When the European Central Bank meets on Thursday, one issue will dominate — Italian political turmoil and what that may mean for quantitative easing, the Financial Times reported in a commentary. The ECB’s plan is for its asset purchase programme to run until at least September. Mario Draghi, its president, is under pressure to provide some guidance as to whether September is a hard stop or whether purchases will continue until the end of the year or even further. There is no doubt that the eurozone economy still requires very low interest rates.

British and European airline regulators should be allowed to begin technical planning for Brexit that is kept separate from political discussions, aerospace trade bodies told the European Union's lead Brexit negotiator in a letter, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Aviation is one sector that could be most severely impacted by Brexit, as there is no default fallback option for the industry if there is no agreement on future relations after Britain leaves the EU in March 2019.

Receivers appointed over two Co Wicklow properties have taken legal proceedings claiming the owners of the properties are advertising them for short term rental including on Airbnb and booking.com. Insolvency practitioner Tom Kavanagh was last year appointed receiver by Ennis Property Finance over a property at Waverley Terrace, Bray, the Irish Times reported. It was originally financed with a buy-to-let loan advanced by Bank of Scotland Ireland (BoSI) to Colm Henry, with an address at Rosslea Studio, Adelaide Road, Bray, and to Padraig Henry, with an address at Waverley Terrace.

At least 42 Irish construction companies have gone into liquidation or examinership since the start of this year, prompting a trade body to warn parliamentarians of an insolvency crisis that could hit public projects, Global Construction Review reported. The Construction Industry Federation, and other sources blamed the crisis on the price inflexibility of government contracts colliding with rising costs. Industry figures claim this collision has depressed profit margins to well below the European average.

French retailer Casino has announced a €1.5bn asset disposal plan to help reduce the debt pile of the group, which has come under mounting pressure in the debt markets in recent weeks. Casino said on Monday after market close that it has identified non-core assets, including real estate assets, which could be sold for an estimated €1.5bn. It has flagged half of the disposals for 2018, and the other half early next year, and expects the asset disposals to help reduce its net debt in France by around €1bn by the end of 2018, the Financial Times reported.

Greece’s supreme court has rejected an appeal by the country’s former statistics chief to quash his conviction in 2017 on charges of violation of duty, the Financial Times reported. According to people with knowledge of the decision, which has not yet been officially made public, the supreme court upheld the ruling against Andreas Georgiou, the former president of the statistical agency Elstat, even after the court’s own prosecutor asked for the conviction to be annulled.

In recent weeks, the sometimes-frantic developments in Italian politics and the responses from its European partners have unleashed a dangerous mix of panic and speculation, which risked becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy until the formation of a new government calmed markets, the Financial Times reported. Turbulence was initially triggered by leaks of the agreement between the League and the 5 Star Movement, as the first version provided for an exit clause from the euro and the cancellation of government bonds purchased under the ECB’s quantitative easing programme.

Steinhoff International Holdings NV’s Austrian unit is in talks with international insurance companies to find a new credit underwriter for its suppliers, Bloomberg News reported. Rudolf Leiner GmbH, a furniture chain also known by its brand name Kika/Leiner, expects to conclude the search next week, Chief Executive Officer Gunnar George said in a statement Friday. George said he’s in close contact with suppliers in the meantime.

German industrial production unexpectedly fell in April, continuing a run of poor economic news from Europe’s largest economy, Bloomberg News reported. The 1 percent drop in output, along with a shock decline in factory orders reported earlier this week, indicates a moderate pace of expansion at the start of the second quarter. A separate report showed that exports fell 0.3 percent in April, while in France, industrial production also declined. The euro fell after the German data and was down 0.2 percent at $1.1772 as of 9:44 a.m. Frankfurt time.

Most customers of collapsed UK brokerage Beaufort Securities will not face any costs as a result of the firm’s insolvency, after administrators PwC revised down its fees, the Financial Times reported. The accountancy firm said on Friday it had reached an agreement with creditors and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme to cap fees at £10,000 per customer, with many expected to pay far less than that. Fewer than 10 customers, with large cash accounts, are now expected to take a haircut on their funds following a meeting of creditors held on Wednesday.