Germany

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is poised to intervene directly in a deepening rift between Greece and its international creditors, a sign of Berlin’s growing concern that the acrimony threatens the unity of the eurozone, The Wall Street Journal reported. Ms. Merkel and other key leaders are due to talk with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on the sidelines of a European Union summit on Thursday night. The chancellor has also invited Mr. Tsipras for face-to-face talks in Berlin on Monday.

Protesters set cars on fire and clashed with police officers on Wednesday as they marched toward the European Central Bank’s new headquarters in a demonstration against austerity and capitalism that took on a markedly more heated tone than past protests, the International New York Times reported. The rally, organized by a group called Blockupy and German workers’ unions, drew thousands of people as the central bank inaugurated its new tower.

Germany's deposit protection fund is planning to take over the property lender Duesseldorfer Hypothekenbank AG (DuesselHyp), which has run into problems due to its exposure to Austrian lender Hypo Alpe Adria's "bad bank" Heta, Reuters reported. The German banking association BdB, which runs the fund, is, however, not planning to wind down the bank, but wants to continue its operations. "The deposit protection fund is granting a guarantee for the Heta bonds to eliminate the immediate risks. The goal is a complete takeover of Duesseldorfer Hypothekenbank," the BdB said in a statement on Sunday.

Europe’s biggest economy needs people who think small. German business is booming and employment stands at a record high. But the surge is driven mainly by decades-old companies. Startups are scarce and getting rarer. That worries policy makers. In a sign of how seriously the government takes the country’s dearth of entrepreneurialism, left-leaning Social Democrat Economics Minister Sigmar Gabriel is pushing to expand tax breaks for startups and trying to ease their path to the stock market. Mr.

Solar-Fabrik, one of the last remaining PV module manufacturers still in German ownership has filed for insolvency, but under self administration, at the local court of Freiburg, PV-Tech reported. The company said that the insolvency proceedings were due to liquidity issues it had projected could occur in the course of the second quarter of 2015, without providing further details. Solar-Fabrik noted that it was not suffering from any form of over-indebtedness and was not insolvent.

The trial against three former managers of the independent utilities discounter Teldafax resumed on Monday, putting an end to a nearly year-long suspension, Deutsche Welle reported. Last February, Teldafax's former senior executives, Klaus Bath, Gernot Koch and Michael Josten, had stood before a Bonn district court and were facing charges of delayed filing for insolvency, unlawful bookkeeping and organized fraud to cover up a bankruptcy. But shortly after the start of the trial, the hearings went into hiatus because the court declared itself not responsible for the case.

A bank backed by authorities in Europe’s most solvent economy should hardly be considered risky, The Economist reported in an analysis. Yet it came as a surprise to many that HSH Nordbank, a lender majority-owned by two northern German states, even passed stress tests conducted by the European Central Bank in October 2014. The lender’s bosses say they were confident all along—but they prudently limited themselves to a single glass of champagne.

Europe has returned to the signature brinkmanship of the debt crisis that brought its currency union close to collapse five years ago: France and Germany are again warning Greece it is putting its eurozone membership at risk, The Wall Street Journal reported. With a Greek election looming this month, and a party hostile to European-imposed austerity apparently poised to win, French President François Hollande on Monday raised the possibility of Greece exiting the 19-member bloc—departing from the traditional stance that euro membership is irrevocable.

Germany has insisted that it expects Greece to stay in the eurozone, despite a news report claiming Berlin was ready to see Athens quit the common currency if the populist Syriza party wins this month’s snap election and reneges on the country’s reform programme, the Financial Times reported.

Allianz could be exposed to claims of at least $100 million linked to the AirAsia jet missing off the Indonesian coast with 162 people on board, which would be the third major airline accident it has been exposed to this year, the Irish Times reported. Allianz said it was lead reinsurer on the flight, having previously been the main reinsurer to Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 which disappeared over the Indian Ocean in March, as well as to flight MH17, shot down in July while flying over Ukraine.