The head of Germany's savings banks association has attacked the European Central Bank on the eve of a historic decision on Thursday that could see the central bank’s key interest rates fall to new record lows, the Financial Times reported. Georg Fahrenschon, head of the Berlin-based group that represents 418 Sparkassen across the country, told German public radio station Deutschlandfunk on Wednesday that if low interest rates stop savers putting money aside "then we have big, big problems".

Lenders are preparing to take control of retailer Vivarte from Charterhouse Capital Partners, in a rare French debt-for-equity swap worth more than €2 billion, the Financial News reported. Oaktree Capital Management, Alcentra and Hayfin Capital Management are among the lenders preparing to convert €2 billion of the company’s €2.8 billion debt package to equity and quasi-equity instruments as part of the restructuring, according to a statement from the company. Under the plan, Charterhouse would be likely to lose more than €500 million on its investment in the French retailer.

A potential $10 billion fine against BNP Paribas SA, France’s biggest bank, for violating U.S. trade sanctions could have repercussions affecting the stability of Europe’s financial sector, French President Francois Hollande warned ahead of his meeting with President Barack Obama, Bloomberg News reported. U.S. authorities “must be fully aware of what is at stake from a sanction that would be not just unfair, but disproportionate, and with consequences well beyond a single French bank.

Tragus Group, the owner of high-street brands Café Rouge, Bella Italia and Strada, has proposed a sweeping restructuring of the one of the UK’s largest restaurant operators, Insolvency News reported. The company has announced it is proposing implementing an organisational and financial restructuring that would see its significant debts shed or restructured to ensure “a long-term sustainable future for the business”. Under the proposed financial restructuring, Tragus aims to reduce its debt burden from £354m to £91m.

Portugal’s lenders cannot pay the last tranche of the country’s bailout until a rejection by the supreme court of a series of austerity measures is resolved, prime minister Pedro Passos Coelho said today, the Irish Times reported. Mr Passos Coelho said that although the bailout had formally ended the last payment depended on conditions that had been signed off by the lenders, the International Monetary Fund and the European Union. “As there was a change in these conditions, now evidently this payment can only take place when this situation is overcome,” he said.

While consumers welcome lower prices, economists are worried that an outbreak of ultralow inflation across the 18-nation euro zone is doing more harm than good to the bloc’s economic recovery, the International New York Times reported. On Tuesday, Europe’s statistics agency reported that annual euro zone inflation slumped to 0.5 percent in May from 0.7 percent in April, falling further below the 2 percent level that the European Central Bank considers healthy.

Britain has been urged by the European Commission to tackle the rapid rise in property prices with measures such as reining in the Help to Buy scheme, amid fears the booming housing market is posing a threat to the UK’s economic stability, the Financial Times reported. In its annual assessment of EU member states’ policies to boost growth and jobs, Brussels says the UK government should consider raising taxes on higher value properties, adjust the Help to Buy loan guarantee scheme, mitigate risks related to high mortgage indebtedness and build more houses.

More than 20,000 mortgage customers at the government's "bad bank" could be pushed into arrears if interest rates rise by a percentage point, its chief executive said on Tuesday, The Guardian reported. A rise of that scale would more than double the number of UK Asset Resolution's customers in arrears from under 16,000 two months ago. Richard Banks, who heads UKAR, said: "Our view, from customer research we have done and our modelling, is that if interest rates went up to 1.5% about 22,000 more customers might go into arrears.

Explanations from members of bankrupt businessman Sean Quinn’s family concerning transactions involving movement of substantial sums between national and international accounts in 2011 and 2012 lack “any real credibility”, the receivers appointed over the Quinns’ accounts and assets have claimed before the Commercial Court, the Irish Times reported. On consent of the Quinns, Mr Justice Peter Kelly today made orders under which various members of the family are to set out, in sworn affidavits, their explanations for 67 transactions before the matters returns to court on June 30th.

The UAE-based Etihad Airways has said that it is pressing ahead with a plan for an equity investment in the struggling Italian carrier Alitalia, The Economic Times reported. Etihad Airways, which has been in negotiations for almost a year, said it will forward a letter detailing the conditions precedent and the criteria for a proposed equity investment in the Italian airline which had to turn to shareholders for a 250 million pound cash injection for its bail-out in January.