Bank of Ireland has told the Oireachtas finance committee that it would utilise any extra lending capacity if the current rules on mortgage lending were relaxed by the Central Bank, the Irish Times reported. In a document submitted to the committee in advance of Richie Boucher’s appearance on Thursday, the bank said it would make use of any relaxation in the current rule, which allows it to exempt 15 per cent of loans from the loan-to-value limits imposed by the regulator.

Prime Minister Theresa May came under international and domestic pressure to bring order to her Brexit strategy amid accusations it’s in disarray, Bloomberg News reported. “There’s lots of chaos and we don’t understand what the position is,” Italy’s economic development minister, Carlo Calenda, said in an interview. “Somebody needs to tell us something, and it needs to be something that makes sense.” Calenda was not alone in expressing concern that there is confusion and disagreement within the U.K.

Criminal prosecutions have been opened against more than 100,000 businesspeople in Russia in the first half of this year as part of a growing problem that is devastating the Russian economy, an expert on the topic has told a Dublin audience, the Irish Times reported.

The European Commission said on Wednesday it will not suspend EU funds for Spain and Portugal next year following their breach of EU budget rules, as it also called for looser fiscal policy across the euro zone. The European Union's executive Commission has the power to impose fines and to suspend EU funds for countries that run deficits above 3 percent of their gross domestic product and do not take measures to correct their excessive gaps.

The European Commission has sanctioned a 0.5 per cent “fiscal expansion” across the euro area next year, in the first signal of a shift in the EU’s policy of austerity, the Irish Times reported. A communique issued today as it launched its autumn economic package in Brussels said, “at this point in time, the commission considers that there is a case for a significantly more positive fiscal stance for the euro area”, though it noted that the recovery is still not accelerating.

Less than one-tenth of those who commute into and around Dublin travel by rail, according to a major report on Ireland’s railways which warns that Iarnród Éireann could face insolvency unless it gets more State money, the Irish Times reported. The National Transport Authority’s review was considered by Cabinet on Tuesday and later published – it declares the semi-State needs an extra €103 million a year over the next five years to ensure its survival.

German economic growth slowed more than expected in the third quarter of 2016 as weaker exports put the brakes on overall activity in Europe’s largest economy, preliminary data showed on Tuesday. The German economy grew by 0.2 per cent on the quarter between July and September after it expanded by 0.4 per cent in the three months to June, the Federal Statistics Office said. That was lower than the consensus forecast in a Reuters poll for 0.3 per cent growth.

The EU’s Brexit negotiators are pushing for a draft UK exit deal by mid-2018 as part of a narrow, divorce-first negotiating approach that would demand an exit bill of as much as €40-€60 billion, the Irish Times reported. Brussels’ rigid plans for the process show it is making a priority of a clean separation settlement – and Britain’s payment of a hefty exit charge – over London’s desire to focus on refashioning trading relations.

EU antitrust regulators are set to fine Europe's biggest bank HSBC, JPMorgan and Credit Agricole by the end of the year for rigging financial benchmarks linked to the euro, two people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. Charges were levied in May 2014 against the three banks, which denied wrongdoing. The European Commission could penalise HSBC, JPMorgan and Credit Agricole next month, the people said. The decision has been delayed several times and another hold-up could still occur. European Commission spokesman Ricardo Cardoso declined to comment.

Hedge funds investors holding some of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena's riskiest bonds said they would take part in the bank's proposed tender but the trade is still riddled with execution risk with Tier 2 holders' participation in the balance, Reuters reported. The Italian lender announced late on Monday that it was looking to target up to 5.3bn of subordinated debt in a debt-for-equity swap aimed at getting the bank back on its feet .