Germany challenged a central plank of plans to forge a banking union in the euro zone on Thursday, arguing against the use of the currency bloc's funds to help lenders exposed as dangerously weak by health checks next year, Reuters reported. As finance ministers gathered in Brussels to outline plans to deal with banks still in difficulty, Germany's finance minister hardened his stance on the use of the bloc's emergency fund, according to people close to the talks.

Ireland and Spain said Thursday they could stand on their own feet once their bailout programs end in the coming months, marking significant steps as the euro zone battles to exit a four-year debt crisis, The Wall Street Journal reported. The currency union's finance ministers hailed the decisions as signs that their strategy of budget cuts, economic overhauls and long-term rescue loans was working.

Top shareholder Air France-KLM refused a plea for cash on Thursday to rescue Alitalia, saying a new business plan was not enough to save the stricken Italian carrier unless its creditors also write off some of its huge debts, Reuters reported. Alitalia, which was privatised in 2008, has been unprofitable for more than a decade and has been stuck in a months-long tussle with Air France-KLM over whether to keep their strategic and financial partnership alive.

KBC Bank Ireland chief executive John Reynolds is to step down after almost 30 years with the company, the Irish Times reported. The Belgian lender also announced it would need to make a provision of up to €775 million in the fourth quarter for potentially lost loans and mortgages in its Irish loan book. This was as a result of moving restructured mortgages from a non-impaired status to an impaired status, it said. In a statement this morning, the bank said Mr Reynolds, who has been chief executive of the company for four years, is leaving to pursue other interests.

Italian banks are still struggling with rising levels of bad loans, with smaller banks lagging in setting aside money to cover potential losses on them, even as the Bank of Italy urges a more aggressive cleanup on the financial institutions’ balance sheets ahead of a European health check next year, The Wall Street Journal reported. Third-quarter results of Italy’s banks reflect the pain they are still experiencing as Italy’s economy struggles to revive after two years of recession.

Germany's insolvent Hess said on Wednesday auditors found the street light maker's financial accounts for 2007 through 2012 overstated pretax profit by a total of nearly 45 million euros ($60.5 million), Reuters reported. Hess filed for insolvency in February, only months after making its stock market debut, saying a fraud investigation had scuppered its chances of raising urgently-needed funds. It said damages would now have paid to investors, who bought shares in the company based on false accounts.

Spain's biggest consumer appliance company Fagor said on Wednesday it had started insolvency proceedings after failing to reach a deal on debt which it needed to keep going as sales fell, Reuters reported. Spanish bankruptcies have risen steadily this year, after a prolonged economic downturn that sapped consumer spending and as bank lending falls. Fagor, however, was part of the Mondragon group in the northern Basque Country region, a large cooperative seen as a flexible organisation that was riding out the crisis. Fagor is the fifth-largest electrical appliance company in Europe.

Germany's status as Europe’s industrial powerhouse could be damaging the single-currency bloc, the European Commission has said, as it launched a probe into whether the country’s large trade surplus was hindering Europe’s recovery, The Telegraph reported. Europe’s biggest economy was one of three countries singled out for an “in-depth review” by the EC’s Alert Mechanism Report on Wednesday. The Commission said Germany’s large current account surplus, which accounts for most of the eurozone’s positive balance, “may put pressure on the euro to appreciate vis-à-vis other currencies.

The Liepaja Court has a launched insolvency process against the financially-troubled metallurgical company Liepajas Metalurgs, reports LETA. The court has decided to halt the companies legal protection process and launch an insolvency process against it, The Baltic Times reported. Liepajas Metalurgs legal protection administrator, Haralds Velmers has been appointed the company's insolvency administrator. Velmers' insolvency petition was submitted to the court on Nov. 4.

Global investment banks could face almost $100 billion in civil settlements from investigations into interest-rate and foreign-exchange manipulations, analysts at Stifel Financial Corp.’s KBW unit said, Bloomberg reported. Probes of the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, could cost $46 billion and currency trading inquiries could trigger another $26 billion, analysts led by Andrew Stimpson said today in a note. That’s in addition to settling claims over faulty mortgages with the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which could be $24 billion, the analysts wrote.