As Russia’s second-biggest private bank implodes, its billionaire owners have been conspicuous by their absence, Bloomberg News reported. By leaving Bank Otkritie FC to fend for itself, the four shareholders controlling more than a third of the company -- their combined fortune valued at over $20 billion -- may be giving the authorities little choice but to swoop in with a rescue. Now the central bank could be left holding the bag as it reportedly considers taking control of the troubled lender amid a run on its deposits.

The Italian government faces a paper loss of more than 30 percent on its 3.85 billion euros ($4.54 billion) rescue of troubled lender Monte dei Paschi di Siena, according to grey-market trading in the bank's new shares. The world's oldest lender has not formally traded on the Milan bourse since December when the bank failed to raise enough capital to remove the threat of collapse, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. In July, Rome bailed it out, paying 6.49 euros per share for a controlling stake.

Thomas Cook's German leisure airline Condor and Lufthansa are interested in taking on a number of planes from insolvent Air Berlin, sources familiar with the negotiations said on Thursday. Air Berlin, Germany's second largest carrier, filed for insolvency last week after major shareholder Etihad pulled the plug on funding, Reuters reported. The race is on for interested parties to agree a deal for parts of its business, including planes and crew, which would bring access to take-off and landing slots at airports such as Duesseldorf, Berlin Tegel, Munich and Hamburg.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc settled a lawsuit filed by the owner of a bankrupt student- housing company that claimed the bank had sold him hedging products linked to Libor while at the same time trying to rig the interest-rate benchmark, Bloomberg News reported. Stuart Wall, owner of Opal Property Group Ltd., alleged that RBS mis-sold the group an interest-rate swap, which contributed to the collapse of the business in 2013. While terms of the settlement weren’t disclosed, the four-year-old claim had been valued at as much as 669 million pounds ($856 million).

The crisis at Provident Financial has left thousands of the subprime lender’s 730,000 consumer credit customers in a precarious financial position because many of them rely on regular visits from the company’s staff for credit to tide them over. Shares in the FTSE 100 lender fell 66 per cent on Tuesday after the company issued its second profits warning in two months and said its chief executive would be resigning after a mismanaged restructuring of its doorstep lending division, the Financial Times reported.

Lufthansa has submitted a letter of interest in Air Berlin's Niki unit and other parts of the insolvent carrier, a source familiar with the talks said on Wednesday. Air Berlin, which is being kept in the air thanks to a 150 million euro ($177 million) government loan, has been in talks with interested parties since last week, when it filed for insolvency after major shareholder, Gulf carrier Etihad, said it would no longer provide funding, Reuters reported.

In a related story, Bloomberg News reported that Ryanair Holdings Plc said it’s “genuinely interested” in bidding for insolvent Air Berlin Plc and called on the German company to involve it in the sale process. Ryanair could buy all or part of Air Berlin but has so far been ignored by the ailing carrier, according to Chief Executive Officer Michael O’Leary, who said Wednesday he’s concerned the company will be handed to Deutsche Lufthansa AG in an anti-competitive, all-German deal.

When lenders have trouble collecting debts, it is normally blamed on truant borrowers. But Provident Financial’s woes — revealed on Tuesday with the second profits warning in as many months — seem to be largely self-inflicted, the Financial Times reported. The consumer credit group in February decided to restructure its doorstep lending business, but problems with recruitment caused a slump in collections. As a result, the company has had to cut its profits guidance for the business by £100m in the space of a few weeks.

Everybody is good at something. Air Berlin has shown skill at losing money, doing so at the operating level for eight of the past nine years. Last week, Germany’s second-largest airline filed for insolvency after its largest shareholder Etihad, the UAE-based carrier, halted financial support, the Financial Times reported. National champion Lufthansa looks to have the inside track on buying up Air Berlin. Already the former has bought planes from Air Berlin, leasing them back, thereby making the flag carrier a creditor.

As markets await the annual Jackson Hole gathering of central bankers later this week, signs of tension are beginning to emerge in the eurozone’s bond markets, the Financial Times reported. The spread between Italian and German government debt yields – a reliable warning indicator of political tension – has hit a five-week high. All eurozone governments’ debt costs compare unfavourably to those of ultra-safe Germany, but that spread is important for none more than Italy.