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.

Germany’s audit watchdog suspects EY partners knew they were issuing a “factually inaccurate” audit for Wirecard in 2017, according to four people familiar with the matter, the Financial Times reported. Apas, the Berlin-based audit oversight body, has reported EY to prosecutors, telling them that the firm may have acted criminally during its work for Wirecard, which collapsed into insolvency earlier this year in one of Europe’s largest fraud scandals.

The UK is set to suffer more economic pain from the coronavirus crisis than any other leading economy apart from Argentina, the OECD said on Tuesday, highlighting the spread of the virus and deep downturn across Britain, the Financial Times reported. In its twice-yearly economic outlook, the Paris-based international organisation said that the world economy would on average regain the lost output from the Covid-19 crisis by the end of 2021, but the UK would be far behind the pack.

Italian former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Tuesday his Forza Italia opposition party would not back a reform of the euro zone bailout fund, a move that puts the government in difficulty ahead of a crucial parliamentary vote, Reuters reported. Reform of the fund, known as the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), has lacerated the ruling majority. The 5-Star Movement - the biggest party in parliament - says it would increase the risk of a public debt restructuring.

British department store group Debenhams is set to close all its UK shops after 242 years in business, putting 12,000 jobs at risk in the country’s second major corporate failure in as many days, Reuters reported. The decision to liquidate Debenhams comes after Philip Green’s Arcadia fashion group collapsed into administration on Monday, threatening 13,000 jobs, after the COVID-19 pandemic hit business.

Seadrill Partners LLC said on Tuesday it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as a means to restructure its debt, in another sign of financial difficulties for the wider Seadrill Ltd oil drilling rig group, Reuters reported. “The company intends to use the bankruptcy process to ensure that all customer, vendor and employee obligations are met without interruption and to complete a consensual restructuring of its debt,” Seadrill Partners said.

Up to 18.7% of Spanish companies could be insolvent by the end of the year because of the economic impact from the COVID-19 pandemic, with one in 10 of them unviable “zombies”, according to a worst-case scenario published by the Bank of Spain on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Even in the central bank’s most optimistic scenario, the number of insolvent companies would still rise to 14.5% from 10.5% last year.