German energy group Innogy on Thursday said it was continuing to lose clients in Britain, where a price cap has increased pressure on the ‘Big Six’ energy providers, Reuters reported. Npower, Innogy’s British retail unit, lost 261,000 customers during the third quarter, bringing total customer losses to 447,000 so far this year. The division posted a nine-month adjusted operating loss of 167 million euros ($184 million). Npower’s problems will soon be an issue for German utility E.ON.

Thyssenkrupp’s new boss scrapped the German industrial group’s dividend, warned of deeper losses and asked investors for yet more patience over its turnaround, sending shares in the conglomerate down as much as 14.5% on Thursday, Reuters reported. The moves immediately turned up the pressure on Martina Merz, who served as chairwoman before taking over as CEO, to quickly sell the company’s elevators business - a prize asset it has put on the block to try to mend its finances.

Germany’s banks are facing an even tougher outlook thanks to a combination of negative interest rates and a slowing domestic economy, the Bundesbank and rating agency Moody’s warned on Thursday.

A co-operative bank has become the first German lender to pass on the cost of negative interest rates to new retail customers with small deposits, in the latest sign of how the European Central Bank’s policy is upending the country’s banking sector, the Financial Times reported. Volksbank Fürstenfeldbruck, which is located 30km west of Munich and has just €1.8bn in assets, said that it will collect a “depositary charge” of -0.5 per cent on instant access savings accounts with deposits of €1 and above.

The German economy has defied expectations of a recession by growing 0.1 per cent in the third quarter as higher spending by households and the government offset a downturn in its export-focused manufacturing sector, the Financial Times reported. The mildly positive growth in the third quarter means the German economy has avoided a technical recession.

Trips and holidays by Thomas Cook Germany with a departure date of Jan. 1, 2020 or later, "cannot be commenced" even if they had already been partially or fully paid for, the tour operator announced on Tuesday, Xinhuanet reported. "We are so sorry that we have to deliver this message to our customers with departure in the new year," said Stefanie Berk, chairwoman of the management board of Thomas Cook Germany. Among others, the tour operators that are affected were Thomas Cook Signature, Thomas Cook Signature Finest Selection, Neckermann Reisen and Oeger Tours.

Italy has warned that a German proposal to complete the EU’s banking union would harm the competitiveness of the bloc’s banks, in comments heralding complex negotiations over Europe’s most ambitious integration project since the creation of the single currency, the Financial Times reported. Speaking on the margins of a gathering of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels, Roberto Gualtieri took issue with a key part of bank regulation plans laid out by his German counterpart this week in the Financial Times.

Germany’s top economic advisers have slashed their growth forecast for Europe’s largest economy, while warning that the country is suffering from global structural shifts, such as growing trade protectionism and digital disruption of traditional industries, the Financial Times reported. The Council of Economic Experts’ annual report, which it will submit to parliament on Wednesday, will make grim reading in Berlin. The council has cut its growth forecast for this year from 0.8 to 0.5 per cent and for next year from 1.7 to 0.9 per cent.

Germany’s finance minister has offered hope of a breakthrough in plans to create a full eurozone banking union by ending Berlin’s opposition to a common scheme to protect savers’ deposits, the Financial Times reported. Olaf Scholz said that Europe’s global role would be undermined if it failed to complete the integration of the eurozone’s financial sector. The plan to centralise oversight of eurozone banks was conceived seven years ago in response to the region’s deep sovereign debt crisis. “The need to deepen and complete European banking union is undeniable.

German tennis great Boris Becker has had his bankruptcy restrictions extended to 2031 after an investigation into assets and undisclosed transactions valued at more than 4.5 million pounds ($5.80 million), Reuters reported. Becker, who won six Grand Slam singles titles in his career including three at Wimbledon, was made bankrupt on June 21, 2017 in the London High Court. Under the terms of the bankruptcy order, the 51-year-old was bound to provide full disclosure of assets to the trustee and inform any lenders of his situation when seeking to borrow more than 500 pounds.