Eurozone economies will be paid to carry out labour market reforms and finance crisis-era investments from the single currency’s new budget, according to a Franco-German blueprint, the Financial Times reported. A four-page paper from Paris and Berlin’s finance ministries, seen by the Financial Times, lays out possible spending tasks and the legal set up of a “eurozone budgetary instrument”. It is the first attempt from the EU’s two biggest member states to flesh out how the eurozone budget should operate after European leaders agreed to set up the tool last December.

Top banks led by HSBC have taken more than half a billion pounds in exceptional charges to cover a rise in defaults after Brexit, but other leading lenders are not as pessimistic on the UK’s economic outlook, creating a growing divide on strategy among Britain’s financial institutions, the Financial Times reported. HSBC, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland have all set aside extra cash in the belief that standard economic models would not fully cover the risks of a disorderly Brexit, while rivals such as Lloyds and Santander have dismissed the need for extra provisions.

Greek jewellery maker Folli Follie is in talks with three bondholders hoping to firm up a restructuring plan “within days”, a senior company source told Reuters on Friday. The step is key for the company, which has debt of about 430 million euros due this year and in 2021, to avoid collapse, Reuters reported. Along with its luxury jewellery trademark, Folli distributes international apparel brands in Greece, including Nike and Calvin Klein. It employs 5,000 people in its home market and abroad, including in China and Japan.

The plight of the single currency area’s makers — hit hard by weak global demand and political uncertainty — intensified in February, according to a closely watched poll of purchasing managers, the Financial Times reported. A flash Purchasing Managers’ Index for manufacturers hit its lowest level for almost six years in February and suggested output is now contracting for the first time since 2013. The PMI for manufacturers hit 49.2 in February — below the crucial 50 level that separates an expansion in activity from a contraction and down from 50.5 the previous month.

Europe’s largest telecoms companies have issued mixed guidance for the coming financial year, warning of slower growth due to competition and continued uncertainty. Deutsche Telekom, the continent’s largest telecoms group by value, has been hit by questions over whether regulators will approve its plan to acquire US rival Sprint this year, as well as the impact of an impending spectrum auction.

Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman’s holding company, LetterOne, has stepped up its criticism of a turnround plan at Spanish grocer Dia Group as it filed regulatory documents for its own bid to buy out and fix the troubled chain, the Financial Times reported. “A lot of Dia’s problems have been in the making for some time,” said Stephan DuCharme, managing partner of LetterOne division L1 Retail.

German manufacturing activity dropped to its lowest level since 2012 in February according to a closely-watched survey, but the country’s services sector remained resilient, the Financial Times reported. The purchasing managers' index for the manufacturing sector dropped to 47.6 in February, the lowest level since December 2012 and well below the expectations of analysts polled by Reuters for 49.7. A reading below 50 indicates that a sector is in contraction.

Scandinavians are taking a hard look at their institutions as allegations of systematic money laundering rock the entire region, Bloomberg News reported. With Swedbank AB becoming the latest lender to get dragged into a dirty money scandal that’s already engulfed Danske Bank A/S, those at the top of Sweden’s financial establishment are speaking out. Hans Lindblad, the director general of the Swedish National Debt Office, says the financial industry now risks losing the trust of the people. He says the consequences of that would be dire for the whole economy.

What do Germany, Malta and the Netherlands have in common? They’re the only three eurozone countries that have lower debt burdens than they did in 2008, according to a new Moody’s report, the Financial Times reported in a commentary. This might be something of a surprising result, coming a few years after a sovereign debt crisis in which it became clear that market appetite for these assets could suddenly evaporate, throwing the entire basis of the modern bond-financed-society into question.

Since taking over as the main supervisor of the euro zone’s largest lenders, the European Central Bank has waged a war against sickly lenders. The regulator has forced banks to be more open about the value of the exposures sitting on their books, and urged them to write down bad loans faster, a Bloomberg View reported. All this should not only bolster financial stability, it should also help growth: providing less forbearance to “zombie” borrowers ought to free up credit for more promising startups.