Panasonic has cited the risk of Brexit upheaval for the decision to shift its European headquarters from the UK to the Netherlands in the autumn. The electronics company on Thursday justified its move by saying that Britain’s departure from the EU may result in changes to the transfer of labour, product, materials, services and data, as well as “potential fiscal obstacles by the application of different rules and regulations between the UK and EU,” the Financial Times reported.

German Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann signaled Thursday that he might support the creation of a common eurozone budget that could help improve the region’s competitiveness and assist crisis-hit countries, but only as part of a fundamental reform of European Union funds, The Wall Street Journal reported. The comments from Mr. Weidmann, a longtime critic of greater risk-sharing across the currency bloc, come amid an intense political debate over reforms that could strengthen the 19-nation currency bloc.

Britain’s biggest payday lender Wonga Group collapsed on Thursday, putting its operations in the country into administration, Reuters reported. Privately owned Wonga, which initially enjoyed rapid growth via its short-term, high interest lending often to troubled borrowers, fell into difficulty in recent years after scrutiny of its practices led to a cap on interest on payday loans. “A decision has been taken to place Wonga Group Limited, WDFC UK Limited, Wonga Worldwide Limited and WDFC Services Limited into administration,” Wonga said in an email.

French household spending slowed in July, getting the third quarter off to a sluggish start after a similarly lacklustre first half of the year. Consumer spending increased 0.1 per cent month-on-month, following a 0.3 per cent rise in June and a 1.1 per cent climb in May. A small rise in food consumption offset a similar decline in energy. “Growth in French household consumption remained sluggish at the start of the third quarter,” said Claus Vistesen, chief eurozone economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

Deep cost cutting at the troubled newspaper publisher Johnston Press helped it maintain profits despite a dip in digital revenues as Google and Facebook tightened their grip on the online advertising market, The Telegraph reported. The publisher of the i, the Scotsman and scores of local titles is in a race against time to agree debt restructuring with its lenders before a repayment deadline next summer that threatens to tip it into administration. First half turnover was down 10pc on last year to £93m, as among the main lines of business only the i registered growth.

The High Court has granted a temporary injunction preventing an Irish registered aviation company linked to a controversial Russian businessman from going into voluntary liquidation, The Irish Times reported. Mr Justice Michael Quinn made an interim injunction preventing the members of City Leasing DAC, which has registered address in Limerick from holding a meeting of its members, who were due to consider a resolution to wind up the company. The company is beneficially owned by Rashid Mursekayev, who has extensive interests in the aviation industry.

Three months after the political imbroglio around forming a populist government roiled Italian assets, bond investors are contemplating a fresh hurdle: its first budget, due next month. The big risk is that the euroskeptic Five Star Movement-League coalition breaks the 3 percent deficit limit set under European Union rules, putting the country on a collision course with the bloc, Bloomberg News reported. That’s got traders hunting a variety of strategies, from selling bond futures to buying Euribor options, to guard against the kind of market meltdown seen at the end of May.

Breaking the direct link between eurozone countries and their banking systems is the major goal of the European banking union, the Financial Times reported. But the risks borne by governments and banks continue to be closely connected, as recent events in Italy have shown. Two key elements of the banking union are still missing: a European deposit insurance scheme and a system of regulation for banks’ sovereign exposures. Unfortunately, the political situation in Italy could slow down eurozone reform. But allowing that to happen would be a big mistake.

When a company goes under, or is teetering on the brink, news of its plight is usually greeted with genuine sympathy for its employees, along with nostalgic recollections of how the business used to be in its heyday. But not if that company is Wonga. Reports of the impending collapse of the notorious payday lender, which fleeced and frightened its vulnerable and desperate customers throughout the financial crisis, have been greeted with undisguised glee on social media, The Irish Times reported.

The company behind the McMahon’s Builders Providers chain recorded an 83 per cent increase in profit last year as trading rebounded in tandem with the growth in the Republic’s construction sector. Recently filed accounts for Derevoya Holdings Limited show the Limerick-based business with 14 branches across Ireland posted a pre-tax profit of €7.88 million for 2017, with continued growth experienced so far this year. Additionally, a “tight control” on the company’s cost base resulted in an improvement in the group’s operating profit, which increased 62 per cent to €8.84 million.