The family of businessman Sean Quinn say they are “innocent parties” to €2.34 billion loan transactions involving Quinn group companies and therefore should be allowed amend their claim for their pending action denying liability for those loans, the Irish Times reported. The family want to amend their claim in light of a recent Supreme Court decision on a key preliminuary issue in their case.

Greek leaders have fought fiercely in recent months with politicians from other European countries over relief on Greece’s vast debt load, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. Yet the power to decide the fate of Greece lies not just in the hands of these national governments, but also with unelected officials at two powerful institutions: the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Each is a creditor to Greece, and each is expecting the country to repay it billions of dollars of debt in the coming weeks. The influence of the E.C.B.

Anbang Insurance Group of China is in talks to buy the large real-estate arm of the failed German lender Hypo Real Estate AG, in a potential billion-euro deal that would expand a global shopping spree by the Beijing-based firm, according to people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported. State-owned bank Hypo Real Estate, based in Munich, has said it is working to sell its real-estate lending division, Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG, known as PBB, through either an initial public offering or an outright sale.

Hungary's government is open to discussions of a new law on personal bankruptcy if the junior governing Christian Democrats propose it to Parliament, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Chief of Staff Janos Lazar told a press conference on Thursday, Reuters reported. Lazar added the new legislation, if passed, could affect 100,000-150,000 private borrowers who have run into trouble in the central European country.

New laws later this year are set to stop banks from being able to stop mortgage holders from entering an insolvency arrangement, the Irish Examiner reported. The Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, has given the clearest hint yet that a new authority will be set up to remove the veto from banks. The move follows complaints from opposition TDs that banks have been using their veto to stop mortgage customers from entering an insolvency process to escape some of their debts. Noonan told the Dáil that the Government now accepts the system needs reform, and that it will be changed soon.

There have been so many “make-or-break” moments for Athens since Greece’s debt crisis first shook markets five years ago,that it is difficult to know when things might really break, the Financial Times reported. But this much is clear: unless Greece and its international creditors agree a deal soon to close out the country’s €172bn bailout, and then quickly agree another rescue, Athens is likely to run out of money and default on its debts. That would push it perilously close to crashing out of the eurozone.

Anbang Insurance Group of China is in talks to buy the large real-estate arm of the failed German lender Hypo Real Estate AG, in a potential billion-euro deal that would expand a global shopping spree by the Beijing-based firm, according to people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported. State-owned bank Hypo Real Estate, based in Munich, has said it is working to sell its real-estate lending division, Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG, known as PBB, through either an initial public offering or an outright sale.

Serbia will not ask the International Monetary Fund to let it continue protecting indebted state-operated firms from creditors, Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said on Wednesday, reversing government policy, Reuters reported. An IMF mission this week started its review of Serbia's 1.2 billion euro ($1.36 billion), three-year precautionary loan deal, which, amongst other things, envisions the state selling or reforming a number of unprofitable and indebted companies.

Italian businessman Philippe Camperio is spearheading efforts to rescue troubled luxury hat maker Borsalino after it lost millions of euros in 2013, the company said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. In March the hat maker, which has helped clothe politicians, celebrities and movie stars the world over, said it was looking at ways to stay afloat after running into financial straits.

A group campaigning for the reduction of variable mortgage rates will call for a legal cap on the amount banks can charge borrowers at a meeting in Dublin on Thursday evening, the Irish Times reported. The SVR Campaign, led by consumer advocate Brendan Burgess, is hoping to get Irish based banks to reduce their mortgage rates. One of the suggestions to be proposed as a way of achieving this is for the government to apply a cap of 3 per cent on the amount banks can charge standard variable rate (SVR) customers.