Portugal’s three biggest banks have agreed to create a jointly managed platform to tackle their bad loans, one of Europe’s largest problem debt piles, the Financial Times reported. Millennium BCP, Novo Banco and state-owned Caixa Geral de Depósitos said in statements to the CMVM, Portugal’s stock market watchdog, late on Thursday that the platform was aimed at “speeding up the reduction of non-performing exposures”. The three banks account for most of an estimated €25bn to €30bn of bad debt in the Portuguese banking system, about 15 per cent of total credit portfolios.

The failure of two big Russian lenders within a month has cast doubt on how much longer a phenomenon of the post-Soviet financial system, the "pocket bank", can last. The practice of conglomerates running their own banks grew out of the early days of Russian capitalism in the 1990s. But with authorities now purging a sector beset by bad debts, owners are trying to get rid of their remaining pocket banks and finding few willing buyers, if any, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

Portugal's three biggest banks plan to manage jointly some of their bad loans to avoid more writedowns, effectively taking on the task of trying to tackle one of Europe's biggest bad-debt burdens, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. The banks - state-owned Caixa Geral de Depositos as well as Novo Banco and Millennium bcp - will set up a private platform to manage loans that at least two of them have made to the same corporate borrowers, Deputy Finance Minister Ricardo Mourinho Felix told Reuters in an interview.

European Union lawmakers are considering changing the rules on bank rescues to ensure bondholders’ investments are used to prop up a failing lender ahead of savers’ deposits, EU officials said. The discussions follow a decision by EU regulators to shut down Spanish bank Banco Popular in June after a run on its deposits fueled by fears that depositors’ money could be used to rescue the lender, Reuters reported.

Lufthansa is restarting long-haul flights from Berlin and growing the long-haul fleet of budget unit Eurowings, moving into the gap left by insolvent rival Air Berlin, Reuters reported. Lufthansa will fly from Berlin to New York from November, basing a long-haul jet in the German capital for the first time since 2001, it said on Wednesday. It will also increase the long-haul fleet of Eurowings to 10 A330 aircraft for summer 2018, against a planned seven by the end of this year. Air Berlin, which filed for insolvency in August, will end its remaining long-haul routes from Oct.

Business in Catalonia has warned that political instability, violence and legal uncertainty could deter investment and hurt the economy, as tensions escalate ahead of the region’s planned independence referendum on Sunday, the Financial Times reported. The region, one of Spain’s richest, has an economy the size of Portugal and its government has promised to declare independence within 48 hours of a Yes vote — despite Spanish courts ruling the referendum illegal and Madrid’s plans to prevent the vote.

Major Novo Banco bondholder Pimco plans to support a restructuring deal at the state-rescued Portuguese lender in a vote this Friday, though the bank could still struggle to get the necessary backing, a source familiar with the matter said. The agreed sale of Novo Banco to U.S. fund Lone Star hinges on investors agreeing to sell back bonds at a discount in the so-called liability management exercise (LME) that runs until Monday, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

Ukraine will favor cheaper borrowing from official lenders as it seeks to shore up next year’s budget, and plans to enlist the World Bank to help raise as much as $1 billion, Bloomberg News reported. The eastern European nation is examining the possibility of using World Bank guarantees to attract financing, Deputy Finance Minister Yuriy Butsa said last week in an interview that was cleared for publication Tuesday. The government sold $3 billion of Eurobonds this month for the first time since a 2015 debt restructuring.

Lufthansa’s supervisory board approved plans to invest 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) in up to 61 additional planes to expand its Eurowings budget business after German rival Air Berlin was declared insolvent, Reuters reported. Air Berlin’s creditors have selected Lufthansa and British budget carrier easyJet to negotiate over a carve-up of its assets. The Lufthansa investment is set to be used for the purchase and lease of 41 A320 single aisle jets and 20 Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 planes, Lufthansa said.

Britain’s Serious Fraud Office will charge two former executives of collapsed oil company Afren on Wednesday with alleged fraud over payments they received via secret companies relating to business deals in Nigeria, Reuters reported. The SFO said in a statement former Afren Chief Executive Osman Shahenshah and former Chief Operating Officer Shahid Ullah would appear at Westminster Magistrates Court charged with two counts of fraud and two counts of money laundering.