The number of registered unemployed workers in Spain has seen the biggest drop for at least a decade while joblessness in Ireland has hit its lowest level since 2008, when the country was about to enter a prolonged financial crisis, the Financial Times reported. The Spanish figures provide a boost to the economic record of acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy as he tries to form a government following an inconclusive general election.

Havila Shipping has announced a restructuring plan which it expects will sustain it through approaching "severe financial challenges" from 2016 to 2018, Lloyd’s List reported. The offshore supply company has been discussing a debt restructuring with its creditor banks for months, according to a company statement. It pointed to oversupply in the offshore market, which has led to widespread lay-ups and left active vessels earning rates below operating costs, as factors affecting its decision.

Fianna Fáil has said the Government’s failure to deal with the “spiralling arrears crisis” in the sub-prime mortgage market is “disastrous” as the owners of such loans are amongst “the most aggressive in the market” at seeking court ordered repossessions, the Irish Times reported. New figures provided by the Central Bank indicate that 20,338 mortgage accounts issued by sub-prime lenders were in arrears of more than 90 days at the end of September 2015. This compares to 19,935 at the end of December 2014.

The eurozone is being left behind—and not only in economic terms, in banking too, The Wall Street Journal reported. Global regulators have spent years pushing banks to meet higher capital demands. But European tardiness has left the bloc’s lenders still unsure how much capital is needed just as banks elsewhere get the answers they crave. Certainty is vital: once banks know how much capital they have to hold, they can make concrete economic decisions about which businesses or products work and which need to be re-engineered or abandoned. Banks in the U.K.

The European Union entered a brave new world of bank “bail-ins” at the start of 2016. Europe has wasted so much taxpayer money in bailing out banks in recent years that it is right to try to get investors to help foot the bill. However, the tough program carries big political risks, the International New York Times reported. The crucial new rule is that no bank can be bailed out with public money until creditors accounting for at least 8 percent of the lender’s liabilities have contributed.

Vroom & Dreesman, the largest Dutch department store chain, has been declared bankrupt, it said in a statement published on its website on Thursday. V&D, with 10,000 workers at 67 stores, has suffered in recent years as the Dutch economy stagnated and on-line stores won away customers. After weak sales in the Dutch holiday season, which falls in early December, it filed for protection from creditors on Dec. 22. A statement on the company's website said it hopes to remain in business after a restructuring, and that it has been contacted by "dozens" of potential investors.

David Cameron’s claim that British membership of a reformed EU is vital to Britain’s economic security is today backed by an overwhelming majority of economists in an annual Financial Times survey. Regardless of the UK prime minister’s renegotiation of Britain’s terms of EU membership, most of the more than 100 economists thought economic prospects following a Brexit would be hit if voters decided to leave. Economic arguments are central to both the “in” and “out” camps as they prepare for a referendum on whether the UK should leave the EU. It could be held as early as June.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has said his government “will not succumb to unreasonable demands” as it prepares to send the country’s creditors proposals on crucial reforms to the pension system this week, the Financial Times reported. “The creditors have to know that we are going to respect the agreement,” Mr Tsipras said in an interview with Real News newspaper on Sunday, referring to reforms demanded in exchange for Greece’s €86bn bailout agreement last year. However, he pledged that Greece “won’t succumb to unreasonable and unfair demands” for more pension cuts.

Spain's multinational Abengoa SA said on Wednesday it is seeking buyers to revive transmission-line and other construction projects in Brazil that the company had suspended after filing for creditor protection in Spanish courts, Reuters reported yesterday. The company, which owns energy, telecommunications, transportation and environment businesses, is looking for "a market solution" for projects it has been contracted to build and operate in Brazil. Abengoa is trying to reach an agreement with creditors before a March 28 legal deadline to avoid becoming the country's biggest-ever bankruptcy.

Tor Krussell of Altor says that there is no evidence that the OW Bunker Board made any decisions that led to the bankruptcy, ShipandBunker.com reported today. Swedish private equity fund Altor, former owner of now defunct OW Bunker, says that while the company's advisors have yet to examine a new 400 page report released as part of OW Bunker's bankruptcy proceedings, it notes that from its own investigations, OW Bunker's management was not responsible for the company's demise.