The International Monetary Fund stepped back from confrontation on Greece this week — to the delight of eurozone policy-makers above all in Berlin, the Financial Times reported. After months of squaring up against Germany over the fund’s insistence on upfront measures to ease Greece’s enormous debt burden, the IMF signed off on yet another compromise that delays the day of reckoning and left any commitment on debt restructuring implicit at best.

Prime Minister David Cameron’s campaign to keep Britain in the European Union was bolstered on Wednesday by a report from one of the country’s most authoritative economic research bodies, which concluded that a withdrawal from the bloc would lead to up to two more years of public spending cuts or tax increases, the International New York Times reported. A frequent critic of government economic plans, the research body, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, this time delivered some welcome news for Mr. Cameron.

A truce between Greece’s creditors averts an immediate panic over Greek bankruptcy this summer, yet as officials and onlookers digested the deal, it became apparent that less was agreed than meets the eye, The Wall Street Journal reported. The deal, struck in the small hours of Wednesday morning at the Eurogroup meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels, broke an impasse between Germany and the International Monetary Fund that was holding up Greece’s bailout funding for this summer.

The High Court has confirmed the appointment of an examiner to the company operating Debenhams eleven stores here, the Irish Times reported. Debenhams Retail (Ireland) Ltd directly employs 1,400 staff while 500 concession staff and 300 cosmetics staff also work in the company’s stores. DRIL sought court protection earlier this month arising from consistent losses sustained since the recession in 2007 and following the withdrawal of support of its UK parent company, Debenhams Retail plc.

Ulster Bank is lining up the sale of €875 million of troubled mortgages belonging to uncooperative customers who are deep in arrears and litigation, the Irish Times reported. The mortgages, a third of which are against 900 private dwellings, are part of a broader portfolio of loans with a par value of €2.5 billion that the UK government-controlled lender is launching this week. The loans will be sold at a discount, reflecting the fall in asset values since the outset of the financial crisis.

The authorities in Switzerland said on Tuesday that they had begun criminal proceedings against one of the country’s oldest banks, BSI, after allegations that it had laundered huge sums for “politically exposed” individuals linked to a scandal-plagued Malaysian state investment fund, the International New York Times reported. The Swiss attorney general’s office said in a statement that it suspected “deficiencies in the internal organization of the BSI S.A.

A former managing director of Mothercare and Burton is leading a bid for BHS backed by a wealthy Portuguese family, which has emerged as the frontrunner to rescue the department store chain. Greg Tufnell, the brother of former England cricketer Phil Tufnell, has been holding talks with administrators, The Guardian reported. It is understood that Tufnell aims to become BHS chairman. He is working alongside Nick de Scossa, a Swiss banker, and José Maria Soares Bento, thought to working with a wealthy family in Portugal.

The cost of payment protection insurance (PPI) payouts continues to hang over Clydesdale Bank after it announced a £450m charge for the mis-selling scandal in its first results as a stock market-listed company, The Guardian reported. Officially known as CYBG since being spun out of National Australia Bank (NAB) earlier this year, the bank is trying to cut costs to bolster its profitability as an independent entity.

Eurozone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund tried again to resolve a standoff over Greece’s bailout—including how to reduce the country’s mountain of debt—which has held up new aid payments for the country, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The International Monetary Fund confronted Germany over Greece’s unsustainable debt burden, issuing a bleak assessment of its financial future just as eurozone finance ministers prepared for a crunch meeting on debt relief, the Financial Times reported.