Corporate debt restructurings will become easier in France under proposals being considered by lawmakers to restrict shareholder involvement in the process, Bloomberg News reported. France’s Parliament will begin discussions today on a reform bill to bolster the nation’s growth potential. Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron is proposing to speed up insolvency procedures by making it simpler for companies to negotiate with lenders.

Greece alone would be responsible for winding down any problem bank this year and cannot count on help from other European bank resolution funds, the head of Germany's financial watchdog, soon to lead the EU's bank resolution authority, said on Wednesday. "For everything up to Dec. 31, the Greek national resolution authority is responsible," Elke Koenig told a journalist briefing at supervisor Bafin's headquarters. Tensions remain high as Greece, the EU and the ECB wrestle over how deal with the Mediterranean country's massive debt.

Eurozone finance ministers failed to narrow their deep differences with Greece on Wednesday over how to keep the country from running out of money as it tries to revise the terms of its bailout, the International New York Times reported. After holding more than five hours of talks here with Yanis Varoufakis, the combative finance minister from the newly elected anti-austerity government in Athens, the ministers said they would need to meet again on Monday.

The US has urged Athens and its eurozone creditors to strike a deal over Greece’s financial future, underlining international concern about the global economic fallout from a prolonged stand-off over the country’s bailout, the Financial Times reported. Jack Lew, US Treasury secretary, called on both sides to be “practical and pragmatic” in seeking to resolve their differences and warned that a prolonged confrontation risked destabilising the EU. The Obama administration has intervened regularly in the five-year-old eurozone crisis, particularly at its 2011-12 peak.

British bank HSBC Holdings Plc admitted failings by its Swiss subsidiary in response to media reports it helped wealthy customers dodge taxes and conceal millions of dollars of assets. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which coordinated the reporting, said a list of people who held HSBC accounts in Switzerland included soccer and tennis professionals, rock stars and Hollywood actors. Reuters could not independently verify any of the names listed by the ICIJ. Having a Swiss bank account is not illegal and many are held for legitimate purposes.

Elvira S. Nabiullina, the governor of Russia’s central bank, was deep into a speech about her new currency policy when it became clear nobody was paying attention. Her audience, chief Russia economists from a dozen or so foreign banks, were looking down at their laps to nervously check their smartphones. The ruble, which had been slowly slipping after a predawn interest rate increase by the central bank, had just plunged 19 percent.

Hoping to defuse a standoff that has set Europe and financial markets on edge, Greek officials intend to propose a detailed compromise plan at an emergency meeting with creditors on Wednesday in Brussels, a finance ministry official here said on Monday. The plan will include the possibility of tapping part of a bailout loan disbursement of 7 billion euros, or $7.9 billion, that Athens had been saying it would reject, according to the official, who insisted on anonymity because the plans had not yet been made public, the International New York Times reported.

Ireland will insist that any new or better deal secured by Greece will also apply to Ireland, Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney has said, the Irish Times reported. Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras yesterday ruled out requesting an extension of the Greek bailout when meeting his European counterparts at a summit in Brussels this week. Rather than an extension of the bailout when it expires on February 28th, Mr Tsipras reiterated his demand for a bridge programme to tide the country over until June, when a more long-standing loan arrangement can be established.

The Swiss National Bank ’s decision to scrap its cap on the franc’s value will weigh on the Alpine country’s economy and could lead to one or two quarters of contraction, the head of the central bank, Thomas Jordan, said Saturday. The Zurich-based SNB stunned financial markets last month when it abandoned its 3½-year-old cap for the franc-euro, sending the Swiss stock market plunging and pushing the franc sharply higher, The Wall Street Journal reported. The SNB had no option but to exit its minimum exchange rate policy as “the international environment had changed,” Mr.

The board of troubled British insurance company Towergate has agreed a deal with its bondholders, which will see the company taken over by its unsecured creditors, the company said on Friday. News of the deal had earlier been confirmed to IFR by a source close to the situation. Under the terms of the deal the unsecured bondholders led by Highbridge Capital Management, KKR and Sankaty will between them provide 300 million pounds ($457.26 million)of cash, 250 million pounds of which will used to pay senior secured bondholders, with 50 million pounds invested into Towergate itself.