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.

Credit Suisse Group AG plans to buy back about 5.9 billion francs ($6 billion) of debt issued after the financial crisis to the Qatar Investment Authority and Saudi Arabia’s Olayan family to cut funding costs, Bloomberg News reported. The bank will redeem the contingent convertible bonds -- which automatically become equity when reserves fall below pre-set levels -- on Oct. 23, the first opportunity to do so, according to a statement from the bank on Tuesday.

After nine years of unprecedented peacetime economic hardship, Greece exits its IMF bailout programme. So ends a series of three bailouts organised by the so-called troika of the IMF, European Central Bank and European Commission, Neos Kosmos reported. A total of €336 billion was lent to Greece in the wake of the financial crisis, to stop it defaulting on its national debt, with approximately €300 billion used so far. What’s more, over 90 percent of the funds were not directed toward investment projects, but went on servicing Greece’s national debt.

A proposed deal for an Irish business family to buy discount retailer Poundworld out of administration in the United Kingdom has collapsed in acrimony, The Irish Times reported. Deloitte, administrators to the chain in the UK, said that the Dublin-based Henderson family had agreed a “deal in principle” earlier this month to buy a tranche of stores in an eleventh hour agreement before they were shuttered.

Directors who have dissolved companies to avoid paying staff or pensions could be fined or disqualified for the first time, the government has announced. In a package of reforms announced today, struggling companies will be given more time to explore rescue options while shareholders will be given more powers to hold boardrooms to account, the Financial Times reported. Greg Clark, business secretary, launched a consultation into corporate governance and insolvency in March, in the wake of what it called “recent corporate governance failures”.

The U.K. government said it will move forward with plans to punish directors who fail to safeguard their workers from the effects of a company’s bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. New powers announced Sunday will be given to the U.K. Insolvency Service, including the ability to issue fines or even disqualifications to company bosses if they are found to have tried to avoid paying a dissolved company’s debts.

A former Swiss banker has pleaded guilty in Miami federal court to helping launder $1.2 billion of money embezzled from Venezuela’s bankrupt state oil company in a scheme that involved close relatives of a Venezuelan official, The Wall Street Journal reported. People familiar with the case say that official is President Nicolás Maduro. Matthias Krull, a 44-years-old Panama-based former Swiss bank executive, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering on Wednesday, the Justice Department said. As part of his plea, Mr.

The European Central Bank has become increasingly confident that it can wean the euro zone off some of its crisis-era support without endangering the region’s economy, The Irish Times reported. According to minutes published on Thursday from the July 26th meeting of the bank’s governing council, the euro zone was set to grow at a “solid pace”, with the risks to the outlook “broadly balanced” despite the threat of a global trade war. The ECB remains on track to end its €2.5 trillion quantitative easing programme by the end of 2018.

Eurozone businesses have tempered their expectations about the pace of future growth according to a closely-watched survey of executives, with fears of a global trade war weighing particularly heavily on the manufacturing sector, the Financial Times reported. The flash reading of the August purchasing managers’ index, compiled by IHS Markit, showed indicators of current activity, employment and price gauges for the single currency area, “remained elevated”.