Royal Bank of Scotland is expected to confirm on Friday that it is to create a “bad bank” with more than £30bn of assets following a review of its operations ordered by the Treasury, The Telegraph reported. The taxpayer-backed lender is set to say that a new internal, but separately managed, bad bank is being established to deal with the legacy of its toxic assets - the least disruptive of three break-up options being looked at for the bailed-out bank.

Insolvent German home improvement retailer Praktiker has attracted a second offer for its stores, this time for more of the shops, two people familiar with the situation said, Reuters reported. The bid comes as talks over the acquisition of Praktiker's upmarket unit Max Bahr by rival Hellweg are already approaching a final stage. The new bid comes from Praktiker's own management with the backing of a group of funds and would see 175 Praktiker and Max Bahr stores being taken over, the sources said.

The economic recovery in the euro zone is feeble. Employment continues to suffer. And the patient is likely to be getting around on crutches for months if not years to come. That was essentially the prognosis from two key economic indicators published Thursday and from economists assessing the latest conditions, The International New York Times reported. The number of people out of work in the countries using the euro currency rose slightly in September, while inflation fell more than expected — both signs of a weak economy.

Air France-KLM, the French-Dutch airline, said Thursday that it had written off the entire value of its 25 percent holding in its partner Alitalia, raising doubts that it will take part in a plan to inject 300 million euros into the struggling Italian flag carrier, The International New York Times reported.

The Dutch financial services group ING said on Wednesday that it would pay 1.13 billion euros ($1.55 billion) to the Dutch government in November as it moves closer to repaying the state aid it received during the financial crisis, The New York Times DealBook blog reported. As of its next payment on Nov. 6, ING will have repaid €8.5 billion in principal of the €10 billion it received from the Dutch government in 2008, plus an additional €2.8 billion in interest and premiums.

Czech wagon manufacturer Legios filed for insolvency on October 28, owing around CKr 220m ($US 11.7m) the VUB bank and more than CKr 300m to other creditors, IRJ reported. The company suspended payments of obligations in June 2013, but has reportedly been in financial difficulty since 2010, when police launched a criminal investigation into allegations of tax evasion. It is claimed that Legios made a false purchase of wagon components worth CKr 588m in order to claim a VAT rebate of CKr 111m from the state.

Barclays is the latest bank to become embroiled in the global probe into suspected manipulation of currency rates in a setback for the lender’s attempts to improve its image following misconduct scandals, the Financial Times reported. The bank said on Wednesday it had launched an internal investigation into its foreign exchange trading operations. Its admission, disclosed in its third-quarter results statement, came a day after European lenders UBS and Deutsche Bank said they had also been drawn into the probe into the $4tn-a-day foreign exchange trading market.

The French government bowed to taxpayer anger Tuesday for the second time in three days by suspending a new levy on trucks, raising new questions about President François Hollande's strategy to fix public finances primarily through higher taxes, The Wall Street Journal reported. Following a weekend of violent clashes between police and farmers opposed to the new levy, the government said the so-called "eco-tax," which aimed to raise €1 billion ($1.37 billion) a year to finance more environmentally friendly transport, won't come into effect in January as planned.

Italy's minister of economic development, Flavio Zanonato, defended the record of Prime Minister Enrico Letta's government, pushing back at critics who say the young administration hasn't been ambitious enough in tackling Italy's myriad economic problems and has sent the wrong signal to foreign investors by pumping more money into near-bankrupt Alitalia, The Wall Street Journal reported. Mr. Zanonato also said the government will launch a series of measures aimed at helping foreign companies invest in Italy, raising the number of startups and freeing more credit for small companies.

The Dutch lender Rabobank admitted on Tuesday to criminal wrongdoing by its employees and agreed to pay more than $1 billion in criminal and civil penalties to settle investigations by United States, British and other authorities into its role in setting global benchmark interest rates. Its chief executive stepped down immediately, The New York Times DealBook blog reported. The bank is the fifth financial firm to settle accusations that its employees manipulated the London interbank offered rate, or Libor.