Sofia City Court has said it will have to suspend insolvency proceedings against Corporate Commercial Bank, or KTB, following an appeal by majority owner Bromak, Novinite.com reported. The court said it was informed on Wednesday that Bromak had filed an appeal with the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) over the central bank's decision to withdraw KTB's banking licence, BGNES reported on Thursday.

Cracks are beginning to appear in the vaunted Nordic model. The four main Nordic countries – Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden – still grace the top of most global rankings for happiness, competitiveness, the best place to be a woman and even the best place to be born. That has won them a legion of admirers, from Bill Gates to Scottish nationalists and The Economist, the news magazine, who marvel at the Nordic region’s ability to sustain big welfare systems and competitive economies.

A Swiss financial company embroiled in the Espírito Santo saga is in the process of largely shutting down, according to people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Lausanne-based company, Eurofin Holding SA, is selling or spinning off businesses and winding down asset portfolios, these people said. It is possible that parts of the company will emerge in some form under a different name, one person said.

German television maker Metz has filed for insolvency, a spokesman for the company said on Wednesday, adding that about 600 jobs would be affected, Reuters reported. Joachim Exner, who co-managed the insolvency of German peer Loewe, has been appointed as insolvency administrator, the spokesman said, adding that the company's production and customer services would continue for the time being. Peer Loewe sought protection from creditors in July 2013 and filed for insolvency in October after a strategy to combat the economic downturn by focusing on premium customers failed.

Bulgaria’s parliament Tuesday approved a revised fiscal budget for this year that allows the state to borrow several billion dollars’ worth of foreign and domestic debt via syndicated loans to prop up the country’s deposit insurance fund and fill holes in the strained budget, the finance ministry said, The Wall Street Journal reported. Lawmakers in Sofia approved total new debt of up to 4.5 billion lev ($2.88 billion), of which a maximum of 3 billion lev could come from foreign markets and the remainder from domestic lenders.

German fish processor and distributor Hagenah has entered the preliminary stage of an insolvency process, after failing to recover from a fire at the end of 2012, undercurrent news reported. The company, which has 145 employees and is the largest of its type in Hamburg, had been profitable for many years, said Tjark Thies, partner of the law firm Reimer Rechtsanwalte, appointed as the provisional insolvency administrator.

Ms Justice Marie Baker appointed Declan McDonald of PwC as interim examiner to Karen Millen Irl Ltd, Warehouse Fashion Irl Ltd and Coast Stores Irl Ltd following petitions by Rossa Fanning on behalf of the companies, the Irish Times reported. The court heard the companies have a reasonable prospect of survival if a number of conditions are met including renegotiation of rents and closure of uneconomic stores.

The Singapore arm of bankrupt Danish shipping fuel trader OW Bunker will meet with its liquidator KPMG in early December to discuss the firm's outstanding debt, which totals almost $1.5 billion globally, Reuters reported. OW Bunker, a leading supplier of marine fuel oil known as "bunker", filed for bankruptcy in Denmark earlier this month after it revealed losses of at least $125 million at one of its Singapore-based subsidiaries Dynamic Oil Trading, sending the bunker fuel market into turmoil.

The Bank of Russia had no other option but to let the ruble float freely, and the decision to do so had helped stop it from hitting fresh record lows, Elvira Nabiullina, the bank’s chairwoman, said on Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported. The ruble has lost more than 30% of its value against the dollar so far this year, hit by lower oil prices, capital outflows and Western sanctions stemming from the Ukraine crisis. After $30 billion on intervention failed to stop the ruble from falling to all-time lows in October, the central bank decided to switch to a free float from Nov. 10.

The Bank of Portugal is investigating former management of Banco Espirito Santo over suspected illegal debt issuance via a Swiss go-between to replace liabilities of the collapsed business empire of the bank's founding family with BES debt. Bank of Portugal Governor Carlos Costa told a parliament committee looking into the rescue of BES by the state in August the central bank was also examining alleged concealment of losses by family holding company Espirito Santo International (ESI) that placed its debt via BES to the bank's retail clients.