Stephen Bogan, a prestige car dealer, could be forgiven for the confusion. While checking on a loan being used to buy a £41,000 Porsche from his showroom in Airdrie, Scotland, Mr Bogan was alarmed to discover that his company was listed as the buyer…“It was the perfect crime because we would not have been aware until next year when the bank would have started asking us for interest on the loan,” says the car seller, the Financial Times reported. Mr Bogan was the target of fraudsters seeking to exploit weaknesses in the UK government's £43.5bn coronavirus Bounce Back Loans Scheme.

A bill on the resolution of insolvency is now available for public hearings on the Legal Forum of Belarus, BelTA has learned. The bill is designed to encourage commercial entities to voluntarily and timely declare their financial insolvency, BelTa reported. The bill has revised the existing practice of court rulings on insolvency (bankruptcy) cases.

KBC Bank Ireland is set to refund up to €12.9 million of legal fees and interest to borrowers who have been in arrears across 4,500 mortgages, The Irish Times reported. Most would see the balance of their mortgage loan accounts lowered, though a limited number would receive a direct payment. It comes after the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) ruled in November last year that mortgage lenders cannot impose legal fees on customers in arrears if they are co-operating and engaging with their lenders.

Global institutions, creditors and lobby groups are scrambling to come up with ways of tackling what many fear will be a wave of sovereign debt crises in emerging economies in the coming year, the Financial Times reported.

Swiss baked goods maker Aryzta rejected on Friday an 800 million Swiss franc ($904 million) takeover approach from Elliott Advisors, saying it preferred to go it alone, Reuters reported. “Aryzta announces that after careful review of the Elliott proposal, including the envisaged refinancing for Aryzta, the Board has decided unanimously to reject the proposal and not enter into a transaction agreement with Elliott,” it said in a statement. Elliott declined to comment.

The official overseeing Norwegian Air’s protection from its creditors in Ireland will present a report to the Irish High Court on Jan. 22, having received a business plan from the cash-strapped airline, Reuters reported.. The airline obtained creditor protection this month from courts in Norway and Ireland, giving it some breathing space to restructure its massive debts. Its main aircraft-owning subsidiaries are Irish and its parent company, Norwegian Air ASA, is registered in Norway.

The number of companies going into insolvent liquidations will have increased in 2020 after falling every year since 2012, Independent.ie reported. However, due to ongoing support measures such as Government Covid schemes and landlord forbearance, a massive surge in liquidations forecast by insolvency experts and business groups has not yet occurred. There are signs of an uptick, with voluntary liquidation more than doubling in this month compared with November, increasing from 23 to 52.

A federal judge upheld a $1.5 billion debt restructuring by offshore-drilling contractor Transocean Ltd., ruling against a hedge-fund bondholder that claimed it was treated unfairly as the company took steps to survive a turbulent oil market, The Wall Street Journal reported. Judge George B. Daniels of the U.S. District Court in New York rejected efforts by Whitebox Advisors LLC to call a debt default against Transocean during a painful period for deep-water drilling that has sent several peer companies to bankruptcy.

Rishi Sunak has pledged further financial help for UK businesses with extensions to his flagship furlough and emergency loan schemes as pandemic restrictions are extended and companies brace for a potentially disruptive end to the Brexit transition, the Financial Times reported. The chancellor on Thursday also set March 3 as the date for the next Budget, which is likely to be one of the toughest in years given the pressure to stabilise the public finances with additional spending cuts or tax increases.

Norwegian Air’s shareholders endorsed the airline’s financial rescue plan on Thursday in a series of votes, one of several hurdles the heavily indebted company must clear to survive the COVID-19 pandemic, Reuters reported. Norwegian Air now faces difficult negotiations with creditors as it tries to reduce its debt and liabilities of 66.8 billion Norwegian crowns ($7.8 billion). It must also find investors and lenders willing to put up fresh cash.