National Bank of Greece, the country’s biggest bank by assets, wants to pick up the pace as its moves on from the crippling legacy of the financial crisis, and its Chief Executive Officer is planning two main initiatives to get there, Bloomberg News reported. On the docket: a possible move to bring forward the securitization of bad loans currently scheduled for 2021 and the sale of the company’s insurance unit as soon as this year, CEO Paul Mylonas said. The moves could both help cut costs as the bank carries out a restructuring plan and seeks to move toward further digitalization.

German industrial orders have continued their decline, dropping by 0.6 per cent in August from the previous month and adding to the gloom hanging over the eurozone’s biggest economy, the Financial Times reported. Data from Germany’s economy ministry on Monday showed that the country’s larger than expected drop in industrial orders was caused by a sharp fall in domestic demand, which shrank 2.6 per cent. It was only partly offset by a 0.9 per cent rise in foreign orders.

Greece revealed an ambitious budget for next year that assumes growth will accelerate to 2.8 per cent from a projected 2.0 per cent this year, driven by higher investment inflows and cuts in corporate and personal income tax, the Financial Times reported. Theodoros Skylakakis, deputy finance minister, said on Monday the centre-right government was also committed to achieving a 3.5 per cent primary budget surplus next year — before making debt repayments — as agreed with Greece’s international creditors.

The heated auction between buyout firm Bain Capital and Austria’s AMS AG for the German LED-maker Osram Licht AG has ended in no deal, a Bloomberg View reported. The prospect of a transaction being rekindled in the near term looks bleak — though not impossible over the longer run. It beggars belief that a tense round of bidding can culminate in no more than a tangled mess. But this is regrettably often the way with German M&A.

Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman is facing questioning in Spain over allegations he illegally laid “economic siege” to an acquisition target while camouflaging his true role, according to court documents seen by the Financial Times. An anti-corruption prosecutor suspects Mr Fridman broke the country’s criminal code in 2016 in an attempt to take control of Zed World Wide, a Spanish mobile content and services business that later declared insolvency, the Financial Times reported.

Bondholders in PizzaExpress are pressing the company to engage in restructuring talks as fears mount about the future of the 54-year-old business, the Financial Times reported. The pizza chain and debtholders have consulted financial advisers ahead of third-quarter results next month, which are expected to reveal poor summer trading that will add further pressure on a balance sheet laden with £1.1bn of net debt.

Societe Generale is paring back credit-default swap trading as part of the overhaul of its investment bank, a move that is sending ripples through the credit derivatives industry where the French lender played an important role until recently, Reuters reported. SG announced 1,600 job cuts earlier this year and pledged to restructure its fixed-income unit after poor results, with senior management indicating it would focus less on “flow” trading of standardised products. The bank’s credit-trading desk is one area where it is scaling back.

A group of former senior European central bankers has published a memo attacking the loose monetary policy of the European Central Bank, which they argued was “based on the wrong diagnosis” and risks eroding its independence, the Financial Times reported. Their criticism comes in response to a package of easing measures announced by the ECB last month that triggered unprecedented opposition within the top echelons of the central bank.

PizzaExpress Ltd. hired financial adviser Houlihan Lokey Inc. to prepare for debt talks with its creditors amid tough trading conditions for U.K. restaurant chains, according to people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News reported. Separately, a group of secured bondholders started working with Perella Weinberg Partners after appointing law firm Latham & Watkins in July, said the people, who asked not to be named because it’s private. Representatives for Houlihan Lokey, Perella Weinberg and PizzaExpress declined to comment. The U.K.

Airline bankruptcies have increased this year at the fastest ever rate, led by the collapse of India’s Jet Airways, British travel group Thomas Cook and Avianca of Brazil, according to industry data published on Friday, Reuters reported. “2019 has seen the fastest growth in airline failure in history,” said airline consulting firm IBA, which has tracked plane fleets returned to lessors or administrators by 17 carriers that have gone bust so far this year.