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.

Abengoa, the Spanish company trying to avert becoming the country's biggest-ever bankruptcy, said today it hoped to reach agreement with creditors before a legal deadline of March 28, Reuters reported. Abengoa said it currently had 39.5 percent of the share capital of its Abengoa Yield unit tied up as financial backing on loans. Read more.

Russia will cut interest rates on the central bank's deposits in ailing state development bank Vnesheconombank (VEB), said Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Reuters reported today. The proposal is part of measures aimed at helping the ailing bank, which has been hit by Western sanctions over Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis and is facing bad loans and heavy external debt repayments. The ministry previously proposed to also extend the National Wealth Fund's (NWF) deposits in VEB for five years and to cut interest rate on these deposits.

Four Italian banks rescued last month from collapse will be sold by late spring, the chairman of the lenders said today, as Rome comes under pressure from Brussels to find buyers quickly, Reuters reported. "There is an obligation to sell (the banks) and significant pressure from the EU to do so very fast," Roberto Nicastro said.

Lenders of last resort are becoming agents of change for economies across the former Soviet Union, Bloomberg News reported today. Their governments paralyzed by collapsing revenue, central banks sprang into action when the crisis hit last year, allowing more flexible currencies to take root from Belarus to Azerbaijan.

Poland’s ruling party softened a tax on its financial industry which could have hurt its ability to finance the budget deficit, helping to rally government bonds today, Bloomberg News reported. Parliament’s public finance committee excluded banks’ roughly $41 billion in government- bond holdings from taxable assets “to prevent an increase in budget-financing costs,” Law & Justice lawmaker Wieslaw Janczyk, a deputy head of the committee.

Lax lending and deadbeat borrowers nearly brought down the Spanish banking system a few years ago, the New York Times reported on Saturday. That’s why the remnants of some of the failed banks are resorting to a time-honored form of loans with can’t-miss collateral: pawnshops. Spain’s commercial banks, like Banco Santander and BBVA, have either bounced back from the crisis or they largely sidestepped it, buffered by their international operations. But the cajas that went bust trying to compete with the commercial banks have fared less well.

Deutsche Bank AG agreed to sell its 20 percent stake in Huaxia Bank Co. to PICC Property and Casualty Co. as co-Chief Executive John Cryan advances plans to narrow the company’s focus and raise capital buffers, Bloomberg News reported today. The sale will generate as much as 25.7 billion yuan ($4 billion), Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank said today. Cryan, who took over from Anshu Jain in July, is selling assets and reducing bonuses to help raise the company’s financial strength without tapping shareholders for funds.

Russia's finance ministry has proposed to extend the National Wealth Fund's deposits in state development bank Vnesheconombank (VEB) for five years, Reuters reported today. The ministry also suggested that the government should extend the Fund's deposits in VEB at an interest rate of no less than 0.25 percent with a three-year grace period, the document published on the website for official drafts (www.regulation.gov.ru) showed. Read more.

Spanish thermal solar power and engineering firm Abengoa signed an agreement with its creditor banks on Thursday for a 106-million-euro ($116.1 million) credit line to help avert what would be Spain's biggest-ever bankruptcy, Reuters reported. The loan will be used for general corporate necessities, Abengoa said in a statement to the stock market regulator. It is using some shares held in the affiliate Abengoa Yield as collateral, it said. The banks also agreed to free up a further 7 million euros related to a previous loan, backed by the Abengoa Yield shares.