The euro zone's permanent bailout fund will charge only a symbolic fee on top of its costs for loans to troubled sovereigns and only slightly more for loans to recapitalize banks, ESM pricing policy guidelines showed. The guidelines, obtained by Reuters on Thursday, said that while the price of help from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) would be the same for every euro zone government, it would differ depending on the instrument chosen, because of different risks the instruments entailed.

Sanicare, Germany's largest mail-order pharmacy, has filed for insolvency due to problems that have arisen following the recent death of its founder and head, the company said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. A statement said the insolvency was for the mail-order pharmacy activities of the company and would not affect the rest of Sanicare's businesses, which include the online unit. The mail-order business would be run by court-appointed administrator Ralph Buenning after the family of founder and former head Johannes Moenter filed for insolvency on Sept. 25 with the court in Osnabrueck city.

Spain's borrowing costs rose and its stock market fell sharply on the eve of Madrid's announcement of new austerity measures, putting the shaky economy again at the center of Europe's race to preserve its currency union, The Wall Street Journal reported. The government's 10-year borrowing costs rose nearly one-third of a percentage point, to above 6%, placing renewed pressure on Madrid to find a way out of its debt crisis and appearing to crimp its prospects for avoiding a bailout from its euro-zone partners.

Greece's international official lenders are at loggerheads over how to solve Athens' debt crisis, threatening more trouble for the euro, Reuters reported. Officials from Greece and the "troika" of European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund have told Reuters tensions have risen in recent weeks as negotiators wrangle over further budget cuts, with the IMF adamant that Greece reduce its debt further.

Corporate defaults have risen in Europe and may climb further because of economic and political uncertainty, deteriorating growth and looming debt maturities, Standard & Poor’s said in a report, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. S&P’s speculative-grade default rate rose to 5.3 percent at the end of the second quarter, from 4.7 percent at the end of March, the ratings company said. The trailing 12-month default rate will increase to 6.3 percent by the end of June 2013 and could surge to more than 8 percent if Europe’s recession is worse than expected, report author Paul Watters said.

Mike Ashley’s bid to rescue JJB Sports stores from closure is in jeopardy after an 11th-hour spat with Adidas, one of the sports retailer’s biggest suppliers, the Financial Times reported. Sports Direct, controlled by Mr Ashley, and Adidas are at loggerheads over the price at which it would take JJB’s Adidas stock under an administration, according to people familiar with the situation. A deal is thought to have been struck between Mr Ashley, the owner of Newcastle United football club, and KPMG, which is trying to find a buyer for JJB’s assets.

Euro-zone governments have begun discussions about creating a central budget for the currency union aimed at smoothing over some of the region's economic divergences, after Germany indicated support for the idea, European officials say, The Wall Street Journal reported. The discussions are part of a push toward a limited "fiscal union," after the economic crisis revealed fatal flaws in the setup of the common currency.

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi offered a vigorous defence of the bank's bond-buying plans to a sceptical German audience on Tuesday and said it was now up to governments to follow with decisive policy steps of their own, Reuters reported. Speaking at a conference of the Federation of German Industries (BDI) in Berlin, Draghi described the ECB's plan, unveiled earlier this month, to buy the sovereign bonds of stricken euro members as a "bridge" rather than a solution to the three-year-old crisis haunting the currency bloc.

U.K. banks cut their lending to businesses and households in August, underlining the challenge facing policy makers as they struggle to boost the supply of credit and revive a stagnant economy, The Wall Street Journal reported. Figures released by the British Bankers' Association showed lending to nonfinancial firms fell by £1.5 billion ($2.43 billion) compared with July, a larger fall than the £500 million drop recorded in that month.

The pressures facing the government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy mounted on several fronts on Tuesday, as thousands of demonstrators besieged Parliament and Spain’s two largest regions took steps that underscored their deepening economic troubles and displeasure with his austerity plans, the International Herald Tribune reported. Presenting the biggest domestic political challenge, the leader of Catalonia, Spain’s most powerful economic region, called an early election for Nov. 25 that could turn into an unofficial referendum on whether to split from the rest of the country.