The European Central Bank left its key deposit rate unchanged at 2% on Thursday for a fourth consecutive meeting, EuroNews reported. Interest rates on its main refinancing operations and the marginal lending facility will also remain at 2.15% and 2.40% respectively. The rate on the main refinancing operations is the rate banks pay when they borrow money from the ECB for one week, while the marginal lending facility is the rate banks pay when they borrow from the ECB overnight.

The Bank of England cut its key interest rate Thursday while the European Central Bank held steady, as a period of more stable borrowing costs sets in across the continent, the Wall Street Journal reported. The U.K.’s central bank reduced its key rate to a near three-year low of 3.75% from 4%, resuming a series of cuts that stretch back to August 2024 after a pause in November. The BOE indicated that borrowing costs are likely to fall over coming months, but are approaching their low. “We still think rates are on a gradual path downward,” said BOE Gov. Andrew Bailey.

The redirection of China’s export machine is one of the most dramatic examples of how President Trump’s trade war has rewired global commerce, according to a Wall Street Journal commentary. China is outfoxing Trump’s efforts to isolate Beijing, with shipments to Europe and Southeast Asia more than offsetting the nearly 20% contraction to the U.S. The European Union has this year topped the U.S. as the largest market for China’s $100 billion cheap package blitz for the first time, according to Chinese customs data.

German prosecutors charged two former board members of Greensill Bank AG for their roles in the 2021 demise of the lender, Bloomberg News reported. The men are charged with bankruptcy crimes and false accounting, a spokesman for Bremen prosecutors said in an emailed statement. A member of the unit’s supervisory board was also indicted. The statement didn’t identify any of the accused. (Subscription required.) Read more.

Thames Water has blocked a £2.5m bonus payout for nearly two dozen executives after a political backlash, The Telegraph reported. The utility, which is struggling under £21bn of debt, has decided to defer the payment scheme until further notice after MPs labelled the plan an “outrage”. Under the proposal, Thames would have paid 21 senior executives an average of £117,000 each this month as part of a scheme to retain managers who may have quit because of the financial turmoil.

The U.S. Trade Representative on Wednesday announced the implementation of tariff-related ​elements in a trade agreement framework reached ‌with Switzerland and Liechtenstein in November, Reuters reported. The tariff rates announced on ‌November 14 will be retroactive to that date, according to a post in the Federal Register. The notice amends the U.S. tariff schedule to apply either ⁠the most-favored-nation tariff ‌rate or a 15% rate, whichever is higher, to goods from the two ‍countries.

The decade-plus American bankruptcy of property developer Sean Dunne took a major step toward final resolution on Tuesday, after a U.S. judge allowed payments to his two ex-wives, the Irish Times reported. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Julie A. Manning approved, pending the filing of revised paperwork, more than $2.8 million in payments to Mr Dunne’s two ex-wives. She added she would also rule by Friday on distribution of the remainder of the more than $16 million in the estate.

A council has terminated two multi-million pound government-funded regeneration projects after an audit of one highlighted concerns over governance and finances, BBC.com reported. Somerset Council ended the Life Factory and Glastonbury Food and Regenerative Farming Centre projects, both Glastonbury Town Deal schemes, in November. In a new report, the authority says it is seeking repayment of more than £2.4m in grant funding from Red Brick Building Centre Ltd, a community benefit society (CBS) that was the grant recipient of both projects.

U.K. joblessness climbed in the three months through October as signs of a softening labor market gathered pace, raising expectations that the Bank of England will cut its benchmark interest rate at its final meeting of the year this week, the Wall Street Journal reported. The headline rate of unemployment crept up to 5.1% in August-October, from 5.0% in the three months through September, Britain’s Office for National Statistics said Tuesday. The BOE’s rate-setting committee is split.

The U.K.’s Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal in a long-running $13 billion lawsuit brought by Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV) investors, supporting lower-court rulings that narrowed claims against major crypto exchanges over the token’s delisting, CoinDesk.com reported. In a brief decision released on Dec. 8, the court said BSV Claims Limited's “application does not raise an arguable point of law or a point of law of general public importance”.