Brazil’s Natura Cosmeticos SA recently approached Avon Products Inc. about a takeover, according to people familiar with the matter. The companies aren’t in serious talks and Avon, which has received other expressions of interest, is focused on turning itself around and reviving its shares, one of the people said. Following years of decline in its once-formidable direct-sales business, Avon had a market value as of Monday’s close of just $900 million, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Rallye, the debt-laden parent of French supermarket chain Casino, bought more time on Monday ahead of a key bond refinancing deadline as five banks granted it a new 500 million euro (444.50 million pounds) credit line, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Top banks BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole CIB, Crédit Industriel et Commercial, HSBC and Natixis gave Rallye the additional credit until 2020 with no collateral, demonstrating "their willingness to support Rallye in the long term," Rallye said in a statement.

One of the European Central Bank’s top officials has said policymakers should spell out in more detail what will happen once borrowing costs in the eurozone finally begin to rise. The ECB is set to keep interest rates on hold at their current record lows “through the summer of 2019”, with markets betting on a rate rise at some point in the autumn of next year.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is probably the most important EU institution that you may never have heard of. It is the world's biggest development bank, has nearly 4,000 staff, and is based in Luxembourg. The EIB is owned entirely by the EU's 28 governments and Brexit — like in so many other areas — is causing unforeseen challenges, the Financial Times reported. The UK’s departure is seen by some member states as an opportunity to revamp the EIB. It is a fight being fought on three fronts. The fiercest debate is about money.

Sweden’s financial regulator on Friday vowed to investigate how a Nordic power trader that this week racked up huge losses and barred by Nasdaq Inc. was able to act as his own clearer, or guarantor of trades, Bloomberg News reported. “This is a question that Nasdaq Clearing has to answer,” Daniel Gedeon, director of financial markets infrastructure supervision at the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, said by email.

With food prices rising, wages struggling to keep up and the Bank of England again raising interest rates, the number of people seeking help to manage their debt is surging—with alarming echoes of the past, Bloomberg News reported. “A large number of people are living right at the edge,” said Mark Almond, director of the Citizens Advice Bureau for the area of North Tyneside. It’s part of a network of charities with advisers across the country.

Deutsche Bank has scaled up plans to shift hundreds of billions of assets from London to Frankfurt after coming under increasing pressure from European regulators over the size and complexity of its UK operations after Brexit, the Financial Times reported. Deutsche could eventually move about three-quarters of its estimated €600bn balance sheet back home.

European equity funds have faced billions of dollars in outflows in recent weeks as Brexit, trade tensions and a slowdown in growth across the eurozone have dented investor sentiment, the Financial Times reported. European stocks have suffered outflows for 26 of the last 27 weeks with investors withdrawing a total of $41.3bn this year according to new figures from Bank of America Merrill Lynch based on EPFR data. This wipes out the net inflows of $36bn which Western Europe took in over the course of 2017.

Italian nativist politician Matteo Salvini, whose popularity has surged since he became interior minister in June, has hit his first setback. His anti-immigration League party faces possible bankruptcy from a penalty assessed for past corruption. Mr. Salvini’s governing partners, the anticorruption 5 Star Movement, have pressed him in recent days to comply with a court ruling last week that the League must repay €49 million ($57 million) of public funding for election costs stretching back a decade, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Moody’s has issued a stark warning that the risk of a no-deal Brexit has “risen materially” in recent months, spelling out the extent of the possible damage on the UK economy from crashing out without an agreement, the Financial Times reported. Britain would risk entering recession, according to the rating agency. While the UK and the EU would “likely take swift steps to limit short-term disruption”, a disorderly exit would “clearly pose more significant challenges than a negotiated exit”, the chief author of Moody’s report, Colin Ellis, said.