In a world of negative interest rates, it certainly pays to be a borrower, Shakespeare’s concerns notwithstanding, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. But such a world is a strange place, especially for a restructuring lawyer. Up is down, and lenders might benefit from defaults. This is something of a theoretical exercise at this point. European sovereign nations have issued debt with negative returns, with Austria being the most recent. Some European corporations have gone negative in the market, but the issuer does not benefit from that.

The central bank pushed lending rates even higher Tuesday in an attempt to stabilize Ukraine’s beleaguered currency and hold its financial system together until promised international loans arrive later this month, The Wall Street Journal reported. The move comes as the government hurried to complete painful overhauls—including raising energy prices and cutting pensions—to meet the terms of a deal with the International Monetary Fund. The IMF will decide next week whether to approve a $17.5-billion bailout to prop up the conflict-torn country’s finances.

In the face of growing criticism of the current personal insolvency laws, the government has acknowledged that the current regime needs to be “energised”, TheJournal.ie reported. The coalition will oppose Fianna Fáil’s Family Home Mortgage Settlement Arrangement Bill in the Dáil tonight. The draft law essentially removes the controversial bank veto on proposals to restructure a family home mortgage through the personal insolvency process.

As many as 14,000 staff in the investment banking arm of Royal Bank of Scotland face the axe in the coming years as the bailed-out bank retrenches from its expansion into the US and Asia, The Guardian reported. The scale of the cutbacks – which would represent four in five jobs in investment banking – emerged after last week’s remarks by Ross McEwan, the boss of the 81%-taxpayer bank, that substantial numbers of jobs would be lost.

A political clash between Spain and Greece deepened after a top Spanish official said Greece is negotiating a third bailout with the European Union, a claim denied by a representative of the eurozone’s finance ministers, The Wall Street Journal reported. Talks on a new bailout would be a severe embarrassment for the Greek government, which is still balking at the terms of the current one.

Ten Airways (X5, Bucharest Baneasa) has filed for insolvency protection with a Bucharest court which, if granted on March 5, will allow the airline to restructure and resume operations. The carrier recently had its Air Operators Certificate (AOC) reinstated by the Romanian civil aviation authority (Autoritatea Aeronautică Civilă Română - AACR) roughly a month after it was initially revoked, the carrier's managing director Dumitru Pupescu has confirmed to ch-aviation. The Mediafax news agency reports the airline's largest creditors are its employees who are still owed outstanding wages.

Creditors of Austrian "bad bank" Heta Asset Resolution may face debt haircuts or the prospect of having the wind-down vehicle for defunct lender Hypo Alpe Adria eventually go bankrupt, the co-head of Austria's financial watchdog said, Reuters reported. The Financial Market Authority stepped in on Sunday to take control of Heta and imposed a debt repayment moratorium after the government refused to plug a looming capital hole exposed by an outside audit. The FMA now needs to work out a plan that treats all creditors equally.

Barclays chief executive Antony Jenkins is on Tuesday set to accept his first bonus since taking charge three years ago, in a sign that bankers are showing less restraint even though pay remains a political flashpoint, the Financial Times reported. Of the UK’s biggest banks only one chief executive — Ross McEwan of Royal Bank of Scotland — has declined to take an award for 2014. HSBC rejected calls for bonuses to be cut in response to the tax evasion scandal at its Swiss private bank, arguing this dated back to 2005-2007, before the current management team took over.

Russia sharply raised the amount it plans to draw from its reserve fund to support this year’s budget, as revenues fall along with oil prices and Western sanctions cut the country off from international financing, The Wall Street Journal reported. In addition to tapping the fund—money the government put aside in the years when oil prices were high—spending by ministries and departments will be cut 10% to keep the deficit from growing too much, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Friday.

Greece’s cash-strapped government suggested in the past week that it might default on some of the debt it owes the International Monetary Fund in March, which would make it the first advanced economy in the institution’s seven-decade history to fall into protracted arrears with the fund, The Wall Street Journal reported. It would also put the new Athens government on a par with a small group of mostly conflict-ravaged debtors that have stiffed the IMF—a list that includes Afghanistan’s Taliban, Zimbabwe strongman Robert Mugabe and coup-stricken Haiti.