Only 10 British banks have signed up to an industry-wide plan for collecting unpaid emergency COVID-19 loans, with more than a dozen including HSBC considering going it alone, sources told Reuters. UK Finance is setting up a central body to co-ordinate collecting unpaid loans to help its members cope with a forecast surge in defaults and to protect individual lenders from allegations of unfair treatment of customers, Reuters reported.

Authentic Brands is plotting a double takeover of collapsed department store chain Debenhams and Topshop-owner Arcadia Group, The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on Saturday, citing sources, Reuters reported. Authentic Brands, owner of the New York department store brand Barneys, is in talks this weekend with the administrators of both stricken companies, the newspaper reported. The companies did not respond to a request for comment on Saturday. Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group said on Monday it was in negotiations to buy Debenhams from administrators in a rescue deal.

Nordic Aviation Capital is the first large aircraft leasing company to be engaged in a corporate restructuring due to Covid-19, ICLG.com reported. A world-leading aircraft leasing company, Nordic Aviation serves 75 airlines in over 50 countries. On 20 August, the company released a press statement announcing the appointment of a new CEO, Patrick de Castelbajac.

Portugal expects airline TAP will need around 2 billion euros ($2.4 billion) in extra funds with state guarantees to cover its financing needs until 2024 under a restructuring plan, Reuters reported. Flag carrier TAP asked for state aid in April after suspending almost all of its 2,500 weekly flights at the height of the coronavirus crisis, which hit airlines globally. The overhaul plan, which needs European Commission approval, was submitted on Thursday and envisages TAP would need to cut around 2,000 jobs by 2022 and introduce pay cuts of up to 25%.

Insolvencies among UK high street companies have ricocheted to investors who made private loans to them, highlighting the limits of central bank interventions that staved off a string of defaults in the public debt market, the Financial Times reported.

Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group Plc is getting closer to a deal to rescue part of the ailing Debenhams department-store chain, according to people familiar with the situation, Bloomberg News reported. The owner of the House of Fraser and Sports Direct chains is in negotiations to buy the 242-year-old Debenhams brand and website and to take on a substantial number of stores, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.

Financial engineering, like life, moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while you could miss it. Few companies have had to move faster this year than Tui, whose AGM presentation in mid February mentioned coronavirus only once, the Financial Times reported. “At present, we do not see any significant impact from the virus on our outlook,” chief executive Fritz Joussen told shareholders.

The European Central Bank has launched a fresh burst of stimulus to help the eurozone economy recover from the coronavirus pandemic, promising to buy €500bn more bonds over a longer period and providing extra cheap funding for banks, the Financial Times reported. The ECB increased the size of its pandemic emergency purchase programme (PEPP) from €1.35tn to €1.85tn and pushed back the end of its main crisis-fighting tool from next June until at least March 2022, while reinvesting any proceeds until at least the end of 2023.

An application by bankrupt businessman Sean Dunne to vary an order requiring him to pay €7,000 a month for the benefit of creditors in his Irish bankruptcy was heard in private at the High Court on Thursday, The Irish Times reported. The private hearing was sought by Edward Farrelly SC, for Mr Dunne’s Irish bankruptcy trustee, arising from matters referred to by Mr Dunne in a sworn affidavit. Mr Dunne, representing himself, opposed the matter being heard in camera.

Private debt funds that lent to UK high street companies including Debenhams and Casual Dining Group have endured losses after the pandemic sent tremors through the leisure and retail sectors, the Financial Times reported.