Prosecutors in Cologne are preparing their first indictments in a tax-evasion probe involving some of the biggest names in finance that cost the German treasury billions of euros, according to people familiar with the matter. Investigators are looking at the role of dozens of banks, brokerages, accounting companies, and law firms in the deals, and the cases involve hundreds of individuals, said the people, who declined to be identified because they’re not authorized to discuss the probe, Bloomberg News reported.

Bain Capital Credit, part of global investment firm Bain Capital, has won a race to buy a soured debt portfolio from the Italian arm of French bank Credit Agricole, a person familiar with the matter said, the International New York Times reported. The source said the portfolio, with a gross book value of 450 million euros ($521 million), comprises so-called 'unlikely-to-pay' (UTP) loans backed by real estate assets. UTP loans are not yet in default but they are unlikely to be repaid in full.

One of the UK’s leading insolvency practitioners, who generated more than £25 million in fees from the collapses of Woolworths, HMV and Comet, has resigned from Deloitte amid an investigation into his conduct, The Times reported. Neville Kahn is one of three Deloitte partners under investigation by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) over the administration of Comet, the electrical retailer which collapsed in 2012 at a cost to the taxpayer of £45 million.

Leonidas Bobolas, the scion of a powerful Athens business family, is battling to keep control of Greece’s largest construction company in a test of its willingness to adopt international corporate governance standards as the country emerges from a disastrous financial crisis, the Financial Times reported.

The number of companies and insolvency-licensed individuals increased by 11.97 percent in the first five months of this year, compared with the same period in 2017, to 3.686, according to data published on the National Trade Register Office (ONRC), Business Review reported. Most companies and sole traders in insolvency are in Bucharest, respectively 737 (plus 2,50 percent year-on-year) and in Bihor counties – 237 ( up by 22,16 percent year-on-year), Iasi – 213 (up by 4, 41 percent) and Timis – 181 (up by 27,46 percent). In May alone, 721 firms and PFAs went into insolvency.

Europe’s junk-debt investors are gaining ground after years of borrowers chipping away at the safeguards enshrined in the small print of bond documents, Bloomberg News reported. As the balance of power shifts, around 32 percent of Europe’s high-yield bond issuers have altered terms to meet investors’ demands this year, almost double the rate in the last six months of 2017, according to preliminary findings from research firm Covenant Review. “Investors are getting a little leery,” said Glenn Zahn, a credit analyst at Commerzbank AG in London.

Shares in Europe’s largest banks have shed almost a fifth of their value in the past four months as hopes that economic growth will spur a recovery in financials crumble, the Financial Times reported. The Stoxx European Banks index has lost nearly 20 per cent of its value since the start of February as analysts and investors scale back assumptions for when higher growth will boost long-term interest rates in Europe, which are one of the most important drivers of bank profitability.

Giuseppe Conte, Italy’s prime minister, slammed key features of a eurozone reform plan hatched last week by France and Germany, staking out a hardline position on economic policy as well as immigration ahead of his first EU summit as head of the populist government in Rome, the Financial Times reported. In a speech to parliament on Wednesday morning, Mr Conte said it was the “moment to advance risk sharing, which has been left too far behind”.

Novo Banco is facing a fresh challenge from a London hedge fund that says the bank has unwittingly defaulted on certain bonds, further complicating a crucial debt sale the Portuguese lender is looking to complete this week, the Financial Times reported. Novo Banco, the lender created out of the failure of Portugal’s Banco Espírito Santo (BES) in 2014, is already the subject of long-running litigation from international investors including BlackRock and Pimco, who lost money due to a controversial debt transfer at the end of 2015.

Eurogroup President Mario Centeno will seek a mandate to define the process of sovereign public debt restructuring, New Europe reported. His announcement came after the publication of a letter addressed to European Council President Donald Tusk ahead of the EU Summit on June 28-29. In making the announcement, Centeno proposed a restructuring process based on new issuance of single-limb Collective Action Clauses to prevent holdouts, Reuters reported. The two most indebted governments in the Eurozone are Greece, with a 178% debt to GDP ratio, followed by Italy with a 130% debt to GDP.