Greensill Capital’s former managers in Latin America bought back the bankrupt U.K. company’s unit in the region and plan to expand the operation, Bloomberg News reported. The purchase, which was backed by the investment firm 777 Partners, includes assets in Colombia and Chile, the new company’s chief executive officer, Diego Caicedo, said in a video interview from Bogota. The buyers paid $11.3 million to Greensill’s bankruptcy estate, he said. The new firm will be called OmniLatam, the name of the Bogota-based fintech Caicedo and his partner Andres Abumohor founded in 2018.

Industry bodies and professional groups have welcomed the Irish government’s approval to fast track legislation that will make it cheaper and easier to restructure the debts of small companies at risk of insolvency, the Independent reported. The Companies (Small Company Administrative Rescue Process and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2021 will amend the Companies Act 2014 to provide for a new dedicated rescue process for small and micro companies.

The Irish government is to introduce new legislative reforms over the medium term to enhance the rights of employees facing collective redundancies following insolvency, the Irish Times reported. In a new action plan, the Department of Enterprise and Employment says that in future workers affected by collective redundancy will in all cases have to receive 30 days’ notice.

Lex Greensill told lawmakers that investors in loans packaged by his firm were aware of the risks and denied being a “fraudster” in his first public appearance since Greensill Capital collapsed into insolvency in March, Bloomberg News reported. The former Morgan Stanley banker, who founded the eponymous firm in 2011, faced questions from the U.K.’s Treasury Select Committee, which is examining what lessons should be learned from the demise of the lender.

A judge in London ruled that gym chain Virgin Active can wipe out the rent arrears on most of its venues and avoid future steep payments, despite the opposition of a majority of its creditors, Bloomberg News reported. The decision represents a victory for tenants and a blow for landlords, with other companies now likely to seek a reduction in their debt pile using the same tool. Rent arrears have been building since March last year when non-essential businesses were forced to close or operate with restrictions due to the pandemic.

Germany loosened travel rules to allow people fully vaccinated against Covid-19 to enter the country without needing to get tested or go into quarantine, Bloomberg News reported. The rules, which also apply to those who have recovered from the virus, were approved by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet on Wednesday. One-third of German residents have received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine, and nearly 10% have been fully inoculated. As the pace ramps up, Germany has granted more privileges to people immune from the disease, including easing trips to hairdressers.

Corporate insolvencies in Germany fell by 21.8% on the year in February, the Federal Statistics Office said on Tuesday, continuing a downtrend that saw them hit their lowest level since 1999 last year thanks to a waiver during the pandemic, Reuters reported. Germany introduced the waiver last March, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, part of a package of measures aimed at supporting businesses but which gave rise to the charge that the government was simply propping up “zombie companies” with no future. Insolvencies duly fell. But since October, Berlin has phased out the waiver.

Former British Prime Minister David Cameron repeatedly contacted senior ministers over a four-month period in 2020 to lobby for the now-failed, supply-chain finance firm Greensill Capital, according to documents published on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Cameron’s involvement in efforts to secure access for Greensill Capital to the government’s pandemic funding schemes have fueled wider questions about lobbyists’ influence over British government decision-making.

A ramp-up in debt sales in Europe, led by Germany’s sale of its first 30-year green bonds, sent yields jumping across the region, Bloomberg News reported. The country racked up record orders of more than 38.9 billion euros ($47 billion) for its 6 billion-euro offering. The sale comes alongside placements from the Netherlands and the U.K., helping push conventional German 30-year yields to their highest since 2019. Benchmark Italian yields headed toward 1% for the first time since September as traders bet an economic recovery will spur inflation.

Bickering in the European Union’s most politically volatile member state is threatening to delay the approval of the bloc’s 800 billion-euro ($973 billion) pandemic-relief package, Bloomberg News reported. Romania’s ruling coalition and opposition are far from a consensus on ratifying the Recovery Fund this month in parliament, where a two-thirds majority is required. The country is one of seven EU states yet to sign off on the financing and allow disbursements to coronavirus-battered economies to start. The bloc wants all national parliaments to ratify the decision by June.