Etihad Airways is urgently examining ways to avert a technical default of some $1.2 billion in bonds indirectly linked to the Gulf airline, sources close to the situation told Reuters. An Amsterdam-based special purpose vehicle called SPV Equity Alliance Partners (EAP) was set up in 2015 and issued two bonds for Etihad and other airlines it partially owned at the time, including Alitalia and Air Berlin, which are both now insolvent, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

SPAXS, an Italian company set up to buy a bank and develop it into an online lender focusing on small businesses, has short-listed five small Italian banks, the new firm said on Thursday. Veteran banker Corrado Passera and Andrea Clamer, former head of the non-performing loan division of IFIS, showed there is investor demand for Italian financial assets by raising 600 million euros in an IPO of SPAXS, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

Moody’s Investors Service isn’t too concerned about a classified U.S. Treasury report about sanctions that’s been hanging over Russian bond markets. The ratings agency said that it would consider raising Russia to investment grade even if the nation is burdened with the kind of penalties that have curbed Venezuela’s ability to finance its debts, Bloomberg News reported. Moody’s put Russia on positive outlook last week, setting it on course for a possible raise out of junk in the next 12-18 months.

Banks across the European Union will be tested to make sure they can withstand doomsday consequences of Brexit, including the bloc’s economy shrinking cumulatively by over 8 per cent by 2020, the Financial Times reported. In what it billed as its toughest stress-test to date — even though there is no pass or fail — the European Banking Authority on Wednesday unveiled the scenarios against which 48 of the largest banks across the 28-member bloc will be tested, with results published by early November.

The eurozone economy may be enjoying its best growth in a decade and seeing unemployment drop sharply, but there are few signs that is fueling the inflation that the European Central Bank is looking for, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. In fact, figures Wednesday from the European Union's statistics agency showed annual consumer price inflation across the 19-country bloc fell to 1.3 percent in January from the previous month's 1.4 percent.

Last year, the coming Italian election in March was seen by some as having the potential to split apart the eurozone. Now, with just five weeks to go, not so much, The Wall Street Journal reported. Many Italian assets have rallied and outperformed European peers, thanks in part to the country’s expanding economy and shrinking unemployment. In addition, the perceived threat from antiestablishment politicians has eased. All of which has soothed investor concern as the vote approaches, a trend that isn’t uncommon to elections in the country.

Capita Plc slumped the most on record after saying it would halt dividend payouts and sell shares to raise capital, triggering further concerns over the state of Britain’s outsourcing sector just two weeks after Carillion Plc collapsed, Bloomberg News reported. London-based Capita, whose customers include the U.K. government as well as firms like Telefonica S.A.’s O2 and retailer Marks & Spencer Group Plc, will seek to raise as much as 700 million pounds ($993.8 million) and plans to sell some non-core assets. The stock fell as much as 46 percent.

Bulgaria needs to maintain strong economic growth and fiscal prudence for a relatively long time in order to adopt the euro, Central Bank Governor Dimitar Radev said on Tuesday. The Balkan country, which holds the rotating EU presidency, plans to file its application to enter the ERM-2, the two-year obligatory precursor to the euro, by the end of June, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

Some borrowers with interest-only mortgages may lose their homes as a result of shortfalls in repayment plans, the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority warned. The FCA has identified three peaks in interest-only mortgage repayments, the first of which is currently underway, Bloomberg News reported. Defaults are less likely in the present wave of maturities because the homeowners are approaching retirement and have higher incomes. The next two peaks, from 2027 through 2028 and in 2032, are more at risk of shortfalls, the regulator said.

For German businessman Ralf Schlesselmann, these are heady times. “We’re totally maxing out,” he says. Mr Schlesselmann runs a 100-year-old family-owned wooden-pallet maker in Asendorf near Hanover that is working almost round the clock to cope with surging orders, the Financial Times reported. “We’re seeing increased demand from all sectors,” he says. “We’re at very close to full capacity.” The humble wooden pallet is an unremarkable thing.