Just as Iceland looks back at a decade of recovery since its financial and economic collapse, the north Atlantic island is once again grappling with an existential challenge for one of its key industries, Bloomberg News reported. Tourism and the foreign cash it provides was instrumental in digging the 340,000-person nation out of its deep hole. Now, the industry is cooling fast and problems are mounting for its airlines after years of rapid expansion. Rewind to 10 years ago, and a similar tale could be told about the nation’s banks.

Burdened by the highest ratio of bad loans in Europe, Greek banks have no shortage of challenges. And that was before Greece -- the continent’s most indebted state -- decided to end its bailout program in August without requesting a follow-up lifeline backed by European creditors, Bloomberg News reported. If doubts about the state of their balance sheets aren’t addressed, concerns about the fate of Greek banks could spiral out of control.

The global financial crisis left lasting scars on the world economy, including slower growth, higher government debt and even lower fertility rates, the International Monetary Fund said. A decade after Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy in 2008, output in more than 60 percent of the world’s economies remains below where it would have been if the crisis hadn’t occurred, the fund said in a report Wednesday. The drop was steepest in the 24 countries that experienced financial crises, the Fund said in an analytical chapter accompanying its latest World Economic Outlook, Bloomberg News reported.

Credit Suisse, one of the largest players in the $1.3tn market for leveraged loans, has issued an unusual defence of lending to highly-indebted companies even as investor concerns rise over the booming area of finance, the Financial Times reported. After investors expressed worries over sliding standards and the IMF singled the type of loan out as a potential source of financial instability, the Swiss investment bank’s asset management arm sent a confidential letter to clients in September attempting to assuage fears.

The 19-country eurozone economy lost momentum in September despite a resilient performance by the services sector in Italy, according to a closely watched survey released Wednesday, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. Financial information firm IHS Markit said its composite purchasing managers' index, a key measure of business activity in services and manufacturing, slipped to 54.1 points in September from 54.5 the previous month.

The recent clash between Italy’s populist government and the European Union over its ballooning budget deficit has created an attractive buying opportunity for shorter duration Italian sovereign debt, according to UBS Group AG, Bloomberg News reported. The bank initiated an overweight position in two-year government bonds versus cash as there is “only a very low probability that Italy will default within the next two years,” according to a note from Mark Haefele, chief investment officer at UBS Global Wealth Management.

There is "no chance" of Italy defaulting on its debts and the country is very different from Greece, Italy's minister for European affairs was quoted on Wednesday as telling EU lawmakers. Paolo Savona was speaking after presenting a document to Italian lawmakers in the European Parliament in which he proposes a review of the EU's monetary and fiscal policy, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. "I think there is no chance that Italy will default on its public debt," Savona said, according to a person who attended the meeting.

Shares in peer-to-peer lender Funding Circle traded as much as 24 per cent below their initial public offering price on their first day of trading, in a blow to aspirational fintech companies hoping to float, the Financial Times reported. At their low of the day, the company’s shares hit 334.5p, down from the IPO price of 440p. During conditional dealings on Tuesday, ahead of their official London Stock Exchange debut, the shares had been trading at a steep discount to the offer price, closing down 17 per cent at 364p, according to data from Refinitiv.

Some of Greece’s biggest banks suffered steep share price falls on Wednesday as investors worried they may not have enough capital to meet fresh targets on reducing their large portfolios of bad debts, the Financial Times reported. Shares in Piraeus Bank, the country’s largest lender by assets, dropped more than 20 per cent, cutting its market capitalisation to less than €600m. The bank responded by trying to reassure investors that its plan to boost capital by issuing €500m of subordinated bonds was still on track.

French carmaker PSA Group is open to new industry tie-ups and is attracting attention from competitors after its lightning turnaround and swift progress in restructuring recently acquired Opel, Chief Executive Carlos Tavares said. The maker of Peugeot cars, which came close to bankruptcy in 2013-14, has rebounded under Tavares to record levels of profitability, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.