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.

Christine Lagarde has called on Germany and the Netherlands to use their budget surpluses to fund investments that would help stimulate the economy, in a sharp rebuke that comes only days before she becomes European Central Bank president, the Financial Times reported.

For the past year, business leaders and policymakers in central Europe have been wondering how long they can defy gravity, the Financial Times reported. The region’s economies spent the last few years in the grip of a sustained boom, powered by a friendly mix of low interest rates, surging consumer spending and a recovery in the eurozone. But since last autumn Germany — the biggest trading partner for much of central Europe — has been sliding towards recession, and many fear a knock-on effect.

The man who invented Germany’s strict limit on new public borrowing has called for a rethink, saying the country should raise billions of euros in debt to invest in new technology, fight climate change and repair its ageing infrastructure, the Financial Times reported.

Germany’s central bank warned the country’s economy may have shrunk for its second consecutive three-month period, which would mean the eurozone’s biggest economy has entered its first recession in six years, the Financial Times reported.

Deutsche Bank AG is considering substantial cuts to the unit that trades interest-rate securities, a division that survived a large-scale pullback as part of the lender’s sweeping revamp in July, Bloomberg News reported. Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing has concluded that it’s possible to reduce enough of the associated technology costs to outweigh the loss in revenue, according to people briefed on the matter.

The German government has revised down its forecast for economic growth next year from 1.5 per cent to 1 per cent, in a further sign of the slowdown that is clouding the prospects for the eurozone’s largest economy, the Financial Times reported. The economics ministry did not change its projection of 0.5 per cent growth in gross domestic product in 2019. Germany’s economy has been roiled by global trade tensions, Brexit-related uncertainty and upheaval in the auto industry.

Insolvent Thomas Cook’s German unit has withdrawn an application for a state bridging loan for legal reasons, the company’s liquidator said on Wednesday, adding that the firm was still talking with investors about a possible rescue, Reuters reported. Insolvency administrators of the law firm Hermann Wienberg said the credit application needed to be amended, adding that the already submitted application would be withdrawn. It did not say whether Thomas Cook would file a new application.

Hundreds of German companies have appealed for more direct support from Brussels and a business-friendly stance from EU lawmakers as they grapple with the effects of Brexit, the US-China trade war and a global economic slowdown, the Financial Times reported. Responding to a poll by the Stiftung Familienunternehmen, or Foundation for Family Businesses, some of the country’s most successful companies said the new European Commission must do more to boost competitiveness. They placed emphasis on simplifying taxes, reducing bureaucracy and deeper digital integration.