Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) on Tuesday posted a 44% slump in second-quarter profit, largely due to the economic impact of the pandemic in the countries in which it operates, but confirmed its 2020 targets, Reuters reported. The Austrian lender, which does business across central and eastern Europe, said consolidated net profit came in at 192 million euros ($226 million) in the three months per end-June, beating analyst expectations of 143 million euros.

Corporate insolvencies may increase this winter, with new research from the insolvency and restructuring trade body R3 indicating that a steep rise may start as early as this October, Scottish Legal News reported. The R3 research – based on a member survey of insolvency and restructuring professionals – highlights that an overwhelming majority (93.7 per cent) of respondents expect corporate insolvency numbers to rise over the next year, with nearly six-in-ten (56 per cent) predicting that the increase will occur between October and December 2020.

The national college for High Speed 2 looks set to be taken over by a university as part of a government review initiated after the FE commissioner warned it faced potential insolvency, FE Week reported. The University of Birmingham has been announced as the preferred bidder to take on the National College for Advanced Transport and Infrastructure (NCATI), as part of a structure and prospects appraisal (SPA) of the college.

The number of business insolvencies among German companies decreased by 9.9 percent in May year-on-year to just above 1,500, the country's Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) announced on Monday, Xinhuanet reported. However, economic problems caused by COVID-19 had not yet been reflected by an increase in insolvencies due to the government suspension of filing for insolvency implemented in March, Destatis noted.

Payment freezes on personal loans are masking the true nature of deteriorating personal finances, an insolvency expert has warned, Peer2Peer Finance News reported. Analysis by debt industry data company TDX Group found the volume of individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs) and trust deeds decreased by 39 per cent between the first and second quarter of 2020 and is down 38 per cent annually. However, David Heathcote, personal insolvency expert at TDX Group, is predicting a steep rise in the fourth quarter and next year as borrowers come off payment holidays.

Germany’s ruling coalition is at odds over extending a freeze on insolvency rules put in place to avoid a wave of corporate bankruptcies due to the coronavirus crisis, Reuters reported. In March the government gave companies that find themselves in financial trouble due to the pandemic a respite by allowing them to delay filing for bankruptcy until the end of September.

The level of corporate insolvencies in Ireland may peak next year at levels last seen at the end of the financial crisis as the real cost of the Covid-19 economic shock on businesses becomes apparent, according to a leading insolvency expert, The Irish Times reported. “In the short-term my prediction is that insolvency numbers will return in 2021 to the worst numbers of the last recession,” said Neil Hughes, insolvency practitioner and managing partner of Baker Tilly Chartered Accountants in Ireland.

German prosecutors suspect Wirecard AG extended large loans to partner companies before its implosion in June, at a time when the payments company was already facing media reports alleging accounting fraud, Bloomberg News reported. The prosecutors surmise the loans by the disgraced German firm may have been unsecured and may have been made to partner companies in Dubai, Singapore and the Philippines, a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing the private information said.

The first Metro Bank branch opened 10 years ago with the aim of making UK banking more like the US. A decade on, the coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the gulf that still remains between the two, the Financial Times reported. Metro may have succeeded in introducing an American-style emphasis on customer service. But investors — and regulators — had also hoped to replicate the competitive lending market that helped the US economy recover when the biggest banks were reluctant to offer loans after the 2008 financial crisis.

More economic upheaval is on the horizon in Europe as plans to end the unprecedented support for workers during the coronavirus pandemic threaten to tip millions of households into a debt trap, Bloomberg News reported. Organizations that help individuals sort out their financial problems are warning of a sharp increase in the number of families burdened by bills they can’t pay. Even in savings-rich nations such as Germany and Austria, citizens are starting to worry.