Denmark

National Irish Bank (NIB) has set aside €146 million for loan impairment charges related to losses on commercial property transactions, The Irish Times reported. The bank, which is outside the Government's guarantee scheme, said impairment charges related to bad loans were down €52 million on last year. The Danish-owned lender today reported losses of €133 million for the first three months of the year, saying economic conditions remained “very difficult”. The bank’s total loan book was €10.2 billion, down 5 per cent on last year.

Icelanders Saturday roundly rejected a deal to repay the U.K. and the Netherlands €3.9 billion ($5.3 billion) lost in the collapse of an Icelandic Internet bank, complicating the island's bid to access badly needed international-aid funding and render normal its relations with the rest of the world, The Wall Street Journal reported. More than 93% of Icelanders voted no in a national referendum, according to preliminary figures published Sunday morning by state broadcaster RUV. It was Iceland's first plebiscite since the island's independence from Denmark in 1944.

Regulators have declared Capinordic Bank, a small player in Denmark's fragmented banking sector, insolvent and begun bankruptcy proceedings, the bank's parent company Capinordic A/S said on Thursday. Capinordic is the 18th Danish bank to fold or be bought up by stronger entities since the start of 2008, though the country still has more than 130 banks, making its financial industry the most fragmented in the Nordic region. The highest profile collapse during the financial crisis in Denmark was that of Roskilde Bank which the government seized in July 2008 after loan losses piled up.

Iceland's finance minister will meet with some of his Nordic counterparts on Friday to persuade them to keep vital credit lines open to the cash-strapped nation, a government spokesman said on Thursday. Steingrimur Sigfusson will meet with Norway's finance minister on Friday before flying on to Copenhagen to meet with his Danish counterpart, Icelandic finance ministry spokesman Elias Jon Gudjonsson said. Read more.

Denmark's economy pushed deeper into recession in the second quarter, with data showing a much larger-than-expected decline in gross domestic product, The Wall Street Journal reported. Danish GDP fell 2.6% on a seasonally adjusted quarterly basis and was a record 7.2% lower from a year earlier, Statistics Denmark said Wednesday. Economists had forecast a decline of 1.4% and 5.2%, respectively. The figures mark the fourth straight quarter in which output has fallen in Denmark.

The World Bank yesterday issued its clearest warning to date that development efforts in poorer nations will be derailed without a huge increase in funding for climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts, The Guardian reported. The Bank's annual World Development Report warns that even if the G8 group of industrialised nations achieves its target of limiting global warming to two degrees above pre-industrial levels, the increase in global average temperatures will still result in shrinking levels of GDP for many African and Asian countries.

Tritec Manufacturing’s UK subsidiary Mountain Buggy UK has had all its European assets frozen by a Dutch bank after Denmark-based company DK Intertrade alleged the pushchair manufacturer had breached a contract, The National Business Review reported. The Danish distribution company was in court in New Zealand last week in a bid to get compensation as it believes Mountain Buggy breached a distribution contract. The company had already asked the Dutch court to freeze the assets of the UK subsidiary.

According to a press release on its corporate site, Atlas Shipping A/S filed a petition for bankruptcy with the Bankruptcy Division of the Maritime and Commercial Court in Copenhagen. Simultaneously with the bankruptcy order in respect of Atlas Shipping A/S, bankruptcy orders were issued in respect of Atlas Bulk Shipping A/S and Atlas Shipping Holding A/S. The Atlas Shipping Group has been operating as an international contractor of tonnage and provider of transport solutions in the dry bulk sector with tonnages ranging from 25,000 to 80,000 DWT.

Iceland got a $4.6 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund and four Nordic countries to help resurrect the island's economy after the failure of its biggest banks and the collapse of its currency, Bloomberg reported today. The Washington-based IMF approved a $2.1 billion loan late yesterday. Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark will provide a further $2.5 billion, the Finnish Finance Ministry said in a statement today. Approval of the loan dragged out after Iceland was unable to reach agreement with U.K.

An international bail-out of crisis-hit Iceland appeared to be unravelling on Tuesday night as the International Monetary Fund withheld official backing for the $6 billion plan, the Financial Times reported yesterday. Iceland has also been left with a $500 million shortfall in the funds for the plan that it had hoped to raise from other international donors.