KBC Group Ireland has set €14 million aside to cover an expected Central Bank fine for its involvement in the tracker mortgage scandal going back more than a decade, The Irish Times reported. The figure was part of a wider €18 million tracker-related provision that the Belgian-owned bank booked in the third quarter of the year, it said on Thursday. The charge drove a reduction in the bank’s net profit for the period to €4.4 million from €33.6 million for the corresponding three months in 2018. The wider KBC Group’s profit dipped to €612 million from €701 million.

U.K. retail sales unexpectedly fell in October, leaving growth over the last three months at its weakest for 1 1/2 years, Bloomberg News reported. The volume of goods sold in stores and online fell 0.1% from September, the Office for National Statistics said Thursday. That compares with economists’ expectations for a 0.2% increase. Sales excluding auto fuel dropped 0.3%. The figures show U.K. consumers entered the final quarter of the year on a downbeat note as uncertainty over Brexit intensifies.

A proposed personal insolvency arrangement for retired High Court taxing master James Flynn, who has debts of just over €5 million, does not meet a condition necessary for the court to consider whether or not to approve it, a High Court judge has ruled, The Irish Times reported. Mr Justice Denis McDonald was ruling on a preliminary issue concerning an application by Mr Flynn’s personal insolvency practitioner (PIP) after his insolvency arrangement failed to win the support of a majority of his creditors.

Expansion costs at part of the country’s fastest growing hospitality group, Paddy McKillen jnr’s Press Up group last year put a lid on returns, with pre-tax profits halving to €887,929, The Irish Times reported. New accounts filed by Orsen Ltd with the Companies Office show profits at this part of Press Up fell as revenues increased by 22.6 per cent from €57.86 million to €70.95 million. Press Up opened 12 new businesses across eight new sites last year.

The Dutch government is throwing its weight behind challenging London’s position as Europe’s legal hub for the lucrative business of restructuring the debt of struggling companies, Bloomberg News reported. With Britain due to leave the European Union by the end of January, the Netherlands is bidding to chip away at the legal business that runs through English courts with a proposed reform of insolvency laws set to be approved by parliament early next year. This outlines a new bankruptcy code taking elements of U.S.

France added to the growing chorus of lawmakers and executives seeing consolidation as an avenue to revive Europe’s ailing banks, ahead of a key meeting that may jumpstart a plan to create a single market for the industry, Bloomberg News reported. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, speaking in an interview in Paris on Tuesday, said mergers to create “critical-size, global actors” in European finance would be a “good thing.” He backed a call by German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz to complete the project for a banking union that would make such deals easier.

A plan by the owner of PizzaExpress Ltd. to buy back almost half of the company’s 200 million pounds of unsecured notes faces resistance from at least two groups of bond investors, people familiar with the matter said, Bloomberg News reported. Chinese private equity firm Hony Capital is seeking to purchase as much as 80 million pounds ($103 million) of the U.K. chain’s bonds in a move that may precede talks for a potential debt restructuring.

A Chinese conglomerate’s rescue plan for Britain’s second-biggest steelmaker has been met by doubts from unions and industry insiders who question the buyer’s motives and business logic, the Financial Times reported. Jingye Group, a privately owned Chinese group whose interests span hotels, property, tourism and chemicals alongside steelmaking, agreed to buy British Steel from the UK’s Insolvency Service.

New Look is still suffering from falling sales more than a year after reaching agreement on a restructuring of its store estate, adding to fears about the health of the UK high street as the election campaign gets under way, the Financial Times reported. In the half year to September 28 the fashion retailer said same-store sales were down 7.4 per cent in the UK and Ireland, with a strong summer more than cancelled out by a poor September.

Trips and holidays by Thomas Cook Germany with a departure date of Jan. 1, 2020 or later, "cannot be commenced" even if they had already been partially or fully paid for, the tour operator announced on Tuesday, Xinhuanet reported. "We are so sorry that we have to deliver this message to our customers with departure in the new year," said Stefanie Berk, chairwoman of the management board of Thomas Cook Germany. Among others, the tour operators that are affected were Thomas Cook Signature, Thomas Cook Signature Finest Selection, Neckermann Reisen and Oeger Tours.