European Commission officials say Greece will still be subject to quarterly inspections from creditors after the bailout program ends in late August. Greece has already committed to two more years of budget austerity policies after its third consecutive international rescue program is concluded, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. But creditors on Wednesday said Greece will remain under an "enhanced surveillance framework" to ensure that it meets ambitious budget targets through 2022.

Britain has given up trying to keep full access to the European Union market for its giant financial services sector after Brexit and instead will push for an easing of existing rules, the Financial Times reported. Prime Minister Theresa May's latest plans for Brexit, which will be published in detail on Thursday, show that London will seek a looser partnership with the EU in the financial services sector than its current ties, the newspaper said, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

The eurozone’s chief banking watchdog has finally said what it plans to do to pressure banks to deal with bad loans left over from the region’s financial crisis, the Financial Times reported. The European Central Bank said on Wednesday that it would set “bank-specific expectations” to deal with the stock of non-performing loans — one of the biggest problems left over from the economic slump. “In March 2017, ECB Banking Supervision published guidance to banks on non-performing loans, which provided an effective toolkit for banks when tackling non-performing loans,” the ECB said.

Energy supplier Viridian has won an appeal against changes to the electricity generation licence for its Huntstown power plants, raising hopes that they can remain open and save 40 jobs, the Irish Times reported. Viridian warned earlier this year that it would have to close the Co Dublin plants after one facility failed to secure a contract for new payments from national grid operator EirGrid in an auction overseen by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU).

Dismal news for French manufacturers in May, who saw industrial production fall by 0.2 per cent compared to April as the sector registered a quarter-on-quarter decline, the Financial Times reported. The decline was below the 0.7 per cent rise expected by economists in a Reuters poll, and followed a 0.5 per cent fall in April, according to data from Insee. Over the quarter, manufacturing output in one of the eurozone’s biggest economies fell by 0.5 per cent, while overall industrial production fell by 0.8 per cent.

Bulgaria has committed to strengthening its banking sector, European Union officials said Tuesday, two days before a eurozone finance ministers meeting that could shed light on the Balkan country's progress toward joining the euro. Bulgaria meets the nominal criteria to adopt the European common currency, with its lev currency pegged to the euro, low inflation and healthy public finances. But it is also the EU's poorest country, and widespread graft and troubles at some of its banks have cast a shadow over its prospects of joining, VOA reported.

When a beloved regional beer ramps up production, there’s always a question of whether it can gain new fans without losing what made it special. Something similar is happening with a German debt instrument known as Schuldschein, a hitherto hidden corner of the market where borrowing has tripled in recent years, Bloomberg News reported. Not quite a loan and not quite a bond, the traditional Schuldschein was hammered out by local lenders for solid local manufacturers. Now companies like Volkswagen AG, ArcelorMittal and U.S. paintmaker Sherwin-Williams Co.

People who work in high finance tend to develop the belief that they know a lot about business, that in fact they are better at business than regular businesspeople, a Bloomberg View reported. This is an understandable belief. The financial industry is a sort of meta-business. Successfully investing in or lending to companies requires you to understand their underlying business, and the deeper your understanding the more confident you will probably be in your investment.

House prices across the eurozone are rising at their fastest since before the global financial crisis, forcing the region’s banks to squeeze the supply of credit to would-be mortgage holders, the Financial Times reported. Eurostat reported on Tuesday that house prices in the 19-member currency area rose 4.5 per cent in the year to the first quarter of 2018 — a level last seen in early 2007. Five countries — Latvia, Slovenia, Ireland, Portugal and Slovakia — saw double-digit price rises.

German exports declined in May from the same month last year, according to data released on Monday that highlight the lingering effect of last year’s rise in the euro, the Financial Times reported. Exports from the eurozone’s biggest economy fell 1.3 per cent in May on a year on year basis, according to data from the Federal Statistics Office. Imports, meanwhile, were up 0.8 per cent on the same basis. The trade surplus clocked in at €19.7bn, down from the €21.8bn recorded in the same month in 2017.