Mastercard has reached an agreement in principle to settle a collective London lawsuit brought on behalf of British consumers over card fees, it said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The global payments processor was facing a lawsuit brought by consumer champion Walter Merricks on behalf of approximately 46 million adults in the United Kingdom. The case became the first mass consumer action to be approved in the UK in 2021 after a nearly five-year journey from the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) to the UK Supreme Court and back.

Business activity across the euro zone fell sharply last month as the bloc's dominant services sector joined the manufacturing sector in contracting, according to a survey which showed a broadbased decline, Reuters reported. HCOB's final composite Purchasing Managers' Index for the currency union, compiled by S&P Global and seen as a good gauge of overall economic health, sank to 48.3 in November from October's 50.0. That was slightly ahead of a 48.1 preliminary estimate but still firmly below the 50 mark separating growth from contraction.

Lloyds Banking Group Plc is selling a significant risk transfer linked to around £1 billion ($1.3 billion) of UK mortgages, which have been subject to modifications such as term extensions, Bloomberg News reported. Lloyds is seeking credit protection on a portfolio of home loans, which are mostly performing but are subject to high regulatory capital charges because they were previously delinquent. The transaction, which may be priced in coming days, also includes a portion of mortgages currently in arrears. Terms of the transaction, including size, are subject to discussion with investors.

Swedish bankruptcy levels are expected to exceed 10,000 this year, a figure that hasn’t been seen since a financial crisis in the 1990s spread from the banking sector into the wider economy, according to credit reference agency Creditsafe i Sverige AB, Bloomberg News reported. “So far this year, 9,197 limited companies have gone bankrupt, an increase of 24% compared to the same period last year and a material 64% more than two years ago,” Creditsafe Chief Executive Officer Henrik Jacobsson said in a statement Monday.

Germany will assume more than €600 million ($629 million) of debt that its development bank extended to Northvolt AB for the construction of a battery plant in the country, Bloomberg News reported. The federal government will this month reimburse lender KfW for the value of a convertible bond and related costs, a spokesman for the economy ministry said in an emailed response to questions from Bloomberg. Privately-held Northvolt filed for bankruptcy protection in the US last month after a desperate bid to secure rescue funding fell short.

Shares of Pierer Mobility AG tumbled after the company said its KTM AG motorbike unit was filing for a self-administered insolvency in Austria, Bloomberg News reported. KTM will be unable to cover a “very high three-digit million euro” financing requirement, according to a statement. The company will seek to agree with creditors on a reorganization in the next 90 days. Shares slumped 45% to 6.9 Swiss francs ($7.8), heading for their biggest daily decline on record and extending a loss this year to 84%. The company owned by entrepreneur Stefan Pierer and India’s Bajaj Auto Ltd.

A seaside attraction which owes £51 million to a council that helped set it up faces “real risk of closure” as it files for insolvency, the Irish News reported. Bosses of Brighton seafront’s observation tower, Brighton i360, have announced the notification of administrators, blaming escalating costs, bad summer weather and the cost-of-living crisis as the reasons behind the decision. But Brighton and Hove City Council chiefs have said the “extremely disappointing” move will hit the council’s budget after it loaned millions to the project in 2014 and remains the biggest creditor.