ING, the Netherlands’ largest bank, has become the latest major European lender to report a rising impact from coronavirus-induced loan defaults, driving its second-quarter profits down 79 per cent, the Financial Times reported. The Amsterdam-based lender, which runs retail banks in more than a dozen countries, set aside an additional €1.3bn to deal with expected future defaults, following on from a €661m provision in the first quarter.

Deutsche Lufthansa AG warned that compulsory dismissals are likely in Germany amid slow progress in talks with unions, stiffening its tone as it braces for years of reduced demand, Bloomberg News reported. Europe’s biggest airline posted an adjusted operating loss of 1.7 billion euros ($2 billion) in the second quarter -- its biggest ever -- wrapping up a dismal set of results for carriers in the region after the coronavirus grounded virtually all passenger flights.

Allied Irish Banks has taken a €1.2bn charge to cover coronavirus loan losses as the country’s largest lender by market capitalisation faces “severe and rapid deterioration” in economic conditions due the pandemic, the Financial Times reported. AIB said the charge, higher than analysts had anticipated, would represent the “significant majority” of full-year loan losses, as it forecast declining interest and fee income this year. Colin Hunt, chief executive, said the bank had adopted a “very conservative and prudent approach” to provisioning in the first half.

Wirecard AG’s spectacular collapse is leaving a gaping hole in the income statements of its European banks, Bloomberg News reported. While only three of the biggest lenders to the German payments company have reported earnings so far, all wrote down virtually their entire exposure. Commerzbank AG and ING Groep NV each took a hit of about 175 million euros ($207 million), according to people familiar with the matter, more than half of their profit for the second quarter. Credit Agricole SA suffered a loss of about 110 million euros.

Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. faces a crunch vote in less than three weeks to determine whether a hard-won 1.2 billion-pound ($1.6 billion) rescue goes ahead or if the airline is headed for collapse, Bloomberg News reported. Meetings of four creditor groups will be held on Aug. 25 after the company began a legal process in the U.K. to stop any holdouts from blocking the package. Virgin told a London court Tuesday that it will fold next month if the financing plan fails. It filed an ancillary petition for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in the U.S.

Britain’s banks took a gloomier view than almost all their European peers in their second quarter earnings, as coronavirus fears, Brexit and low interest rates caused them to bake tougher “worst-case” scenarios into their risk models, Reuters reported. Investors had expected a torrid set of half-year results, but Barclays, Standard Chartered, Lloyds, NatWest Group NWG.L and HSBC fell short of these low expectations.

Commerzbank took a greater hit from the collapse of Wirecard in the second quarter than from the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, according to people familiar with the matter, the Financial Times reported. Germany's second-largest listed lender, which is embroiled in a leadership crisis after both its chairman and chief executive announced plans to resign last month, wrote off €175m of loans it made to the defunct payments provider, which filed for insolvency in June.

Metro Bank fell to a £241m loss in the first half of the year, becoming the latest lender setting aside hefty sums to deal with expected loan losses as it predicted an even more severe economic downturn than its peers, the Financial Times reported. The bank, which is dealing with the first recession since it was established a decade ago, reported £112m of expected credit losses, up from just £4.4m in the same period last year. The majority of the total — £97m — was due to changes in economic forecasts rather than actual customer defaults.

Trade body UK Hospitality has issued new calls for the government to provide “decisive support” to restaurants, pubs, and bars after a new survey found that over 75 percent of hospitality businesses in the U.K. risk being unable to pay their bills within 12 months, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Eater reported. The survey, carried out by UK Hospitality in partnership with data analysts CGA, found that as many as 20 percent of businesses are at “significant risk” of insolvency or “expect” insolvency within the next year.

Drugmaker Mallinckrodt Plc may seek bankruptcy protection to resolve a dispute with the government over its blockbuster Acthar drug and claims that it profited from the opioid addiction crisis, Bloomberg News reoprted. The company is working with external advisers, creditors and litigation claimants and is considering “all options to address legal and financial challenges,” according to its second-quarter earnings statement Tuesday. This could include Chapter 11 bankruptcy for its main business and most subsidiaries.