Permanent TSB has completed the last stage of its €8.4 billion deleveraging plan with the sale of the balance of its UK mortgage book to US-based Cerberus Capital Management, the Irish Times reported. The deal will involve a 15 per cent haircut on the £2.29 billion face value of the Capital Home Loans portfolio, which comprises mostly buy-to-let loans. PTSB chief executive Jeremy Masding described the transaction as a “milestone” deal, as it completes the final element of the restructuring plan agreed with the European Commission as part of its State aid.

Russian metals and mining giant Mechel plans to sign a final debt-restructuring deal in early 2017, its chief financial officer told Reuters, concluding more than two years of negotiations on a burden that has threatened its survival. Mechel borrowed heavily before Russia's economic crisis and struggled to keep up repayments as demand for its products weakened alongside tumbling coal and steel prices.

The European Commission chiding member states for missing their fiscal targets has become a familiar part of the EU policy apparatus, together with its failure to follow through with sanctions when miscreant governments fail to comply, the Financial Times reported. The process of disapproval without consequences is in train once again in Italy, a country with more than its fair share of fiscal problems down the decades.

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the beleaguered Italian lender, said on Tuesday that it would slash jobs, close branches and sell some businesses as it seeks to convince investors to back its plan to raise new capital, the International New York Times reported. The latest turnaround plan, unveiled by the new chief executive, Marco Morelli, comes at a critical time for the bank, which was the worst performer in stress tests conducted this year by the European Banking Authority, which regulates lenders in the European Union.

The State’s banks are putting plans in place for the sale of billions of euro of bonds where investors can suffer losses during a crisis, as European authorities set targets for euro area lenders in the coming weeks, the Irish Times reported. AIB subsidiary EBS has acknowledged in a bond prospectus that it and the parent group may have to sell a “significant amount” of such notes, to be calculated as a percentage of banks’ total liabilities, under the incoming rules. The bank made the comments under a list of risks facing the group in the document.

Renewable energy firm Abengoa is on track for the 75 percent creditor approval needed for its restructuring plan and avoid filing for Spain's biggest ever bankruptcy, a source with knowledge of the deal said on Tuesday. The Seville-based company borrowed too heavily over the past 10 years to fund an expansion into clean energy and has been negotiating with lenders since November to cut debts of more than 9 billion euros ($10 billion).

Tension between Brussels and Italy over the country’s 2017 budget escalated on Tuesday after the European Commission imposed a 48-hour deadline on Rome to explain why it was breaking previous fiscal agreements, the Financial Times reported. Matteo Renzi, Italy’s prime minister, in effect, dared the commission last week to challenge him over a budget proposal that scraps the deficit reduction targets to which the country had committed itself this year.

The Supreme Court will give judgment at a later date on the Motor Insurers’ Bureau of Ireland’s (MIBI) appeal against decisions it is potentially liable for claims brought against collapsed insurer Setanta, the Irish Times reported. The appeal concluded on Tuesday before a seven-judge court presided over by the Chief Justice, Ms Justice Susan Denham, who said the court was reserving judgment. The court did not specify a date for judgment but it is expected to take some weeks.

A seven-judge Supreme Court is hearing the Motor Insurers Bureau of Ireland’s appeal against decisions that it is potentially liable for claims brought against collapsed insurer Setanta, the Irish Times reported. Because all motor insurers operating in Ireland must be members of the MIBI, the decisions by the High Court and Court of Appeal effectively mean that all insurers entering the Irish market must undertake an “enormous potential liability”, Paul Gallagher SC, for the MIBI, said.

European and Asian investors have been rushing into the United States bond market, spurred by a global glut of savings that has reached record levels, the International New York Times reported. Running from near-zero interest rates at home, foreign buyers are piling into the booming market for corporate bonds, including high-grade debt securities issued by the likes of IBM and General Electric and riskier fare churned out by energy and telecommunications companies.