Economic activity in Spain and Italy’s services sector has hit a six-month low according to a widely watched business survey, as consumer companies bear the brunt of lockdowns to battle the spread of coronavirus, the Financial Times reported. Italy’s IHS Markit purchasing managers’ index for services fell for the third consecutive month to 39.4 in November, while the Spanish index fell for the fourth consecutive month to 39.5. A reading below the 50 mark indicates that a majority of businesses reported a contraction in activity from the previous month.

As with Japan in the 1990s, years of low — and even negative — interest rates in the eurozone have led to suspicions that the region’s business landscape is harbouring a load of zombie firms, the Financial Times reported. That is, companies that are being kept artificially alive by the repeated extension of credit. Many have tried to place the blame on the European Central Bank’s aggressive easing for the phenomenon, which critics say stymies longer-term growth prospects because it keeps capital and labour locked into inefficient parts of the economy and chokes innovation.

EY has lashed out at Germany’s audit watchdog for prematurely reporting suspected criminal misconduct by its partners to prosecutors in an escalating battle over the Big Four firm’s audit work at defunct payments company Wirecard, the Financial Times reported in a commentary. Wirecard collapsed into insolvency in June in one of Europe’s biggest postwar accounting frauds after receiving “all clear” audits by EY for more than a decade. Apas, the German audit watchdog, told criminal prosecutors in late September that three current and former EY partners may have acted criminally.

In a short Twitter thread last month, Olivier Blanchard, former chief economist of the IMF and past president of the American Economic Association, reassessed how the economic effects of the pandemic had played out compared with what he had expected, the Financial Times reported. One striking observation was: “I expected a lot of inefficient bankruptcies, due to high debt rather than lack of viability post covid. This . . . does not seem to be the case. The proportion of low productivity firms in bankruptcies appears to be roughly the same as usual.” Blanchard is, of course, right.

Europe’s top banking supervisor is writing to the region’s biggest lenders to warn that many of them are failing to do enough to prepare for a likely increase in bad loans due to the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, the Financial Times reported. Andrea Enria, president of the European Central Bank’s supervisory board, said the shortfalls in banks’ preparations for a likely rise in bad loans was one factor to be considered in its decision on whether to allow them to resume dividend payments and share buybacks.

Norwegian Air proposed on Thursday to convert debt to equity, offload planes and sell new shares in an attempt to survive the COVID-19 pandemic, which has brought the company to its knees, Reuters reported. As part of the plan, the Oslo-based carrier, which recently applied for bankruptcy protection in an Irish court, aims to raise up to 4 billion Norwegian crowns ($455.4 million) from the sale of new shares or hybrid instruments, it said.

Tina Green, the ultimate owner of the failed retail group Arcadia, will pay a final £50m promised to its pension fund within days as the political outcry over the collapse of the company intensifies, the Financial Times reported. Lady Green, who is the wife of retail tycoon Philip Green, was set to make the payment in September 2021 as part of an agreement struck with The Pensions Regulator and the trustees last year. However, in a statement on Wednesday, she said the payment would be made within the next 10 days, completing the £100m commitment made at the time.

Prezzo, the Italian restaurant group, is being sold to real estate company Cain International, the latest in a series of casual dining chains to change ownership as the pandemic piles more pressure on an industry struggling with high debt and too much competition, the Financial Times reported. Cain, a privately held, London-based group that has invested more than $5.9bn in real estate debt and equity since it was founded in 2014, will buy the company as a going concern, it said in a statement on Wednesday.

European Union regulators have revived guidance to allow banks to grant a new round of loan repayment holidays to coronavirus-hit customers until March without triggering a big surge in provisioning that would crimp the flow of credit, Reuters reported. The European Banking Authority (EBA) said on Wednesday that, due to the second wave of COVID-19 infections, guidance for banks that expired on Sept. 30 was being reactivated until March 31, a move welcome by the banking industry.

British clothing retailer Bonmarche has gone into administration, putting another 1,600 jobs at risk in a grim week for the sector, Reuters reported. Philip Green’s Arcadia fashion group collapsed into administration on Monday and on Tuesday department store chain Debenhams said it was starting a liquidation process. Together 25,000 jobs are at risk. RSM Restructuring Advisory said it has been appointed as administrators of Bonmarche, which trades from 225 stores across the United Kingdom.