Investors are coming to terms with the prospect that the Bank of England could scale back support for the gilt market sooner than expected, Bloomberg News reported. Traders are now betting the BOE will raise the key interest rate to 0.5% in February. That’s the threshold after which the bank may let gilts that mature in its 875-billion pound ($1.2 trillion) asset purchase program roll out of the portfolio without being replaced.

Frankfurt Hahn Airport, a German international budget flights hub, has filed for insolvency, according to a court filing published on Tuesday, Reuters reported. It was not immediately clear how the insolvency would affect flight operations. The airport, which is primarily used by low-cost airlines such as Ryanair and cargo airlines and served about 1.5 million passengers in 2019, is 82.5% owned by Chinese airport group HNA, while the German state of Hesse has a 17.5% stake.

The European Union began work this week revising its fiscal rules as it considers new exceptions to allow for the massive investments needed to help member states make their economies more climate friendly, Bloomberg News reported. The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, launched a public consultation on the so-called Stability and Growth Pact, a fiscal framework that dictates countries’ debt and deficit levels. The EU suspended the SGP in March of 2020 to give member states the flexibility to react to the Covid-induced recession.

Poland's prime minister repeatedly came under criticism during a tense debate in the European Parliament on Tuesday, with the EU's chief executive warning Warsaw that its challenge to the supremacy of the 27-nation bloc's law would not go unpunished, Reuters reported. "You're arguments are not getting better. You're just escaping the debate," said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, visibly exasperated with Poland's Mateusz Morawiecki after more than four hours of back-and-forth.

Credit Suisse Group AG has agreed to pay nearly $475 million to American and British authorities to resolve charges in connection with Mozambican bond offerings, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The charges centered on the Zurich-based bank's role in a $2 billion scandal involving government-guaranteed loans. The SEC said Credit Suisse fraudulently misled investors and violated U.S. bribery laws in a scheme involving two bond offerings and a syndicated loan that raised funds on behalf of state-owned entities in Mozambique.

The total value of registered debt owed by consumers in Ireland in the third quarter of this year three and a half times that of the same period in 2020 as interventions designed to protect households from the financial effects of Covid-19 were unwound, the Irish Times reported. The latest data from the Registry Trust data, which covers the third quarter, shows the number and total value of judgments registered against Irish consumers saw large rises over the period.

Italy has been asked to provide more than 7 billion euros ($8 billion) in capital to UniCredit to strike a deal over Monte dei Paschi and offload as much as possible of the state-owned bank to the stronger rival, Reuters reported. UniCredit, Italy's No. 2 lender, agreed on July 29 to discuss buying selected parts of Monte dei Paschi (MPS) from Italy's Treasury, which rescued the Tuscan bank in 2017, spending 5.4 billion euros. Under the terms of the bailout, Italy must cut its 64% stake in MPS by mid-2022 at the latest.

Italy’s president on Monday strongly criticized the violence that has erupted amid protests over the country’s new coronavirus workplace health pass requirement, saying it appeared aimed at jeopardizing Italy’s economic recovery, the Associated Press reported. President Sergio Mattarella spoke out as riot police again clashed with protesters at the port in the northern city of Trieste, at times using water canons to push them back. The protesters, who have included right-wing agitators in previous episodes, oppose Italy’s Green Pass requirement.

A surge in price growth in eastern Europe has opened a rift between central banks that have launched rate hikes to battle inflation and populist governments trying to defend a strong economic recovery, Reuters reported. The standoff is most apparent in Hungary and the Czech Republic, where national elections have complicated the task of central banks, which have led the way in the European Union in monetary tightening. Both have raised their key rates by more than a percentage point since June.

International Monetary Fund staff and Ukraine have reached an agreement on economic reforms that will pave the way for a first review of the country's 18-month stand-by arrangement and its request for an extension through the end of June, the IMF said in a statement, Reuters reported. It said that completion of the first review of the $5 billion arrangement, now slated to expire in December, would enable disbursements of about $700 million to the country.