Olaf Scholz needs those additional funds because the country’s lockdown is dragging on much longer than expected, the person said, cautioning that the exact number is still under discussion. Germany’s total new debt for this year will rise to 250 billion euros, Der Spiegel said, which reported the new spending plans earlier.

British officials are drawing up contingency plans in case the government needs to step in to save Sanjeev Gupta’s Liberty Steel from collapse, amid fears that thousands of jobs in a critically important industry are at risk, Bloomberg News reported. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng and other senior officials have been holding intensive discussions with the company in recent days, aiming to secure the future of the steelmaker.

Norwegian Air’s shareholders voted in favour of the company’s debt restructuring plan on Thursday, business news website E24 reported. The vote was the first of several procedural hurdles the airline faces as it battles to survive the coronavirus pandemic which has decimated air travel. More than 99% of shareholders supported the so-called scheme of arrangement, E24 reported, which will be voted on separately by several groups of creditors on Thursday and Friday.

Securities settlement for Irish assets worth more than 100 billion euros ($119 billion) has left London for the European Union in the latest adjustment in markets to Brexit, Reuters reported. Pan-European exchange Euronext, which runs the Irish stock exchange, said on Thursday it had completed the migration of securities settlement for 50 Irish companies from Crest in London to Euroclear Bank in Brussels from March 15. Settlement of EU securities must take place in a central securities depository (CSD) inside the bloc.

Britain proposed weakening the market grip of “Big Four” auditors on Thursday and making company directors responsible for spotting fraud after the collapses of retailer BHS and builder Carillion, Reuters reported. Directors would have to repay bonuses if their company went bust or serious failings came to light, and dividends and bonuses would have to be stopped if firms didn’t have enough cash - a lesson from the Carillion collapse.

The European Central Bank may need some time before the recently agreed acceleration in the pace of money printing, part of its efforts to cushion the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, becomes apparent, ECB President Christine Lagarde said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Investors have been scrutinising the ECB’s weekly purchase data for evidence of the central bank’s effort to stem a rise in borrowing costs on bond markets, largely driven by higher inflation expectations in the United States.