In a related story, Bloomberg News reported that a committee of credit-default swaps traders said that Ukraine’s decision to freeze bond payments may trigger payouts on contracts insuring against losses on the country’s debt. The ruling is the first step toward a so-called credit event that would allow the settlement of about $396 million of the derivatives contracts, the International Swaps & Derivatives Association said on its website Wednesday. Ukraine would have to actually miss the payment before any final decision is made, the group said.

The personal insolvency law could have a budget impact of EUR 271 million in five years, Romania-Insider.co reported. This has been calculated based on the total number of potential insolvencies, which amounts to 800,000, and the monthly tariff of RON 100 – 300 (EUR 22.6 – 68) per file, which would be covered by the state, said Alexandru Stanescu, consultant within the World Bank. However, this was not a bank’s analysis, but a personal one, an estimation, Stanescu added. The Government should have mentioned the budgetary impact of this law, and the tariffs that administrators will charge.

Alexis Tsipras moved swiftly to form a new Greek government on Monday after his convincing victory in the national election a day earlier, with some officials close to him suggesting that he would create a new ministry solely dedicated to carrying out the tough bailout package he reluctantly agreed to last summer, the International New York Times reported. While Sunday’s election consolidated his power and rid his leftist Syriza party of its most rebellious faction, Mr.

The Federal Reserve’s inaction last week remains the main driver of market sentiment, at least for now — but attention will soon turn toward potential action at other central banks, the Financial Times reported. Not least in Sweden, where the Riksbank faces a further test of its monetary policy mettle. It has taken rates more deeply into negative territory than any other central bank in the developed world, reversing a series of rate increases made in 2010-2011. The about-face came as the effects of the wider, global financial crisis proved more stubborn than it expected.

Ireland is to become one of the first countries to introduce measures aimed at ensuring multinationals disclose more information to tax authorities, the Irish Times reported. In the upcoming budget, the Government will introduce moves obliging multinationals to draft country-by-country reports on their global activities, according to sources. If enacted the new rules could affect our biggest corporations, such as CRH, Glanbia, Kerry and Ryanair, as well as major foreign multinationals that have located their global headquarters here over recent years for tax reasons.

Greek leftist Alexis Tsipras stormed back into office with an unexpectedly decisive election victory on Sunday, claiming a clear mandate to steer Greece's battered economy to recovery, Reuters reported. The vote ensured Europe's most outspoken leftist leader would remain Greece's dominant political figure, despite having been abandoned by party radicals last month after he caved in to demands for austerity to win a bailout from the euro zone.

Ukraine’s central bank declared a top 10 bank insolvent that is majority-owned by multimillionaire Kostyantyn Zhevago and where his London-listed Ferrexpo – the nation’s largest pellet exporter – has $174 million, or 62 percent, of its deposits, the Kyiv Post reported. At close of business on Sept. 17, the National Bank of Ukraine took the bank, the nation’s 10th largest by assets, into receivership after Zhevago failed to contribute liquidity, mainly by not repaying related-party loans to the bank by selling his non-core assets.

Britain's second-largest steelmaker, SSI UK, said on Friday it was halting operations at its Redcar plant in northeast England, calling into question the future of its business and putting 2,000 jobs at risk. The company, a unit of Thailand's largest steelmaker Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI), said a sharp decline in steel prices had hurt its business. Thai banking sources told Reuters that SSI has debts of about 47-48 billion baht ($1.3 bln) related to its UK business and was negotiating with creditors on a debt restructuring, with talks expected to conclude next week.

The Federal Reserve’s decision Thursday to keep interest rates pinned near zero could put added pressure on the European Central Bank to step up its own stimulus efforts to keep the euro’s exchange rate from strengthening too much and derailing Europe’s fragile economic recovery, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Fed kept interest rates unchanged after a two-day meeting that concluded Thursday in one of the most hotly anticipated meetings in years. A recovering U.S. economy with falling unemployment had fanned expectations that the Fed would start slowing raising interest rates.

Switzerland’s economic growth will stay below its potential this year and next, the government said. Output will expand 0.9 per cent in 2015 and 1.5 per cent in 2016, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs in Bern said on Thursday, the Irish Times reported. Its previous prediction, issued in June, was for growth of 0.8 per cent and 1.6 per cent, respectively. Economic growth has slowed after the Swiss National Bank gave up its cap on the franc eight months ago.