A welcome dose of good news for the Italian economy. Annual industrial production in the eurozone’s third largest economy accelerated at its best pace since 2010, raising hopes of an uptick in economic growth for a country beset by a host of political and banking woes in recent months, the Financial Times reported. Overall output rose 1.6 per cent in 2016 – the best annual performance in six years. Industrial production accounts for just under a third of Italian GDP.

An investigation into the collapse of BHS could take as long as two years to determine whether any of the department-store chain’s former directors should be disqualified, the head of the Insolvency Service has said, while expressing “confidence” that the inquiry could be concluded “significantly” earlier, the Financial Times reported. The probe into BHS is consuming as much as one-tenth of the regulator’s resources, officials have previously disclosed.

Britain's energy market regulator Ofgem will review the way it awards supply licences and financial requirements on energy suppliers later this year, it said, following calls for firms to undergo stricter financial stress tests, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. In a speech on Thursday, Ofgem Chief Executive Dermot Nolan said there had been a lot of interest in the energy sector's financial stability due to the increasing number of suppliers, many of which are very small.

Greek debt sold off sharply on Thursday amid fears the country’s bailout lenders will not be able to bridge their differences in time to lend Athens the €7bn it needs to avoid bankruptcy, the Financial Times reported. The International Monetary Fund has refused to sign on to the aid programme unless EU authorities grant further debt relief to Greece, but the rift deepened after the head of the eurozone’s €500bn rescue fund dismissed the IMF’s demand. Eurozone finance ministry deputies were locked in meetings on Thursday night attempting to resolve the dispute.

Blackstone tabled a debt restructuring plan for German outdoor brand Jack Wolfskin before a lender call on Wednesday, sources close to the situation said, as the company's earnings remain under pressure. Under the terms of Blackstone’s proposal €150m of Jack Wolfskin's circa €300m (255 million pound) debt will be reinstated – although it is unclear on what terms - leaving lenders to take a haircut of around 50%, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

The abandoned farmhouse surrounded by acres of prime Tuscan vineyards, known as the Aquilaia estate, stands as a monument to failure—to the tens of billions of euros in bad loans that sank the world’s oldest bank, Bloomberg News reported. Born at about the same time as Michelangelo, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena crumbled under the weight of a lending binge whose legacy has become the headache of Italian taxpayers after the government said in December it would take it over. While the bank says it has already accounted for much of the potential losses, skeptics say the signs aren’t promising.

British insurer RSA has strengthened its capital base above its target range with a deal to dispose of a book of mainly asbestos-related insurance policies, the firm's chief financial officer said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. RSA, best known in Britain for its More Than insurance brand, signed a deal to dispose of 834 million pounds ($1.04 billion) of legacy insurance liabilities - policies that are closed to new customers - through a reinsurance deal with Enstar Group, the firms said late on Tuesday.

AP Moller-Maersk on Wednesday unveiled one of the biggest losses in Danish corporate history as the conglomerate suffered from a weak container shipping industry and massive writedowns on its oil businesses last year, the Financial Times reported. Shares in Maersk fell as much as 7 per cent on Wednesday as it reported only its second annual loss in seven decades and halved its dividend to try to protect its investment grade credit rating.

Europe’s leading central bankers are at loggerheads over one of the biggest economic judgments facing the continent: does a disorderly Brexit pose a financial stability risk? Mark Carney, Bank of England governor, fears a messy and severe Brexit could be a “Jenga” moment that leads to the collapse of the legal architecture the underpins financial flows, hurting the City of London’s European customers even more than the UK itself, the Financial Times reported. Mario Draghi, meanwhile, is largely unfazed.

Investors in cash-strapped Greece appear to be losing faith in a pledge from European officials five years ago that the country's default would be a one-off, Reuters reported. It was partly the strength of that promise that allowed Greece to make one of the fastest returns to markets of any defaulted sovereign, taking money from private investors in 2014 just two years after it had imposed hefty writedowns.