Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Wednesday that the ailing state development bank Vnesheconombank (VEB) should first sell some of its assets before the ministry gives it financial aid, Reuters reported. Siluanov previously said that the bank will need around $20 billion over the next few years. The government has been debating how to save the bank, with one of the proposals calling for its recapitalisation through domestic treasury bonds. "You must first use VEB's resources ... its accumulated assets," Interfax news agency cited Siluanov as saying.

In a related story, Bloomberg News reported that Abengoa SA’s filing for preliminary creditor protection constitutes a bankruptcy credit event that will trigger payouts on some derivatives insuring its debt, according to the International Swaps & Derivatives Association. ISDA’s determinations committee, a group of 15 dealers and money managers that govern the market, said that credit-default swaps on updated 2003 contracts will be triggered, according to a statement on its website. Contracts using 2014 terms won’t pay out.

Retired solicitor Brian O’Donnell and his wife, Dr Mary Patricia O’Donnell, have lost their Supreme Court appeal aimed at overturning a €71.5m summary judgment order granted against them four years ago. The couple had claimed the High Court judge who entered the judgment against them in favour of Bank of Ireland should not have dealt with their case. This was because the judge, Mr Justice Peter Kelly, now a member of the Court of Appeal, previously held shares in Bank of Ireland and had a business relationship with it, they claimed.

The pain among energy and mining producers is growing more acute as prices of global commodities continued their collapse on Tuesday, the International New York Times reported. The newest victim is the London-based mining firm Anglo American. On Tuesday, the company announced a drastic restructuring, which includes expanding job cuts, suspending its dividend, reducing its business unit and cutting its assets. Anglo American is far from alone, as scores of oil, natural gas, and mining companies are feeling the pain from low prices.

Germany’s finance minister has warned he is prepared to go to court to overturn Brussels’ plans for a eurozone-wide deposit guarantee scheme, the Financial Times reported. The move is the starkest warning yet that the region’s most powerful member is implacably opposed to the proposal in its current form. In a sign of heightened tension over the deposit insurance plan, Wolfgang Schäuble also fired a shot across the bow of the European Central Bank for advocating it, saying Frankfurt was improperly intervening in a policy beyond its monetary remit.

AIB is seeking summary judgment for €2.8 million and €3.4 million in separate but related cases against two businessmen arising from loans made for property investments, the Irish Times reported. The bank’s cases against Ivor O’Brien, Sheestown, Co Kilkenny, and Bryan Hanrahan, Raggetsland, Warrington, Co Kilkenny, were admitted to the Commercial Court by Mr Justice Brian McGovern on the application of AIB. There was no appearance for the two men.

Lotus have won another two-week breathing space in insolvency proceedings brought against the Formula One team by the taxman, RTÉ reported. Mr Justice Birss granted the adjournment until December 21 after hearing that a share purchase agreement was due to be completed on December 16, with the £1.4million due to HM Revenue & Customs paid off shortly afterwards. Other creditors, owed in excess of £2million, would be paid by December 31, counsel Jeremy Bamford told London's High Court on Monday.

Russia's VTB bank has not yet decided whether to buy a stake in indebted steelmaker Mechel's Elga coal mine project together with Gazprombank, VTB's head Andrei Kostin said on Monday, Reuters reported. Kostin told journalists that VTB is waiting to hear whether state development bank Vnesheconombank (VEB) decides to finance the Elga project in Russia's far east. Should VEB decide not to issue a credit line to Elga, VTB will most likely decide against buying the miner's shares, Kostin added.

Greece’s parliament early Sunday approved the country’s 2016 budget, which projects a flat-lining economy for 2015 and a mild contraction for the next year but foresees billions in fresh austerity measures, The Wall Street Journal reported. In a vote after a five-day debate in Greece’s 300-seat parliament, the budget--which traditionally is seen as a vote of confidence--was supported by the 153 lawmakers of the coalition government. The budget is the first to be put before parliament by the Syriza-led government, which won national elections in January and again in September.

Spain's industry minister criticised energy and engineering group Abengoa on Friday for handing out multi-million euro payoffs to executives in the months before the indebted company entered into pre-insolvency talks with creditors, Reuters reported. Jose Manuel Soria said executives at Abengoa, which could face Spain's largest-ever bankruptcy, had not invested wisely, given the financial cost of the group's accumulated debt was far greater than its cash flow and income.