NatWest became the latest in a string of British banks to report a sharp jump in provisions to absorb an expected surge in bad debts due to the worsening outlook for the UK economy, the Financial Times reported. The company, formerly known as Royal Bank of Scotland, reported a £2.1bn impairment charge for the second quarter, more than twice the size of its first-quarter provision. NatWest’s impairment charge pushed it to a £1.3bn pre-tax loss for the three months to June, compared with a £1.7bn profit in the same period last year.

When Santander entered the UK in 2004 with the acquisition of former building society Abbey National, the move completed the group’s transformation from a family-run regional mortgage lender into a multinational giant, the Financial Times reported. At the time Europe’s largest cross-border banking deal, the acquisition marked the culmination of a string of acquisitions under its swashbuckling “presidente” Emilio Botín, whose family have controlled Banco Santander since the early 20th century.

Noble Corp., the offshore drilling contractor, filed for bankruptcy with a plan to cut more than $3.4 billion of debt after a crash in crude prices made undersea oil wells too expensive, Bloomberg News reported. The Chapter 11 filing in Texas would eliminate all of the company’s bond borrowings by swapping debt for equity, the company said in a statement. Noteholders agreed to invest $200 million of new capital through second-lien notes, and Noble has lined up a $675 million secured revolving credit facility backed by current lenders including JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Intesa Sanpaolo’s victorious battle for rival UBI has sent shockwaves through Italy’s fragile banking sector as financiers try and work out who will be next in an industry ripe for consolidation, Reuters reported. The unsolicited bid, Europe’s largest banking deal in a decade, has set the stage for further mergers in the fragmented sector as pandemic-induced losses mount, adding to lenders’ existing struggles with negative interest rates and the need to adapt to a fast-changing digital world.

Germany’s gross domestic product shrank at the fastest pace in half a century in the second quarter of 2020, according to preliminary data that confirm the depth of the recession in Europe’s largest economy, the Financial Times reported. GDP contracted 10.1 per cent quarter-on-quarter, the largest decline since quarterly calculations began in 1970 — and far bigger than the fall at the height of the global financial crisis, the national statistical agency said on Tuesday.

The end of the government’s furlough scheme in October looms large for all of UK business. For retail and hospitality companies, another deadline is just as chilling: the end of the one-year “holiday” on business rates next March, the Financial Times reported in a commentary. Since rates are linked to rental values dating from 2015 — and a revaluation has just been postponed — shop chains could snap back into paying a hefty levy based on rents calculated long before Covid-19 devastated their businesses.

Lloyds Banking Group is preparing for a surge in customer defaults, after Britain’s largest retail bank warned that the coronavirus crisis had inflicted more damage on the economy than it had expected, the Financial Times reported. The bank’s shares tumbled more than 7 per cent on Thursday to their lowest level in eight years after the lender set aside another £2.4bn to cover future bad loans and slumped to a second-quarter loss.

Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) has today downgraded RussNeft PJSC's (RussNeft) corporate family rating (CFR) to Caa2 from Caa1 and probability of default rating (PDR) to Caa3-PD from Caa1-PD. RussNeft's outlook remains negative,Yahoo! Finance reported.

Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof, Germany’s biggest department store – alongside eight affiliated companies – filed for administrative insolvency earlier this year after announcing they would close 62 out of 172 branches and make 8,000 of the approximately 30,000 employees redundant, Lawyer Monthly reported. The management agreed on the corresponding social collective agreements with the unions Verdi and NGG shortly before the protective shield procedure – which was sought by the company early April due to the impact of Coronavirus – was completed.

High-grade eurozone government debt yields dropped to their lowest levels in over two months as a cocktail of negative news sent investors scrambling for safe assets, Reuters reported. Poor corporate earnings, record deaths from COVID-19 in six U.S. states and frictions over a stimulus plan in the United States hit risk sentiment on Wednesday, and had investors retreating to safe assets such as government bonds. Fears of rising COVID-19 infections also hit Asia and Europe this week, with several countries imposing new restrictions and Britain quarantining travellers from Spain.