With the dust settled on last week’s deal to avoid a Greek summer debt default (again), analysts and economists are turning to the country’s longer-term prospects in the eurozone, the Financial Times reported. Greece’s current bailout programme comes to an end in just under 14 months’ time when the country will either have to stand on its own feet after eight years of rescues or ask for yet another bailout. Key to any judgment about Greece’s solvency will be its ability to tap the financial markets.

The board of Intesa Sanpaolo has said conditionally agreed to buy parts of troubled Italian banks Banca Popolare di Vicenza and Veneto Banca in a move that should help stave off fears about the stability of the country’s banking system, the Financial Times reported. In a statement on Wednesday, Intesa – which is considered one of Italy’s healthiest banks – said it would approve a deal to buy the “good” assets of its troubled smaller rivals on the condition it have no impact on its core capital ratio or dividend policy.

Greece's prime minister said Wednesday that his bailout-reliant country will "very soon" be in a position to tap bond markets again, which would be Greece's first test of investor sentiment since 2014. Alexis Tsipras told his cabinet that this was a result of last week's deal with European creditors, which eased fears Greece might face another brush with bankruptcy this summer, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. That's evident in the sharp fall in the interest rates the markets are ascribing to Greek government bonds.

Shares in Provident Financial Group dropped as much as 19 per cent at the start of trading on Wednesday, after the FTSE 100 group warned that reorganising its doorstop lending business would hit profits far more severely than expected., the Financial Times reported. Provident announced a major reorganisation of its “home credit” business alongside its full-year results in February, planning to axe around 2,000 of its self-employed agents and move thousands more into new positions on the company payroll.

Talks between Spanish real estate company Reyal Urbis and its lenders have broken down, leaving the company just one step away from full liquidation, a source with knowledge of the talks said on Wednesday. Real Urbis has been in bankruptcy proceedings since 2013 and executives at the company have been in talks with its creditors in a last ditch attempt to avoid liquidation, which is likely to be triggered after they failed to get a majority of lenders on board for an agreement, Reuters reported.

Italy has hired Rothschild to find buyers for the best assets of two ailing Veneto-based lenders, with Intesa Sanpaolo viewed as the most likely taker, said several sources close to the situation. The move is part of a new plan by the Rome government that envisages the effective liquidation of Banca Popolare di Vicenza and Veneto Banca with the help of state money to reduce losses for the lenders' private investors, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

Already reeling from a $4.5 billion bill to save its ailing No. 1 lender, Ukraine is now bracing for an even costlier rescue, and says audits by PwC’s local office were instrumental in the bank’s failure, Bloomberg News reported. The government may have to stump up 38.5 billion hryvnia ($1.5 billion) more to recapitalize Privatbank after last year’s state takeover, according to documents seen by Bloomberg. The figure is from due diligence carried out by Ernst and Young Audit Services LLC, which estimated a “conservative” shortfall of 192 billion hryvnia before nationalization.

The European Central Bank has published a new report on the terms and conditions surrounding its provision of emergency help to eurozone banks – known as Emergency Liquidity Assistance – after criticism that its decisions were not sufficiently transparent, the Financial Times reported. Following increased scrutiny over its provision of ELA since the Greek debt crisis, the ECB has promised to take steps to clarify how it decides when a lender requires additional support.

Adin Fakic, chief executive of Bosnia's oldest dairy, likens the crisis engulfing his biggest client Agrokor to an earthquake. The epicentre is in Croatia, but the tremors are felt across the farmlands of neighbouring Bosnia and beyond, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. For a decade, Fakic's Milkos has built up business with Croatian supermarket chain Konzum, which now buys roughly 35 percent of its annual output of some 20 million litres of milk.

European Union finance ministers agreed on Friday on rules setting the order in which bank creditors would be hit in case of wind-downs, in a bid to accelerate the build-up of banks' capital buffers to reduce the chances of public-funded bailouts, Reuters reported. Under new rules adopted after the 2010-2012 euro zone debt crisis, banks are required to issue loss-absorbing debt that would be used in a liquidation to reduce taxpayers' costs, but that issuance has so far fallen short.