Permanent TSB (PTSB) must shift a further €550 million in problem loans before it will meet its own targets – and get a hearing from regulators on lifting a ban on paying dividends, The Irish Times reported. The bank disclosed in its interim results, published on Thursday, that it has €1.7 billion of NPLs on its balance sheet, equivalent to 10 per cent of its loan book, having reduced the ratio from an eye-watering 28 per cent at the start of 2018. Last year, it sold €3.4 billion in non-performing mortgages in the face of considerable political opposition.

Mario Draghi is determined to launch one last economic stimulus push before his eight-year term as president of the European Central Bank ends in October, the Financial Times reported. The question is to what degree the rest of eurozone officialdom shares his ambition. In 2012, his first year in office, Mr Draghi saved the euro from a messy break-up by saying he would do “whatever it takes” to prove the single currency is here to stay — a pledge that was the harbinger of a radical loosening of monetary policy.

German factory executives have reported that industry conditions are in “free fall”, according to a survey that comes just hours before the European Central Bank’s policy decision, the Financial Times reported. The Ifo Institute’s manufacturing business climate index slumped to minus 4.3 in July from positive 1.3 the previous month. The reading was the lowest in more than nine years and echoes a separate survey released on Wednesday that pointed to mounting troubles in Europe’s powerhouse economy.

French fashion house Sonia Rykiel, whose brightly striped sweater dresses came to symbolise the rebel spirit of the French 1960s, has gone into liquidation, the Paris commercial court said on Thursday, Reuters reported. The brand’s founder, who was nicknamed “the Queen of Knitwear” by industry magazine Women’s Wear Daily, died in 2016, a few years after the family sold control of the label to Hong Kong investors. Sales failed to pick up under their ownership.

Russian coal and steel producer Mechel has asked banks to push back its debt repayments to 2024-2026 from 2020-2024, Interfax news agency cited an executive at Russian state lender Sberbank as saying on Wednesday. Mechel, once on the brink of bankruptcy, has been in restructuring talks with its lenders for several years, Reuters reported. Its debt to Russia’s three largest state-controlled banks - Sberbank, VTB and Gazprombank - stands at 347.5 billion roubles ($5.5 billion).

The woes of the eurozone’s manufacturers are worsening, with a closely watched gauge of the export-dependent sector hitting its lowest level in more than six and a half years in July, the Financial Times reported. The purchasing managers’ index for manufacturing, produced by data firm IHS Markit, fell to 46.4 — a 79-month low. The July figure, down from a reading of 47.6 in June, is significantly below the crucial 50 level that marks steady growth. The lacklustre figures follow disappointing numbers for factory activity in both of the eurozone’s two biggest economies.

Morning, the new prime minister would have us believe, has come to Britain. On the sunlit steps of 10 Downing Street, the home Boris Johnson has dreamt of occupying since he was a child, the incoming premier reeled off a string of promises: more police, shorter waits for doctors, better roads, rail, broadband and education, the Financial Times reported. His was a breezy optimism. “The doubters, the doomsters, the gloomsters, they are going to get it wrong again,” he proclaimed.

Deutsche Bank’s plans to retreat from risky investment banking, fire thousands of people and return to its German roots may eventually create a healthier lender. In the short term, the overhaul will be a major financial drain, the International New York Times reported. That was made clear on Wednesday, after the bank reported a loss of 3.2 billion euros, or $3.6 billion, from April through June, as it subtracted the costs of a restructuring plan announced earlier this month. The plan is seen as a last-ditch attempt to arrest a decade of decline.

Legal combat in Sean Dunne’s US bankruptcy case appears set to resume after more than 10 hours of mediation last week failed to produce a settlement, The Irish Times reported. “We mediated the case over a day and half,” said Thomas Curran, a lawyer for the plaintiff, the trustee in Mr Dunne’s American bankruptcy. “The case did not settle.” Mr Curran said the moratorium on most filings imposed by US district judge Jeffrey Meyer during the mediation is set to expire, and he expects the two sides to resume briefing on various issues.

German auto parts maker Weber Automotive GmbH has been put up for sale as part of insolvency proceedings that started this month, according to a company spokesman. Weber filed for insolvency amid deteriorating earnings and a row between its founding family and majority shareholder Ardian SAS over the “form and scope” of a financial restructuring, Bloomberg News reported. Failure to rescue the ailing company leaves its creditors on the hook for what remains outstanding from a 130 million euro ($145 million) loan dating from 2016.