Europe’s downtown office buildings are empty, and malls and main streets are deserted, yet the biggest landlords are staying afloat during the Covid-19 pandemic thanks to robust central-bank buying of bonds backed by property debt, the Wall Street Journal reported. Some worry that the policy is obscuring long-term pain should workers and shoppers never return in their pre-coronavirus numbers.

Poland’s MBank SA and ING Bank Slaski SA are recognizing potential losses from legal battles over Swiss-franc loans, moving the industry closer to resolving a dispute that has long clouded its prospects, Bloomberg News reported. The unit of Commerzbank AG set aside a record 439.5 million zloty ($118 million) to cover risks from its foreign-currency mortgages in the final three months of 2020, likely putting the lender in red for the quarter.

KLM said that it would cut an additional 1,000 jobs in 2021 and warned on Thursday that government plans to require all passengers and crew to pass a COVID-19 test before flying to the Netherlands would ground its long-haul flights, Reuters reported. KLM, which already cut 5,000 jobs last year, joined other airlines operating in the Netherlands to criticise a proposed requirement for all inbound passengers to show a negative result from a “fast” COVID-19 test taken within four hours of boarding a plane.

Britain’s first weeks of doing business outside of the EU have been mixed, as goods from large companies mainly sail through ports but many small businesses struggle with the new post-Brexit rules, the Wall Street Journal reported. Still, the true test of the U.K.’s new relationship with the EU will come in the next few weeks, say trade experts and companies, as shipment volumes increase and the difference between teething problems and permanent obstacles becomes more apparent at one of the world’s biggest trade borders.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Fair Business Banking, supported by law firm Humphries Kerstetter LLP, is to conduct an in-depth investigation into standards in the UK insolvency profession, AccountancyAge.com reported. The APPG on Fair Business Banking is concerned there might be systemic issues with how the corporate insolvency sector is regulated after hearing a number of worrying cases, according to Heather Buchanan, executive director, policy and strategy at the APPG.

As France lived through its worst economic slump since World War II, business failures slid to the lowest in 33 years, Bloomberg News reported. The number of bankruptcies and firms seeking protection from creditors or entering receivership fell 38% in 2020, as government aid in the face of the coronavirus pandemic kept French companies afloat, according to figures gathered by enterprise-data firm Altares. That may foreshadow a wave of defaults in 2021 and 2022, said Thierry Millon, its head of research.

North Ireland is facing an “abyss” once the Brexit “grace period” on imports from Britain ends unless action is taken, one of its major haulage companies has warned, the Irish Times reported. “Northern Ireland’s going to get worse in April if we don’t get some easement,” said Paul Jackson of McBurney Transport in Ballymena, Co Antrim. “As a haulage business this is currently an unsustainable model, and we have to be engaged with directly and we have to have it sorted out before the first of April, we have to.” Mr.

The International Monetary Fund has found that government support is keeping roughly one in ten German companies afloat that would otherwise have gone bust during the coronavirus pandemic, Reuters reported. In a report that on Tuesday laid bare the scale of economic damage masked by state aid, the Fund also warned that, once support was unwound, bankruptcy could soar, potentially weakening Germany’s banks. The analysis said the pandemic impact was worst for hotels and restaurants, where almost a third of loans could have gone unpaid without state relief.