After a stellar 2025, investors expect shares in European banks to keep heading higher in 2026, supported by strong earnings and, crucially, cost savings stemming from artificial intelligence, Reuters reported. As fears of a recession and interest rate cuts from the European Central Bank have subsided, investors have turned even more positive towards European banks, revising up their expectations for the sector, despite a complicated backdrop.

Austrian former property tycoon Rene Benko will appeal against his second conviction for insolvency-related fraud, his lawyer Norbert Wess said on Friday, Reuters reported. A court in his home city of Innsbruck handed Benko a 15-month suspended prison sentence and fined him 4,320 euros ($5,100) on Wednesday for hiding two luxury watches and four pairs of cuff links from creditors by keeping them inside a safe in the basement of a relative's house. However, the prosecution had sought a conviction based on 11 watches and 120,000 euros in cash found in that safe along with the cuff links.

A fund run by life sciences venture firm Apple Tree Partners filed for bankruptcy months after alleging that its Russian billionaire backer, Dmitry Rybolovlev, hasn’t met financing commitments because of liquidity problems at his family office, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. New York-based Apple Tree Life Sciences filed for chapter 11 reorganization Tuesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., with assets of more than $1 billion and liabilities of less than $500,000.

Russia’s Central Bank has filed a lawsuit against Belgian financial institution Euroclear, the Brussels-based clearing house that holds most of Moscow’s frozen assets in Europe, the bank said Friday, the Associated Press reported. It wasn’t immediately clear what the lawsuit could achieve since it was filed in Moscow. The European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, estimates that 210 billion euros ($247 billion) worth of frozen Russian assets are held in Europe. At the end of September, Euroclear held around 193 billion euros ($225 billion) of the money.

A cross-party coalition of U.K. lawmakers has called on Chancellor Rachel Reeves to step in and ensure Britain’s regulatory framework for stablecoins doesn’t stifle innovation or drive capital overseas, warning that the Bank of England’s current proposals risk risks undermining the City of London's appeal as the global financial hub, CoinDesk.com reported. In a letter dated Dec.

Nationwide has been hit with a record fine after failing to spot a customer’s £27.3m furlough fraud, The Telegraph reported. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has ordered the British lender to pay £44m as a result of its failings, which included the incident during Covid. The City watchdog revealed in a ruling on Friday that a Nationwide customer deposited £26m into their current account over the space of eight days, having received 24 furlough payments totalling £27.3m over 13 months. HMRC was able to recover £26.5m from the fraud, but roughly £800,000 remains unaccounted for.

Leon is preparing to shut 20 restaurants and cut jobs as its co-founder scrambles to turn around the business, The Telegraph reported. John Vincent, who repurchased the fast food chain in October, said Leon would reduce its estate from 70 to 50 locations across the country. The struggling chain has hired administrators to oversee a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), a legally sanctioned restructuring that will allow the business to push through closures.

Consumer prices in Ireland were 3.2 per cent higher in November than the same month last year, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) said on Thursday, as inflation in the Irish economy continued to pick up steam, the Irish Times reported. On an annual basis, prices accelerated last month at the fastest pace since February 2024, with education, clothing, and food prices all contributing to the headline consumer price index (CPI) increase.

Manchester United swung to a first-quarter net loss on Thursday, weighed by lower broadcasting revenue and ticket sales as the club sits out European competitions this season, Reuters reported. The Old Trafford club posted a net loss of 6.6 million pounds ($8.83 million) for the quarter ended September 30, compared with a profit of 1.4 million pounds a year ago. Total revenue for the quarter fell 2%, with player and staff wages falling 8.2% due to job cuts.

Ukraine has reached an agreement with a key creditor group to restructure some $3.2 billion of debt obligations that had fallen into default, the nation’s finance ministry said yesterday, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The group of investors holding Ukraine’s gross domestic product-linked warrants said recent negotiations have resulted in “significant improvements” to the terms of new bonds they are now willing to accept as part of the restructuring, according to a statement.