Italian banks have increased their holdings of government debt by the largest amount since the early days of the country’s bond market sell-off nearly six months ago, in the latest sign that the eurozone ‘doom loop’ is still going strong, the Financial Times reported. Financial institutions in Italy bought a net €6.9bn of Italian government bonds in October, according to newly-released data from the European Central Bank. That takes their total net increase in sovereign bond-holdings since the market first tanked in May to €54bn.

German steelmaker Thyssenkrupp AG’s most opaque division has gone from hero to zero in the space of four short years, a Bloomberg View reported. The not-very-sexily-named “Industrial Solutions” unit builds plants for cement, chemical and mining customers. Until last month, it also included its ship-making and submarines business. When sales boom, industrial contractors like this generate cash thanks to the advance payments they get from customers for long-term projects. But if orders evaporate or the contractor misjudges the cost of finishing complex tasks, they bleed cash instead.

Ukraine’s central bank declared insolvent Kremlin-run lender VTB’s local subsidiary on Tuesday, ending a long-running struggle over the Russian state’s role in the country after the annexation of Crimea, the Financial Times reported. The National Bank of Ukraine said it would wind down VTB Ukraine’s operations after its Moscow parent “failed to comply with banking law and the [NBU’s] regulations” and “made no attempt to keep the bank solvent”.

Rising geopolitical tensions are increasingly playing out in the global debt markets, the Financial Times reported in a commentary. Russia’s launch this week of the sale of a euro-denominated bond is just the latest example.

The chief executive of Germany’s Lufthansa said he expects the company to take part in more consolidation in the industry that will eventually leave three global carriers in Europe, Reuters reported. “There are way too many players in Europe,” Carsten Spohr told a meeting of the Centre for Aviation in Berlin on Tuesday, noting that six airlines had gone bankrupt in the last few months. “It is obvious that consolidation will act further and we as Lufthansa want to be part of that,” he said.

German economist Clemens Fuest described Italy as the “bigger problem, particularly in the medium term” as he claimed the impact of Brexit would be only a “short-term issue,” Daily Express reported. Italy has sent the eurozone into meltdown and the euro currency floundering after announcing its spending plans which include a deficit target of 2.4 percent for 2019. The budgetary measures enraged European Commission (EC) chiefs, who sensationally rejected the fiscal plans after claiming they breached previous spending agreements.

Mario Draghi has insisted that the European Central Bank still plans to halt its €2.6tn stimulus programme at the end of this year, arguing that inflation is set to increase despite recent disappointing economic data, the Financial Times reported. Appearing before the European Parliament, the ECB president said the final decision to end the asset purchase programme would be taken next month “subject to” data confirming the bank’s prediction that inflation was going to “gradually rise”.

A deepening row between Russia and Ukraine ignited by a naval skirmish at the weekend has sparked falls in both countries’ financial markets, the Financial Times reported. Ukraine’s government bonds issued in foreign currency faced significant drops in price, which sent yields rising. Yield on a 10-year dollar-denominated bond maturing in November 2028 jumped 38.7 basis points to 10.832 per cent, its highest level since issuance. A 15-year dollar bond that matures in September 2032 faced a similar rise in yield to 10.385 per cent, also a record high for the paper.

Greece’s Eurobank Ergasias SA isn’t waiting around for a state rescue, with a plan to sell about 7 billion euros ($8 billion) of troubled loans and merge with a real estate fund, Bloomberg News reported. As part of the plan, the bank will merge with real estate fund Grivalia Properties REIC to create a new business named Eurobank, the two companies said. It will then shift non-performing debt to a separate vehicle that will issue senior, mezzanine and junior notes that the bank will initially retain. Some of the lower level notes would then be sold off to investors.

Prosecutors are still considering charges against one suspect arising from an investigation into State assets agency Nama’s €1.6 billion sale of loans to Northern Ireland-based developers, The Irish Times reported. Nama sold €6 billion worth of property loans to Northern-based developers to US company Cerberus in April 2014 for €1.6 billion in a deal that sparked criminal and parliamentary investigations.