British commodities tycoon Sanjeev Gupta’s family business has decided to close its loss-making Commonwealth Trade Bank Ltd after failing to revive the business, it said on Friday, Reuters reported. Gupta’s privately-held GFG Alliance, with revenues of over $20 billion, has a wide range of businesses, largely in commodities such as steel and aluminium, but also spanning energy, infrastructure and finance.

Banks are to be given assurances by the UK government over the legal and regulatory framework around new small business loans, but industry executives are seeking clarity over how to act if the scheme results in high levels of default or fraud, the Financial Times reported. The government is locked in talks with banks over the final details of the scheme with just four days to go until it is launched. Under the bounce back scheme, banks will offer interest and payment free loans of up to £50,000 to small businesses that are entirely guaranteed by the government.

Société Générale will revamp the trading arm of its investment bank for the second time in a year after suffering a devastating hit to its core equities business, chief executive Frédéric Oudéa told the Financial Times. The French bank fell to a shock loss of €326m in the first quarter after revenue in its equity trading unit — long hailed by executives as a key strength — collapsed almost 99 per cent to just €9m, the Financial Times reported.

Finablr Plc, the embattled owner of two foreign-exchange businesses, uncovered about $1 billion of debt hidden from its board that may have been used for purposes outside of the company, compounding a scandal that pushed its sister firm NMC Health Plc into administration, Bloomberg News reported. The London-listed company and its creditors found that Finablr Group’s overall debt was about $1.3 billion, excluding the debt of its Travelex Holdings Ltd. unit and “materially above” its last reported figure, according to a statement.

Before the coronavirus, investors hungry for returns piled into risky corporate loans and bonds with precious little protection for creditors, Reuters reported. Now they’re frantically scouring the terms to see just what firms can get away with to survive the fallout. At the same time, firms starved of cash and funds thinking about lending to them are also poring over the fine print to see what room they have to shift assets away from other creditors, pay dividends or borrow more while staving off default.

Finland’s Stockmann suffered a 49.1% fall in March sales hurt by the impact of the coronavirus, said the department store operator, which has filed for corporate restructuring, Reuters reported. Its adjusted operating loss widened to 30.5 million euros from 21.4 million a year earlier, it said. Shares in the company were down 4.2% by 0900 GMT. Known for its upmarket department stores, Stockmann has struggled for years in the face of a consumer shift to online shopping, prompting cost cuts and divestments. On April 6, Stockmann announced it would file for corporate restructuring.

European business and consumer confidence plummeted at a record rate in April due to the coronavirus crisis, according to the EU’s main economic sentiment indicator which has fallen close to the all-time lows of the financial crash a decade ago, the Financial Times reported.

Deutsche Bank warned that the coronavirus pandemic could threaten its ambition to return to profitability this year, as Germany’s largest lender braced itself for a painful drop in earnings and a jump in loan provisions, the Financial Times reported. Despite a surge in revenue at the investment bank during the first quarter, Deutsche posted a net loss attributable to shareholders of €43m during the period, compared with a profit of €97m last year, the Frankfurt-based lender said on Wednesday.

While business owners around the world are facing crisis, keeping afloat the smaller companies with less than €100m in revenues that are the backbone of the Italian economy is a particularly acute challenge, the Financial Times reported. This is partly because there are so many of them and partly because of the way they traditionally fund themselves: with short-term bank loans. Northern Italy is home to more than 2m businesses, according to Prometeia, a research and consulting firm.

Barclays has announced a sharp increase in provisions for bad loans, becoming the latest bank to prepare for a wave of defaults from retail and corporate customers as the coronavirus crisis upends the global economy, the Financial Times reported. First-quarter credit impairment charges surged almost fivefold to £2.1bn from £448m in the same period last year, more than double the £923m analysts had forecast, the London-based bank said on Wednesday.