The rate of personal insolvencies in Sunderland has significantly increased over the last two years, official data has revealed. In 2015, 24.8 adults per 10,000 were declared insolvent in Sunderland, according to Insolvency Service figures. However by 2017 that figure had risen to 28.1, an increase of 13.6%, the Sunderland Echo reported. Insolvency is when someone cannot pay their debts, and has to arrange a plan with an official body to pay off creditors. This can include being declared bankrupt.

Once the outcast of European bond markets, Greece appears firmly on the road to redemption. After years of austerity, the expiry of an 86 billion euro ($100 billion) bailout in August will mark the end of an era in which Greece defaulted, 10-year yields topped 40 percent and the country came perilously close to being kicked out of the euro, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

Russia's VTB Capital-backed Numetal on Tuesday said Ruia family scion Rewant will never be in management of Essar Steel even though the rules do not bar blood relations of delinquent promoters from bidding for loan defaulter companies being auctioned to recover dues, Firstpost reported. During the proceedings of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), senior advocate Mihir Thakore representing Numetal said that the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code (IBC) does not disqualify anyone based on blood relations. Aurora Enterprises Ltd (AEL) had a 25 percent shareholding in Numetal.

Italy's anti-establishment coalition government is likely to delay a planned reform of the country's mutual banks through a decree it will approve next week, two sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The right-wing League party has been pushing for a moratorium of the reform, which was introduced by the former centre-left government and is forcing hundreds of small mutual banks (BCCs) to merge to create larger groups, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

Credit investors worried there won’t be enough liquidity in a downturn are taking bigger steps to avoid getting stuck with hard-to-trade corporate bonds, Bloomberg News reported. They’re snapping up index derivatives -- synthetic products that are easier to buy and sell than cash bonds -- in increasing numbers as a way to stay light-footed should the big one hit. Volume on Markit’s CDX North American Investment Grade Index, which tracks default swaps on 125 high-grade corporate bonds, reached a new milestone in the first half of 2018 of $1.56 trillion.

Swiss battery manufacturer and energy storage company Leclanché has negotiated a debt restructuring with its shareholders and, in a press release issued this morning, warned further measures may be required to shore up its balance sheet, pv magazine reported. The 109-year company announced its major shareholder FEFAM – a coalition of four investment funds – has purchased an unspecified amount of debt that was due on June 30 and postponed its maturity date for two years, until March 31, 2020.

The European Central Bank has started the hunt to fill one of the most important jobs in eurozone finance — bank supervisor-in-chief. Danièle Nouy is about to complete her term at the helm of the Single Supervisory Mechanism, the ECB’s banking watchdog set up in the throes of the financial crisis, the Financial Times reported. While she is credited with shepherding the supervisor creditably through its first five years, her successor will have much to do to build the standing of a young institution whose reputation has been marred by squabbles with eurozone member states.

Italy's recent bond shock showed that the financial derivatives market designed to insure against sovereign defaults hasn't been killed off by doubts about whether those contracts would pay out when the time came, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. The market for sovereign credit default swaps (CDS) is half the size it was six years ago at the height of the euro zone debt crisis, following a government clampdown and a patchy record as a hedge for a credit event.

The UK’s biggest provider of apprenticeships is to change hands for the second time in less than a month after the man who purchased Learndirect on June 23 agreed to sell its apprenticeships arm for £1 to Staffline, the listed employment agency. The sale comes less than a month after Lloyds Development Capital, the private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group, sold the whole of the troubled Learndirect business to Stonebridge Group, a privately owned company controlled by Wayne Janse Van Rensburg, a South African-born entrepreneur, the Financial Times reported.

British department store retailer Debenhams said it had a healthy cash position after a media report on Sunday saying insurers had cut cover for its suppliers sent its shares lower, the Irish Times reported. Shares in Debenhams fell as much as 8 per cent on Monday on the back of a Sunday Times report that the retailer, which has issued three profit warnings this year, was facing a cash crunch after credit insurers reduced or refused cover for its suppliers.