banks

British banks turned down more than 150,000 applications for government-guaranteed business loans during the Covid-19 outbreak in an effort to prevent fraud, according to the industry watchdog.

Judging by its largest banks, you’d hardly know Europe was in the grip of a worsening pandemic.

As 2020 dawned, bankers throughout Europe were still digging out of the last crisis, with weak lenders in Greece and Italy peddling soured loans and policy makers channeling public funds to frail institutions.

The corporate income tax rate for banks and credit unions is set to rise to 20 percent, from the current 15 percent, in January.

Lithuania's government is leaning towards "burying" the planned banking asset tax and is proposing introducing an additional 7 percent corporate tax for banks, brining the total corporate tax for them to 22 percent.

The new taxes for major retailers and banks, proposed by the ruling parties in Lithuania, could be introduced in the middle of the next year at the earliest, Rima Baskiene, a deputy speaker of the Lithuanian parliament, says.

Norwegian-owned real estate company Baltic Sea Properties (BSP) says local banks have turned down its request for funding for construction projects outside Vilnius and Kaunas thrice in the past six months, the business daily Verslo Zinios reported on Thursday.