France's competition watchdog has raided auditing firms as part of an anti-trust investigation, it said on Wednesday, while La Lettre financial publication said the "Big Four" firms Deloitte, KPMG, EY and PWC were among those targeted, Reuters reported. Autorite de la Concurrence, as the watchdog is known, on Tuesday carried out "unannounced inspections to visit and seize documents" at several companies offering services of auditing and financial reporting certification, it said in a statement. Deloitte said it had no comment to make, when contacted by Reuters about the matter.

The European Parliament is considering putting on hold the European Union's implementation of the trade deal struck with the United States in protest over threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to seize Greenland, Reuters reported. The European Parliament has been debating legislative proposals to remove many of the EU's import duties on U.S. goods - the bulk of the trade deal with the U.S. - and to continue zero duties for U.S. lobsters, initially agreed with Trump in 2020. It was due to set its position in votes on January 26-27, which the MEPs said should now be postponed.

Italian administrators overseeing Europe’s largest steelworks have sued its former owner ArcelorMittal, seeking €7bn in damages, as the plant struggles for survival, the Luxembourg Times reported. According to a complaint filed with a Milan court this month and seen by the Financial Times, Acciaierie d’Italia is seeking compensation for what it alleges was ArcelorMittal’s “mismanagement” of the steelworks, formerly known as Ilva.

Moldova’s central bank governor said the country is preparing for a big international lender to enter its banking system following reforms to the sector, which was rocked by a scandal that left the nation on the verge of bankruptcy a decade ago, Bloomberg News reported. “I’m sure that we’ll see some big international names in Moldova sooner rather than later,” said Anca Dragu, governor of the National Bank of Moldova. “In terms of financial stability, we are doing fine and the banking sector looks pretty strong.

Germany’s DZ Bank revealed it received regulatory approval from BaFin under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework, enabling it to offer meinKrypto, a digital asset trading platform targeted at retail clients through the cooperative banking system, CoinDesk.com reported. The announcement follows a broader trend in Germany, where traditional financial institutions are entering the crypto space under the MiCA regime. DekaBank, another cooperative group player, debuted crypto trading and custodial services for institutions in early 2025.

A distressed debt specialist has applied to appoint administrators to broadband provider G.Network a week after taking over the business, in a move towards the first insolvency among the challenger companies in the UK’s telecoms industry for years, the Financial Times reported. FitzWalter Capital, which last week bought G.Network from previous owners USS and Cube Infrastructure Managers, filed to appoint insolvency practitioners on Monday, according to court paperwork.

A federal judge on Monday cleared Danish offshore wind developer Orsted to resume work on its nearly finished Revolution Wind project, which U.S. President Donald Trump's administration halted along with four other projects last month, Reuters reported. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth is a legal setback for Trump, who has sought to block expansion of offshore wind in federal waters.

The volume of retail sales increased by 2.5 per cent in November compared with a year earlier as consumers took advantage of Black Friday sales, the Irish Times reported. However, the volume of sales was up by just 0.5 per cent compared with October, which may suggest people were still careful with their money despite the opportunity for bargains. Excluding motor trades, the monthly volume of retail sales was up by 0.2 per cent in November and by 1 per cent in the year.