New rules affecting bank capital reserves could hurt lenders’ ability to “be part of the solution” to the coronavirus crisis and should be delayed or amended, the head of the European Banking Federation (EBF) said on Monday, Reuters reported. EBF head Jean Pierre Mustier, who is CEO of Italian bank UniCredit CRDI.MI, also called for a more unified European banking market. “We need to minimise fragmentation to allow cross-border groups to work on an even more optimised basis in terms of free flows of liquidity and capital,” he told the Euro Finance Week conference, which was held virtually.

Germany’s economic recovery continued until October but has slowed since August, the Economy Ministry said on Friday, adding that lockdown measures implemented to slow the spread of the coronavirus hit the economy in November, Reuters reported. The Economy Ministry said in its monthly report that the restrictions imposed from the start of November which have seen restaurants, bars and entertainment venues such as cinemas and theatres close meant consumption was taking a hit.

British fashion group Arcadia, which is controlled by retail businessman Philip Green, denied a report on Sunday it was about to go into administration but said it was taking “appropriate steps” to protect the business from the impact of the latest coronavirus lockdown, Reuters reported. Arcadia, which runs brands including Topshop, Topman, Dorothy Perkins and Burton, employs about 15,000. “It is not true that administrators are about to be appointed,” said a spokesman for Arcadia.

One of the EU’s crowning institutional achievements in the wake of the global financial crisis was the creation of the European Stability Mechanism — a permanent bailout instrument designed to provide billions of euros in cheap loans to struggling sovereigns, the Financial Times reported. But amid the EU’s latest economic crash, the ESM has been conspicuously absent in the debate about how to inject fiscal firepower into Europe’s pandemic-ravaged economy.

The UK economy expanded at its fastest pace on record in the third quarter, but output was still well below pre-pandemic levels and growth is threatened by the latest lockdown restrictions, the Financial Times reported. Britain’s gross domestic product increased 15.5 per cent in the three months to September compared with the previous three months, the quickest pace since records began in 1955, according to the Office for National Statistics. The rebound reflected the reopening of businesses, shops, restaurants and bars after the national lockdown.

The Spanish government is considering extending its scheme of state-backed credit lines beyond December while also preparing measures to support the battered hospitality sector during the coronavirus pandemic, sources with knowledge of the matter said, Reuters reported. “Everything is under discussion right now, the increase of the grace period, the extension of those credits and of the entire scheme beyond December, but nothing has been closed yet,” one source said.

The trustees of British defined benefit - or final salary - pension schemes must be ready for possible employer distress or insolvency to protect their members as COVID-19 impacts the economy, the country’s pensions watchdog said on Thursday, Reuters reported. “Trustees are the first line of defence for savers,” Mike Birch, director of supervision at The Pensions Regulator said in a statement. “The faster they act, the more options and greater time they’ll have to protect members’ retirements.

One in seven Spanish workers are in businesses at risk of collapse, according to new research by the European Central Bank, excluding those who work for financial companies, the Financial Times reported. This is the highest rate of all large eurozone economies, and comes despite the country’s national furlough scheme. It compares with about 8 per cent of employees in Germany and France and 10 per cent in Italy, also taking into account the use of subsidies to keep people in work, the ECB found.

European banks need to prepare their balance sheets for the risk of pandemic-induced non-performing loans hitting them in the new year, the head of the EU agency tasked with winding down failing lenders has said, the Financial Times reported. Elke König, chair of the Single Resolution Board, rejected suggestions from the European Central Bank that the EU needs to set up a network of “bad banks” to handle higher non-performing loans (NPLs), but she warned banks needed to do intensive work to sort out viable loans from unviable ones.  In an interview with the Financial Times

Financial risks related to the coronavirus pandemic will last for months if not years, Switzerland’s financial market supervisor FINMA said on Wednesday, pointing to particularly heightened risk of defaults on corporate loans, Reuters reported. “Thanks to the cushion of liquidity and capital they have built up over the years and their operational readiness, Swiss financial institutions have been able to withstand the initial repercussions of the crisis well,” FINMA said in its second annual financial risk monitor.