Europe

Britain's accounting regulator said on Monday it has opened investigations into the audits of Greensill Capital and Wyelands Bank as regulatory scrutiny of the companies intensifies, Reuters reported. Wyelands Bank is owned by steel tycoon Sanjeev Gupta's metals-to-finance empire GFG Alliance, which it financed. GFG Alliance was closely linked to financing company Greensill Capital which went bust earlier this year.

The European Union’s top economic policy makers are exposing a gulf in their views on how to run the economy after the pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. European Central Bank Executive Board member Fabio Panetta said on Monday that monetary officials should retain the “unconventional flexibility” they granted themselves during the crisis, keeping borrowing costs low until government spending helps push up inflation. Hours later, his policy-making colleagues Jens Weidmann and Robert Holzmann said the ECB’s emergency powers are temporary and must end once the emergency is over.

A group of creditors to Intralot SA agreed to provide almost 148 million euros ($177 million) to the beleaguered gaming company to pay off some of its bonds due September and sweeten the terms of a restructuring deal that’s been under negotiations for months, Bloomberg News reported. Under the new proposal, part of the 250 million euros of Intralot’s bonds maturing Sept. 15 would be paid out at par by a group of investors who’ve been discussing the deal with the company, according to a statement.

Restaurants and cafes in Moscow on Monday began requesting that patrons provide proof of vaccination or a negative coronavirus test as the Russian capital faces a surge of new infections, the Associated Press reported. According to a decision by city authorities last week, all Moscow restaurants, cafes and bars must only admit customers who have been vaccinated, have recovered from COVID-19 in the past six months or can provide a negative coronavirus test from the previous 72 hours.

The company behind Amigo Loans has been given an extra three-month lifeline from its lender as the business tries to stave off collapse, Yahoo.com reported. The guarantor lender said that its bank had extended the grace period it had given Amigo to September 24. The waiver was set to run out on Friday. During this period the bank will not take action if Amigo breaks the conditions attached to the so-called securitisation facility. The amount available to Amigo through the facility was also slashed to £100 million from £250 million.

Fashion retailer Adler Modemärkte AG is ready to be acquired by Berlin-based logistics company Zeitfracht, which has made a name for itself by acquiring a bankrupt company, Eminetra.com reported. Zeitfracht will provide urgently needed new capital to companies in Haibach near Aschaffenburg. Adlermode explained that the deal could take effect after the bankruptcy proceedings scheduled for early July begin. The Adler fashion chain, which specializes in fashion for people in their 50s and above, filed for bankruptcy in January.

Britain said Thursday that it intends to relax pandemic travel restrictions by allowing people who are fully vaccinated to visit a wide range of countries without having to self-isolate on their return, the Associated Press reported. The Department for Transport said that it expects to implement the new policy in phases later this summer. The change would apply to fully vaccinated people traveling to destinations on the government’s “amber” list, which currently covers much of the world, including the U.S. and most of the European Union.

Billionaire steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal’s younger brother Pramod Mittal was due to be automatically freed from bankruptcy in Britain on Wednesday but has had his bankruptcy suddenly extended by the London high court for failing to cooperate with the bankruptcy trustee.

The COVID-19 pandemic hit Italy especially hard, killing more than 127,000 people and sending the European Union’s third-largest economy into a devastating tailspin. Yet out of that tragedy may come solutions for decades-old problems that have held back growth and productivity — and with them, a new sense of stability for the euro, the currency shared by 19 of the European Union’s 27 members, the Associated Press reported.