The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) has reported an increase in corporate insolvencies in the first quarter versus the same period last year, Börsen-Zeitung reported. The upward trend in insolvency numbers remains unbroken, although the momentum decreased slightly in May. Early indicators collected by the Leibniz Institute for Economic Research Halle (IWH) suggest a decline in numbers for the coming months, but credit rating agency Crif anticipates a higher default rate compared to recent figures.

The owner of a prominent skyscraper in Germany's banking capital of Frankfurt has filed for insolvency, as the country reels from its biggest property crisis in a generation, Reuters reported. The tower, described on its website as an "essential part of the Frankfurt skyline", is home to part of Germany's central bank and to Deka, one of its biggest asset managers. Geschaeftshaus am Gendarmenmarkt, which owns the 186-metre, 45-floor Trianon building, filed for insolvency in a Frankfurt court on Monday and an insolvency manager has been appointed, a filing published on Tuesday showed.

Germany has fined Citigroup nearly 13 million euros ($13.94 million) for lapses in its trading system controls, the nation's bank regulator said on Thursday, as its consumer protection division imposed its largest penalty ever, Reuters reported. It is related to a mishap in 2022 involving $1.4 billion in mistaken sell orders in equities, an event that riled markets and for which Citigroup was already fined 61.6 million pounds ($78.24 million) by British authorities in May.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s ruling coalition ditched a plan to buy the entire German unit of Tennet Holding BV’s power grid, after the cost proved too much for the government’s stretched finances, Bloomberg News reported. Discussions on a full sale by the Dutch state-owned grid operator to German development bank KfW have ended after more than a year of negotiations, Tennet said Thursday in a statement.

UniCredit SpA is working on three significant risk transfer deals linked to as much as €8.5 billion ($9 billion) of loans to Italian and German companies, Bloomberg News reported. The Milan-based bank is selling two so-called SRTs linked to €3.5 billion of leasing contracts with Italian companies and €2 billion euros of Italian small and medium-sized businesses, said the people, who asked not to be named because the deal is private. UniCredit also plans to issue SRTs linked to as much as €3 billion of loans to German SMEs by the summer.

Germany's biggest industrial union said Monday it will seek a 7% pay increase for millions of workers in negotiations starting later this year, arguing that companies including automakers and machinery manufacturers are in a position to afford it, the Associated Press reported.

In the first three months of the year 5,209 companies filed for bankruptcy in Germany, the Federal Statistical Office on Friday, continuing an upward trend, DPA International reported. This year's first quarter figure was 26.5% higher than in the same quarter last year. It was also 11.2% higher than in same quarter in 2020, before the coronavirus forced closures across the country. In May 2024, 25.9% more regular insolvencies were filed than a year earlier. Since June 2023, double-digit year-on-year growth rates have been recorded, according to the government statisticians.

A former Allianz fund manager pleaded guilty on Friday over his role in a meltdown of private investment funds sparked by the pandemic that caused an estimated $7 billion of investor losses, Reuters reported. Gregoire Tournant admitted to two counts of investment adviser fraud at a hearing before Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain of the federal court in Manhattan. He faces up to 10 years in prison at his Oct. 16 sentencing. Tournant also agreed to give up $17.5 million in ill-gotten gains, including bonuses that were inflated by his fraud.

German manufacturing orders unexpectedly fell in April, reflecting the persistent difficulties in the industrial sector even as Europe’s largest economy gradually recovers, the Wall Street Journal reported. Orders were 0.2% lower than the prior month, German statistics office Destatis said Thursday. It came after orders fell 0.8% in March, weaker than the 0.4% originally published. Over a three-month period, new orders were down 5.4%, mainly due to major aircraft orders in December 2023.