The High Court has approved payments of more than €20 million out of the Insurance Compensation Fund to meet a 35 per cent shortfall in awards concerning motorists insured by the collapsed Malta-based insurer Setanta Insurance, The Irish Times reported. The payment orders were sought by the State Claims Agency and were granted on Monday by the President of the High Court, Mr Justice Peter Kelly. They relate to 1,268 eligible claims and will involve total payments of €20,647,966, representing an additional 35 per cent of money due.

Foreign investors in Italy’s bond market shed a net €1.5bn of government debt in September, in the latest evidence that the market jitters of the past six months have eroded their willingness to hold Italian paper, the Financial Times reported.

Brexit is already weakening the UK’s grip on Europe’s capital markets, denting London’s status as a hub for millions of deals each day. Key parts of the trading infrastructure for equities, sovereign debt and repo markets are setting up in the Netherlands and Italy, the Financial Times reported. Banks are moving jobs to Paris and Frankfurt. This is “an invisible revolution in the European capital markets”, says Merel van Vroonhoven, chief executive of the AFM, the Dutch regulator.

The head of the European Central Bank indicated a first interest rate increase could be postponed if unexpected trouble strikes the 19 countries that use the euro as their currency, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. Mario Draghi warned in a speech Friday the current economic expansion remains "resilient" as unemployment continues to fall and consumers remain willing to spend. But he cautioned that slowing world trade is proving to be a drag on the eurozone economy.

London will no longer be the first stop for European governments selling bonds, as the bulk of business on a key platform switches to Milan ahead of the deadline for the UK’s departure from the EU next year, the Financial Times reported. From the start of March only the UK government and UK-based banks will use a London-based arm of MTS Cash, a venue owned by the London Stock Exchange Group. It plays a key role in linking sovereign borrowers with the investment banks that help price the bonds and sell them to asset managers.

England’s higher education regulator has admitted it provided a “short-term liquidity loan” to a university in the summer to keep it operating, despite a promise that it would never bail out an institution, the Financial Times reported. The Office for Students, which was formed only this year, did not name the institution or confirm reports on the BBC that the loan was worth £1m. However, the regulator insisted that the university had not been at risk of bankruptcy.

A company set up by lenders to Johnston Press has acquired the publisher, saying debt cancellation and a cash injection would allow titles including The Scotsman, The Yorkshire Post and The i to continue operations as normal, the Financial Times reported. The “pre-pack administration” deal was completed following the court appointment of administrators to Johnston Press, the newly founded owner JPIMedia said in a statement. The acquisition was denounced by activist Christen Ager-Hanssen, CEO of Custos Group, Johnston Press’s largest shareholder.

Those lending to high-risk property borrowers on peer-to-peer sites could be caught out by lower house prices and higher interest rates, amid warnings that the growing sector’s low default rate is due in large part to benign financial conditions, the Financial Times reported. Property peer-to-peer finance allows lenders seeking investment returns to make loans to borrowers aiming to buy or develop properties. The sector has come under the spotlight in recent weeks following legal issues at property peer-to-peer lender Lendy.

What threat do Italy’s bond market woes pose to the yields on other eurozone nations’ debt? Yields on Italian bonds have been ratcheting up since a populist Eurosceptic coalition took power in May. The government’s recent agreement of an aggressive budget plan for 2019 has provided a further upward momentum, leading to a fresh sell-off of Italian debt and a fall in the country’s bank stocks, the Financial Times reported. So far there has been little sign of contagion.

Norwegian power trader Einar Aas, widely regarded as the biggest in the market, will keep his house and a few other assets in a deal with creditors after his spectacular default on Nasdaq Inc.’s Nordic power exchange this year, Bloomberg News reported. The agreement, which was announced on Thursday, marked the end of week-long negotiations between Aas and members of Nasdaq’s default fund who are seeking to recoup as much as possible of the about 100 million euros ($113 million) they had to put on the table when the trader’s bets soured in September.