Ulster Bank was not aware of an alleged £25-30 million black hole in one-time property giant Taggart Group’s finances, the High Court heard Thursday, the Irish Times reported. A senior banker who was part of the firm’s relationship management team claimed information that emerged later showed it was not a well-run business. Richard Ennis was giving evidence as part of the bank’s multi-million pound legal battle with former housebuilding tycoons Michael and John Taggart.

Greece is headed toward a potentially destructive standoff with Europe after Germany rejected a last-minute request on Thursday to extend its loan program, the International New York Times reported. Unless the two sides can bridge their differences, Greece could find itself cut off from its financial lifeline and facing insolvency. The country’s current bailout program is set to expire in little more than a week. Neither country seems willing to budge at this point.

The European Union looks set to reduce capital charges on some securitised debt to revive a market that triggered the global financial crisis, but is now seen as key to funding the region’s flagging economy, the Irish Times reported. The EU’s executive European Commission said it was planning to create a new class of high quality, simple, asset-backed securities that could benefit from lighter capital requirements, and help to plug funding gaps in Europe.

Greek officials are planning to submit a proposal to eurozone finance ministers for breaking the impasse in debt negotiations between the new government in Athens and Greece’s European creditors, the International New York Times reported. Athens on Thursday will propose an extension of several months to the current bailout program, a government spokesman, Gavriil Sakellaridis, said on Wednesday. He declined to discuss specifics, including the length of the extension being sought, citing the delicacy of the negotiations.

The board of Petropavlovsk PLC warned Wednesday that it could face insolvency should its proposed refinancing plan not be passed by shareholders and urged shareholders to vote in favour of the plan, following a call to oppose the proposals from Sapinda Holdings BV Tuesday.

As Athens and Brussels engage in a showdown over Greek debt, the ultimate power broker may reside in neither of those European capitals, the International New York Times reported. Instead, the outcome may largely be determined in Frankfurt, where Mario Draghi presides over the European Central Bank. The new leftist-led Greek government, facing a Friday deadline for coming to terms or risking a cutoff of loan money, plans to submit a new proposal on Thursday.

Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland are set to impose a cap on cash bonuses for the sixth consecutive year, in line with previous agreements made with the Government body that holds the taxpayer’s shares in the banks, The Telegraph reported. The two banks negotiate with UKFI each year before setting their bonuses. As well as adhering to European rules that cap bonuses at a maximum of 200pc of base salary, Lloyds and RBS are expected to limit cash rewards to £2,000 per employee, in line with a long-standing agreement with UKFI.

Greece will seek an extension to its rescue deal from the rest of the eurozone Wednesday, two officials with knowledge of the situation said, marking an apparent shift in the standoff between Athens and its creditors, The Wall Street Journal reported. The extension of what the officials called Greece’s “loan agreement” could be for a period of four to six months, preventing the country’s current deal with the eurozone from expiring at the end of February and giving it time to negotiate a new bailout. The conditions attached to the request were still under negotiation, they said.

The European Central Bank is unlikely to pull the plug on emergency funding for Greek banks this week despite a standoff between Athens and its international lenders, according to sources, the Irish Times reported. The ECB’s governing council meets on Wednesday and will review the provision of so-called Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) to Greek banks, as Greece is at loggerheads with euro zone governments over the future of its international bailout, which expires at the end of this month.

The Bank of Portugal on Tuesday stuck to a decision to keep a loan linked to Goldman Sachs in a "bad bank" carved out after the rescue of Banco Espirito Santo (BES), putting the central bank and Goldman Sachs on course for a legal battle. The central bank said any remaining doubts could only be clarified in court. Goldman responded that it intended "to pursue all appropriate legal remedies without delay". The Wall Street bank and some of its clients lent BES $835 million in July last year using an entity it created called Oak Finance Luxembourg SA.