Former Carillion directors could be forced to contribute to the collapsed contractor’s pension scheme after the pensions watchdog confirmed it is investigating whether it has the power to do so, the Financial Times reported. The move by the Pensions Regulator came after MPs on the work and pensions committee on Monday urged the watchdog to go after Carillion’s former directors “for everything they’ve got”.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Christine Lagarde used her meeting today in Ireland with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to warn that although “the sun is shining on the Irish economy” it is time for the eurozone to “fix the roof" as the IMF prepares for a climbdown on growth forecasts, Express.co.uk reported. Mrs Lagarde, visiting Dublin to mark 20 years since the adoption of the euro currency, was eager to champion the manner by which Ireland came out of the EU-IMF bailout in December 2013 following the eurozone’s sovereign debt crisis.

The French financial regulator has said it will not seek changes to “delegation” rules — a move that could have restricted UK fund managers serving overseas clients after Brexit, the Financial Times reported. Current rules permit asset management companies to operate in multiple locations, including London, and the City has become a global centre of portfolio management. It had been feared, however, that UK managers could be cut off from European clients if national regulators sought stricter regulation.

Moody’s has given its cautious blessing to the historic Greek debt relief deal hammered out in Luxembourg last week, the Financial Times reported. The eurozone agreement gave the southern European country “significant further debt relief that ensures the Greek government has very moderate refinancing needs for the next 10 years”, the rating agency said, marking a shift in position from the more sceptical stance taken on previous plans to cut Greece’s debt burden.

Euro zone finance ministers and leaders will seek agreement in the next eight days on a series of reforms to make the currency area more resilient to future crises, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Below are ideas for new powers for the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the euro zone bailout fund for states with a firepower of 500 billion euros (438.5 billion pounds), discussed by finance ministers and to be considered by a European Union summit on June 29.

Deutsche Bank AG had the outlook for its credit rating lowered to negative from stable by Fitch Ratings, which cited risks tied to the German lender’s turnaround plan, Bloomberg News reported. The move “reflects the substantial execution risk Deutsche Bank faces in implementing its restructuring and Fitch’s view that failure to strengthen its business model would result in the bank’s downgrade,” the rating company said in a statement late Thursday. It confirmed the lender’s BBB+ long-term issuer default rating and all other debt ratings.

Germany’s dominant factory sector faced stronger headwinds this month, with a key gauge sinking to its lowest level in a year in a half, in the latest sign that the eurozone has failed to escape its rough patch in the second quarter, the Financial Times reported. IHS Markit’s manufacturing PMI slipped to 55.9 in June from 56.9 the previous month. The reading was worse than the 56.2 consensus estimate in a poll conducted by Reuters, albeit well above the 50 level that indicates expansion.

Business confidence in France was higher than expected in June, with a particular uptick in optimism in the services sector, but the manufacturing sector continued to lose steam, according to the latest survey data from IHS Markit, the Financial Times reported. France’s flash composite purchasing managers’ index rose to a two-month high of 55.6 and the services PMI rose to 56.4, both higher readings than the figures expected by economists in a Reuters poll, (54.2 and 54.3 respectively).

A vote by European Union lawmakers to soften capital rules for banks that offload large amounts of bad loans is meeting resistance and could be ditched, officials said, in what would be a blow to Italian lenders profiting from the planned reform. Under a proposal adopted by the economic affairs committee of the European Parliament last Tuesday, EU banks that carry out “massive disposals” of non-performing loans, covering at least 15 percent of all defaulted debt, would be allowed to set aside less capital against losses, Reuters reported.

In a way, the debt relief deal Greece has received as it exits its bailout makes good sense: It keeps the country on a tight leash, all but eliminating the possibility that it will go on a borrowing spree in the financial markets and misspend the money as it’s done before, a Bloomberg View reported. On the other hand, the scheme gets superimposed uncomfortably onto the country’s political cycle: It puts the next government on the spot, making a backlash against it all but inevitable.