Abengoa's majority shareholder is ready to have its stake diluted to around 5 percent in a bid to receive new emergency cash and facilitate a debt restructuring deal, four sources close to the talks between the firm and its creditors said. The sources said creditor banks and bondholders had set two conditions prior to discussing a debt-for-equity swap, a potential haircut and the injection of new liquidity to save the energy firm from becoming Spain's biggest ever bankruptcy.

Investors facing huge losses on Novo Banco SA bonds suffered another defeat, Bloomberg News reported. The group that oversees the credit-default swaps market declined to amend any contracts insuring the Portuguese bank’s debt, probably killing off swapholders’ last chance of getting a payout following the transfer of about 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) of bonds to a bad bank. All committee members voted against changes, the International Swaps & Derivatives Association said in a release on Wednesday.

Irish motorists are likely to face higher insurance premiums following a court ruling which forces the Motor Insurance Bureau of Ireland (MIBI) to assume €90 million in liabilities from the collapse of Setanta Insurance, the Irish Times reported. The Court of Appeal unanimously rejected an appeal by the MIBI against an earlier High Court decision that it must pay out on the 1,750 outstanding claims left in the wake of Setanta’s liquidation in 2014.

Debt-laden Spanish energy group Abengoa has appointed a new chairman to try to distance the firm's management from its main shareholder and facilitate a debt restructuring, Reuters reported. The Seville-based company is racing to reach an agreement with its banks and bondholders by March 28, when it would risk a full-blown insolvency process after piling up debts of almost 9.4 billion euros ($10 billion). Antonio Fornieles Melero will become executive chairman, replacing Jose Abascal, the company said in a statement to Spain's stock exchange regulator.

Traffic along one of Europe’s busiest highways, which used to flow unimpeded, now often backs up for miles at a newly installed checkpoint, where a phalanx of German police officers screens trucks and cars for hidden migrants, the International New York Times reported. At this border crossing, as a result, Austrians who work in Germany have trouble getting to their jobs. Many companies in Germany must wait days longer for deliveries of food, machine parts and other goods. Shoppers who made quick weekend jaunts to Freilassing’s stores now mostly stay away.

Examination by AIB as to how William and Sheila Moran, the former owners of Morans on the Weir, in Kilcolgan, Co Galway, spent €24,000 a month on living expenses over 38 months to the end of 2014, is continuing, the Irish Times reported. Mr Justice Brian McGovern was yesterday told the bank is reviewing some new information it has received over the past two weeks, and is waiting for more that is pending. The case was adjourned to April 4th.

UK households and companies started 2016 in a free-spending mood, loading up on debt to finance cars, mortgages and corporate loans, the Financial Times reported. Figures from the Bank of England showed unsecured lending to households, mostly car loans rather than credit card debt, grew 9.1 per cent in the year to January, the most for a decade. Mortgage approvals have recovered from the 2015 dip, and loan growth to small and large companies is growing again on an annual basis, for the first time since a consistent series began in 2012.

Examination by AIB as to how William and Sheila Moran, the former owners of Morans on the Weir, in Kilcolgan, Co Galway, spent €24,000 a month on living expenses over 38 months to the end of 2014, is continuing, the Irish Times reported. Mr Justice Brian McGovern was yesterday told the bank is reviewing some new information it has received over the past two weeks, and is waiting for more that is pending. The case was adjourned to April 4th.

British financial regulators said on Monday that they would continue to exempt small banks and similarly sized financial institutions from European rules that cap bankers’ bonuses, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported.

Abengoa SA, the Spanish renewable-energy company scrambling to avoid bankruptcy, reported a 1.2 billion-euro ($1.3 billion) loss for 2015 after its business was revalued amid a financial restructuring process, Bloomberg News reported. The Seville-based company shifted to a loss after posting net income of 125.3 million euros the previous year, according to a regulatory filing Monday. The loss was mainly due to “negative impacts” of 878 million euros, related to a “viability plan” developed by adviser Alvarez & Marsal, according to the filing.