Abengoa’s global ambitions are now the source of its troubles, the International New York Times reported. Saddled with debt from its expansion, the company is scrambling to avoid what would be the largest bankruptcy in Spanish corporate history. Creditors and shareholders are taking the company to court as losses mount and crucial financial support disappears. The company’s changing fortunes, from industry darling to financial invalid, are an extreme example of the challenges facing players in the renewable energy business.

Norway’s central bank is cutting interest rates to a record low and refusing to rule out going below zero as the collapse in oil prices takes its toll, the Financial Times reported. Norges Bank reduced its key policy rate by 25 basis points to 0.5 per cent despite admitting the move could increase “financial system vulnerabilities” with many worried about the prospect of a housing bubble. “The current outlook for the Norwegian economy suggests that the key policy rate may be reduced further in the course of the year,” said Oystein Olsen, governor of the central bank.

Royal Bank of Scotland chairman Howard Davies said a British vote to leave the European Union would risk cutting the state-owned lender off from its Irish Ulster Bank division. “We would be very concerned if we were detached from that bank,” Mr Davies, 65, said on Wednesday, the Irish Times reported. With Ulster Bank headquartered in Dublin, RBS is considering “what it might mean if we were out whilst owning a bank within the euro zone” as part of its contingency planning, he said, ahead of Britain’s June 23rd referendum on its EU membership.

Italian business risks “asphyxia” due to a relentless German focus on austerity and debt reduction, making a “disaster” exit from the euro increasingly possible, one of Italy’s leading industrialists has warned, the Financial Times reported. The rare comments from Gianfelice Rocca, the country’s eighth richest man and the head of its largest business lobby, reflect the frustration and worry in corporate Italy as the eurozone’s third-largest economy makes a fitful emergence from a crippling three-year recession.

Struggling energy and engineering firm Abengoa will probably have to ask a court for more time to get lenders to back its debt restructuring, as its race to avoid becoming Spain's first ever bankruptcy goes down to the wire, Reuters reported. The company said on Wednesday it expected to have the support of creditors representing 60 percent of its financial debt by a legal deadline on March 28.

Former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm was released on bail this morning after issues around the sureties being provided by third parties was resolved to the satisfaction of judge Michael Walsh in the Dublin District Court, the Irish Times reported. Solicitor Aoife Corridon for the defence told Judge Michael Walsh that Mr Drumm’s mother and father-in-law Danny and Georgina O’Farrell had been approved to stand bail. They have lodged €50,000 while the remaining €50,000 has been frozen in their bank account by court order.

The former chief executive of the bank at the centre of Ireland’s financial collapse appeared in a Dublin court on Monday after being extradited from the US to face charges related to one of the world’s worst banking failures, the Financial Times reported. David Drumm faces 33 charges related to transactions carried out before Anglo Irish Bank collapsed in 2008. His extradition and court appearance are seen as a significant step by the Irish authorities to hold former executives of Anglo to account for its collapse in 2008.

Unconventional monetary policies of central banks in Europe and Japan received an endorsement from the International Monetary Fund yesterday, even as policymakers from emerging markets warned that such policies were increasing risks for the global economy, the Irish Times reported. The debate over the merits of such policies comes days before major central banks such as the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan unveil their interest-rate decisions.

Abengoa SA is stepping up efforts to win creditor support for a debt-restructuring plan two weeks ahead of a court deadline that could lead to insolvency, Bloomberg News reported. The Spanish renewable-energy company still needs the support of lenders with about 35 percent of its debt to approve a deal agreed with its main bank creditors and bondholders last week, according to two people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the negotiations are private.

U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne started the week of his eighth budget by warning that he must set out more austerity measures as economic conditions remain difficult, Bloomberg News reported. "My message in this budget is that the world is a more uncertain place than at any time since the financial crisis," Osborne told the BBC’s "Andrew Marr Show” on Sunday. "We’re going to have to make further savings." Osborne has indicated some savings in the budget to be unveiled Wednesday will come from further public-sector spending cuts.