The head of Switzerland’s financial regulator FINMA questioned Credit Suisse over risks in its dealings with now-insolvent finance firm Greensill Capital “months” before the bank was forced to close $10 billion of funds liked to Greensill, Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung reported Sunday, according to Reuters.

Auditors and finance chiefs of some of Germany’s biggest businesses are worried that a new regulatory proposal intended to improve audit quality in the wake of the Wirecard AG scandal will lead to higher costs and less competition, the Wall Street Journal reported. German lawmakers currently are debating draft legislation for the so-called Act to Strengthen Financial Market Integrity. The law is expected to pass over the next few months, ahead of the country’s national elections in the fall.

Bond sales by two of Europe’s most indebted nations have been inundated by demand as an economic recovery begins to lift yields from historically low levels, Bloomberg News reported. Italy received more than 64 billion euros ($76 billion) of bids for its first new 50-year bond in almost five years via banks on Wednesday. That’s more than three times the previous record. The nation is also selling debt maturing in 2028. Meanwhile, Portugal is bringing to market a 10-year security, racking up more than 30 billion euros of orders from investors.

Credit Suisse Group AG’s double-barreled financial crisis shares a common theme: a bank that looked the other way when warning signs argued for pulling back on lucrative corners of its business, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Swiss bank with a big Wall Street presence was caught off guard starting in late February when $10 billion in complicated investment funds it ran with financing firm Greensill Capital unraveled, despite years of internal warnings about the relationship.

A German lawyer handling the insolvency of Greensill Capital’s bank unit won a request to freeze the collapsed lender’s Australian assets, as part of an effort to cooperate with counterparts to recover as much as possible for the supply-chain finance firm’s creditors. Michael Frege had submitted an application to the Federal Court of Australia on March 31 asking for the court to hand over insolvency proceedings on the business to the German unit, where the entity has its “main interest,” according to court documents.

Russia is looking at introducing measures to cool a rally in steel prices to the highest in more than a decade and support the construction industry, Bloomberg News reported. One option may include a mechanism that could be used to tax sales over a certain price to provide funds to aid the construction sector, according to two people familiar with government discussions. Such a move has been proposed by the Industry Ministry.

Two former Societe Generale SA bankers are challenging Swiss fines issued for failing to report suspicious deposits worth more than $700 million made by a one-time ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Bloomberg News reported. The former head of SocGen’s Swiss private bank and the ex-head of compliance, who can only be named as L. and K. under Swiss reporting restrictions, are appealing fines totaling 90,000 swiss francs ($96,000) at a trial starting Wednesday in Bellinzona.

Air France on Tuesday said it would receive a new bailout from the French government worth 4 billion euros ($4.7 billion) to help the beleaguered airline cope with mounting debts as a third wave of pandemic lockdowns around Europe prolong a slump in continental air travel, the New York Times reported. The support comes on top of €10.4 billion ($12.3 billion) in loans and guarantees that Air France and its partner, the Netherlands-based KLM, received from the French and Dutch governments last year.

New proposals to rescue Irish small businesses in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis must focus on those with viable futures, a leading insolvency practitioner has warned, the Irish Times reported. The Company Law Review Group (CLRG) has been seeking views on proposals for a scheme to rescue financially-troubled small businesses that avoids the need for court hearings but, like examinership, gives the enterprise temporary protection from creditors.