Headlines

The board of UK watchdog Ofwat is split over whether to approve a rescue deal offered by the creditors of Thames Water, increasing the risk the utility could collapse into special administration, Bloomberg News reported. Ofwat’s board — eight men and women charged with deciding the future of the UK’s largest water and sewerage company — have so far failed to reach a consensus on the deal floated last month by senior creditors, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified talking about confidential negotiations.

An electric vehicle sales company based in the city of Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, southwestern Japan, has filed for bankruptcy protection with Tokyo District Court under the civil rehabilitation law, Nippon.com reported. The application, filed Tuesday, was accepted immediately, EV Motors Japan Co. said the same day. Liabilities left by EVMJ totaled 5.7 billion yen.

The costs of managing the insolvency of the main trading arm of Greensill are expected to reach more than £90 million this year, The Times reported. Administrators of Greensill Capital (UK), or GCUK, which collapsed more than five years ago, said they are still dealing with the complicated fallout from its failure, including a series of regulatory and legal issues and the fact that more than $587 million “remains outstanding” from Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance.

Economic prospects for the eurozone have dimmed, with the IMF lowering its GDP growth forecast to 1.1% for the current year, EuroNews.com reported. This downgrade from the earlier 1.4% estimate comes as a direct consequence of the war in Iran, which has sent shockwaves through international markets. According to the IMF’s World Economic Outlook, released on Tuesday, the disruption to energy markets through the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and infrastructure damage in the Middle East has effectively stalled the recovery of the world's major economies.

The energy-price shock from the Iran war is landing between the European Central Bank’s baseline and adverse scenarios, its President Christine Lagarde said Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported. The ECB last month published three scenarios of the impact of the Iran war on the eurozone. The adverse scenario predicts a sharper rise in inflation and lower growth than the baseline, though the impact wouldn’t be as pronounced as its severe scenario.

European countries are putting together a plan for a broad coalition of countries to help free up shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, including sending mine-clearing and other military vessels. But the plan would only come after the war and may exclude one country in particular: the U.S., the Wall Street Journal reported. French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday the plan is for an international defensive mission that doesn’t include the “belligerent” parties, meaning the U.S., Israel and Iran.

The International Monetary Fund and Lebanon are discussing options for providing fast-track assistance to help the country absorb the effect of the Middle East war, Bloomberg News reported. The conversations are focused on some type of financing instrument that would give Lebanon access to between $800 million and $1 billion, money that would be earmarked for budget support and humanitarian response.

The World Bank Group’s private-sector arm, the International Finance Corporation, and U.S. bank Citigroup have signed a ​new 1.6 billion rand ($98 million) borrowing facility aimed at expanding ‌local-currency financing in South Africa, the IFC and Citigroup said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The facility is designed to strengthen the IFC’s ability to provide rand funding to private-sector ​borrowers, part of a broader push by development finance institutions to ​reduce currency mismatch risks in emerging markets.

Britain's financial regulator said ‌on Wednesday ‌it was consulting on ​how firms might be affected by the regulation of the ‌crypto ⁠industry which is due to come ⁠into effect by October 2027, Reuters reported.

Finding an affordable and decent place to live has become increasingly difficult across Europe. Housing accounts for one-fifth of the average EU household’s income. This share is significantly higher in some countries, reaching 35% in Greece according to Eurostat, EuroNews.com reported. Rising rents are a significant burden for Europeans. In 2025, rents increased by 3.1% in the EU. In some countries, rent inflation reached double digits. Within the EU, the average rate of change for actual rentals for housing ranged from 1% in Finland to 17.6% in Croatia.