Former board members of Barclays have been called on to give evidence to the UK’s anti-fraud agency as part of a probe into the bank’s dealings with Qatar over an emergency cash injection at the height of the financial crisis, the Financial Times reported. The Serious Fraud Office has served Section 2 notices on directors who were on the board when Barclays sought £5.8bn from Qatari investors in 2008 – enabling the bank to avoid a bailout.

Cash-strapped China's National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS) said on Wednesday it would lay off up to 200 staff at its Saab car plant in Sweden as production is unlikely to resume anytime soon, Reuters reported. NEVS, which bought the bankrupt Swedish carmaker Saab in 2012, halted already-low output in May because of a shortage of money. In August, it obtained protection from creditors through a Swedish court while trying to secure funding.

Infineon Technologies AG and its former memory chip unit Qimonda AG on Wednesday reached a partial out- of-court settlement over an insolvency dispute, The Wall Street Journal reported. Under the agreement, German semiconductor company Infineon will pay 260 million euros ($334 million) to the bankrupt unit. Infineon said it would pay a settlement of €135 million and acquire all patents of Qimonda for an additional €125 million. The partial settlement is covered by provisions already recognized and Infineon will pay from existing liquidity, it said.

The World Bank on Wednesday slashed its forecast for Russia's economy over the next two years, saying growth would stagnate amid a lack of structural reforms and Western sanctions over Russia's role in the Ukraine conflict, The Wall Street Journal reported. In its biannual report, the World Bank cut its forecast for Russian economic growth to 0.3% in 2015 and 0.4% in 2016 under its baseline scenario from 1.5% and 2.2%, respectively—well below the government's estimates.

Britain's budget deficit widened in August compared with a year earlier, a sign the nation's economic recovery has yet to be felt in its public finances, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Office for National Statistics said Tuesday the U.K.'s budget deficit widened to £11.6 billion ($18.95 billion) in August from £11 billion a year earlier, as higher spending, interest payments and investment offset only a small pickup in tax receipts. The U.K. economy is expected to expand 3.1% in 2014, according to a range of independent forecasts compiled by the U.K.

Netzoptiker, the Limburg-based mail order glasses company backed by Rocket Internet and Omnes Capital, has filed for insolvency with the German Handelsregister. A filing at Handelsregister, Germany's version of Companies House, states that a provisional liquidator has been appointed. Rocket holds a 42% stake in the online store according to Handelsregister. News of the filing comes at a time when start-up accelerator Rocket Internet, itself backed by Investment AB Kinnevik, is preparing its imminent listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

Codere SA reached an agreement with creditors to restructure 1.1 billion euros ($1.4 billion) of debt, allowing the Spanish gaming company to avoid entering insolvency proceedings, Bloomberg News reported. The company will use the U.K. courts and seek a scheme-of-arrangement to implement the deal, which includes issuing 675 million euros of new bonds and 253 million euros of new loans, Codere said in a statement. Jose Antonio Martinez Sampedro, the current chairman and chief executive officer, will continue performing his executive role in the group, according to the statement.

More than a week into the strike by French pilots against Air France-KLM, the two sides are stuck in a holding pattern. The only certainty seems to be that the dispute is doing severe financial damage to the airline, the International New York Times reported. With the cost of the pilots’ walkout now approaching 20 million euros, or $26 million, per day, investors and politicians can only wonder whether the opposing parties’ shared commitment to the airline’s survival will prove strong enough to avert disaster.

Shares in Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International fell 10 per cent after the western lender with the greatest exposure to Russia and Ukraine warned that the conflict in the region would drag it to a full-year loss, the Financial Times reported. The Vienna-based lender said in a statement released late on Monday that it would increase its provisions for bad loans this year by 15 per cent to 30 per cent, mostly relating to its operations in Ukraine.

Eco City Vehicles said Mercedes-Benz had terminated a financing and trading deal making the British firm the sole distributor of the Mercedes Vito model that is licensed for use as a London taxi, in the latest blow for the stricken company, Reuters reported. Its shares have been suspended since Friday when it said that its One80 subsidiary was facing potential administration, leading to "uncertainty as to the group's financial position and prospects".