Deutsche Bank AG is offering a subordinated bond to boost its capital ratio as the bank girds itself for the deepest recession in almost a century.

Plastic car parts maker Novares went into temporary receivership at the end of April, one of the first big French firms to seek protection from creditors due to the coronavirus crisis, despite government bailout schemes and loan guarantees, Reuters reported. Novares, whose sales have collapsed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, said on Monday it had taken the step after struggling to find a rapid agreement with its banks and shareholders and solve a coronavirus-related cash crunch.

Retail and property chiefs have warned that the government’s business bailout package of reliefs, grants and loans will not be sufficient to stop the “imminent collapse of many businesses,” the Financial Times reported. In a letter to small business minister Paul Scully and chancellor Rishi Sunak, the British Retail Consortium said the crisis “facing parts of the retail sector . . . must be addressed urgently ahead of the June quarter [rent] day”. The letter was also signed by the British Property Federation and Revo, which represents the top shopping centre owners.

Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, has implored eurozone governments to come up with a more powerful common fiscal response to the economic slump caused by coronavirus, warning of the dangers of divergence between the bloc’s members, the Financial Times reported. Addressing the State of the Union conference, organised by the European University Institute in Florence, on Friday, Ms Lagarde said a “common European fiscal response is highly desirable”, adding that it needed to be “swift, sizeable and symmetrical”.

Germany is working on a “concrete model” to aid Lufthansa, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said on Sunday, amid a political row over whether the state should take a strategic shareholding and play an active role in the stricken airline, Reuters reported. Altmaier’s comments followed calls by the Social Democratic Party, junior partners in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition, to tie aid for Lufthansa to protecting jobs, cutting the dividend and giving the government a say on strategy. “For me it’s important that we don’t exert any influence on business decisions.

German minerals firm K+S is preparing a potential application for state aid as the company grapples with a high debt load and the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, people close to the matter said, Reuters reported. The potash and salt company has no liquidity issues but wants to secure several hundreds of millions of euros in state-backed loans should financing via the capital markets remain difficult in the wake of the pandemic, the people said. No final decision on whether the company will actually apply for a bailout has been taken, one of the people added. K+S declined to comment.

Norway’s central bank cut interest rates to a record low of zero but said it was unlikely to go negative as the rich Scandinavian country faces up to the twin shocks of coronavirus and an oil price collapse, the Financial Times reported. Norges Bank said on Thursday that the 0.25 percentage point cut would not prevent Covid-19 from having “a substantial impact on the Norwegian economy but can help dampen the downturn”, including by stopping high unemployment becoming entrenched.

The Bank of England has forecast that the coronavirus crisis will push the UK economy into its deepest recession in 300 years, with output plunging almost 30 per cent in the first half of the year, but it decided not to launch a new stimulus, the Financial Times reported. In its monetary policy report, the central bank presented rough and ready predictions for the economy, suggesting that output would slip 3 per cent in the first quarter followed by a further 25 per cent fall in the second.

The number of corporate insolvencies in Britain fell a third in April compared to the year before even as the COVID-19 pandemic hammered the economy, figures compiled by KPMG showed on Friday, as government support packages kept firms afloat, Reuters reported. The spread of the novel coronavirus - and lockdown measures introduced to contain it - has ravaged the British economy, with Britons told to stay indoors and many non-essential businesses told to close. The Bank of England said on Thursday it could cause the biggest economic slump in over 300 years.

A slew of Britain’s mid-sized banks on Wednesday reported steady deposits and demand in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, but warned it was too early to assess the long-term damage of the outbreak to their businesses, Reuters reported. The lockdown in late March to contain the spread of the new coronavirus has brought the economy to a near halt, prompting bigger banks last week to set aside provisions for loan losses in case businesses and consumers struggle to pay them back.