Belgian financial services group KBC has cut its forecast for loan-loss provisions in Ireland and announced a €39.5 million second-quarter net profit for its Irish arm, the Ifish Times reported. KBC Bank Ireland, which has €14 billion of Irish loans still outstanding, slashed its full-year Irish loan-loss provisions to a range of zero to €40 million, from a previous guidance of between €50 million to €100 million. The bank said first-half profits reached €73.7 million.

Abengoa SA won agreement from major creditors for a rescue plan, potentially averting Spain’s largest corporate insolvency, Bloomberg News reported. Investors including Elliott Management Corp., Centerbridge Partners LP and Varde Partners LP will provide 1.17 billion euros ($1.3 billion) of new loans in exchange for a 50 percent stake, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday. The renewable-energy producer’s existing shareholders, including a company part-owned by the founding Benjumea family, will be left with about 5 percent. Abengoa has until Oct.

Brexit will come at a cost for the UK financial-services industry, no matter what agreement the government secures in its negotiations with the European Union, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), the Irish Times reported. Banks may be hit hard if Britain loses single-market access as companies would lose passporting rights that allow them direct access to clients in the EU, the London-based research group said in a report published on Wednesday.

Denmark’s biggest mortgage bank is reminding homeowners that a seemingly unstoppable series of price gains can end, and even go into reverse, the Irish Times reported. Chief analyst at Nykredit, Mira Lie Nielsen, says Danish people need to put the possibility of house-price declines “on their radars” or risk going into “shell shock when it happens”. “Our expectation isn’t that home prices will fall in the near future, but it’s important to say, again and again, that especially apartment prices can also fall,” Nielsen said in an email.

Eurozone governments set out new fiscal targets for Portugal and Spain as they backed the decision by the European Union’s executive not to fine them for missing deficit targets, The Wall Street Journal reported. The European Commission had recommended last month after protracted discussions that the two countries should not be fined. The commission acknowledged the difficult economic environment and the reform efforts of both countries, but the decision led some to warn the bloc’s fiscal rules were being dangerously undermined.

A Dutch court has accepted a request by Brazilian phone carrier Oi SA to put one of its Netherlands-based units under protection from creditors, two people with direct knowledge of the situation said on Tuesday, handing creditors a victory as they seek to recoup billions of dollars in losses. According to the sources, who requested anonymity since the matter is confidential, Oi's request for "suspension of payment" in an Amsterdam bankruptcy court allows for an independent trustee to be appointed. The suspension creates a standstill for payments to creditors for companies in the Netherlands.

Since the 2008 financial crisis, policy makers around the world have put new rules in place to make banks less risky and more transparent, Bloomberg News reported. They're confident that these changes have made the financial system safer and eliminated the need for taxpayer bailouts. But as Julius Caesar said: "Men willingly believe what they wish to be true." Start with new rules on capital. Prodded by regulators, banks have been increasing their buffers against losses with higher levels of shareholder capital and total loss-absorbing capital, or TLAC.

Two years ago, the European Central Bank cut interest rates below zero to encourage people such as Heike Hofmann, who sells fruits and vegetables in this small city, to spend more. Policy makers in Europe and Japan have turned to negative rates for the same reason—to stimulate their lackluster economies, The Wall Street Journal reported. Yet the results have left some economists scratching their heads. Instead of opening their wallets, many consumers and businesses are squirreling away more money. When Ms.

Local insolvency house CITR has put up for sale warehouses, plots, apartments and cars owned by the pharma distributor ADM Farm, which is under insolvency, Romania-Insider.com reported. Their value amounts to EUR 5.5 million, without VAT, reports local Profit.ro. The most valuable asset is a 10,200 sqm land plot located in Ilfov county, which sells for EUR 3.5 million. The company’s warehouse and the office, located in Craiova, are up for sale with EUR 188,000. A pharma storehouse and an office, located in the village of Carcea, Dolj county, can be bought for EUR 506,000.

The 10 poorest performers in the EU bank stress tests have paid almost €20bn in dividends since 2011, increasing the potential burden on bondholders and taxpayers should they fail, according to a new study, the Financial Times reported. The analysis found that bailed-out Royal Bank of Scotland, Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Ireland were the only ones out of the 34 publicly listed banks in the stress tests that paid no dividends for the financial years 2010-2015.