American companies have plowed more money into the Netherlands than any other country in the world — for five years running. This does not reflect a new fascination with pot or pancakes, the International New York Times reported. It is about the taxes, or lack of them. The laws in Netherlands shield a variety of profits from taxation, making it attractive for big multinational companies like Starbucks, Google and IBM to set up offices. Even rock stars like the Rolling Stones and U2 have taken advantage of Dutch tax shelters.

More than a trillion euros of government bonds may have to change hands if eurozone regulators press ahead with ambitions to toughen rules governing banks’ sovereign debt holdings, new analysis shows, the Financial Times reported. A limit on banks’ exposure to their own government’s debt could prompt a €1.1tn rebalancing of euro area sovereign debt portfolios, mostly away from banks’ home governments, according a report from Fitch Ratings. The biggest impact would be felt in the German government debt markets, as banks were forced to shed €330bn of Bunds.

For many people in Central and Eastern Europe, a new experience began a quarter-century ago. Communist governments collapsed, and the wide world of private ownership, democracy and free markets opened up suddenly. It was not always a happy transition, the International New York Times reported. This month, even as Germans were celebrating the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Hungarian government was passing laws and issuing edicts aimed at helping a large proportion of the populace recover from the mistake of buying houses with loans denominated in Swiss francs.

Ireland moved close to an accord on repaying International Monetary Fund bailout loans early, with Sweden set to become the last European Union nation to agree, the Irish Times reported. The Swedish parliament’s finance committee today unanimously proposed to allow Ireland to refinance IMF funds without triggering similar payments on its lower-cost European loans. Sweden is the last EU approval needed, and a vote by parliament in Stockholm is scheduled for November 19, Lars Widlund, a civil servant at the committee, said by phone today.

Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Europe’s oldest bank and one of its most troubled, on Wednesday reported a loss of 797 million euros, or $991 million, in the third quarter after it drastically increased the amount of money set aside to cover problem loans, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. The loss comes as Monte dei Paschi, which is based in Italy, is struggling to make up a capital shortfall exposed by the European Central Bank as part of a bank cleanup.

A flurry of firms have filed lawsuits against the Singapore units of bankrupt Danish shipping fuel trader OW Bunker, with claims totalling more than S$5 million, and traders say this is likely just the beginning of a wave of court actions. Court documents seen by Reuters showed that the overall amount of claims made against OW Bunker Far East and Dynamic Oil Trading, both Singapore-based subsidiaries of the Danish firm, over unpaid supplies now total around S$5.3 million ($4.11 million) made by nearly half a dozen companies.

International bondholders advised by Rothschild are recommending a change in control at Ukrainian agricultural company Mriya Agro Holding Plc as the grower of crops from wheat to potatoes seeks to restructure about $1 billion of debt, Bloomberg News reported. Tensions have increased since Mriya said in August it missed payments on some of its obligations. Rothschild, which is representing a group of creditors including Ashmore Investment Management Ltd, T. Rowe Price Associates Inc.

Vivarte SAS’s loans tumbled to their lowest levels since the French retailer was taken over by creditors last month, according to three people familiar with the matter. The company’s 800 million euros ($997 million) of senior loans fell to 63 cents on the euro, down about 20 cents since the start of November, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. The loans are part of Vivarte’s remaining debt after lenders wrote off about 2 billion euros in a restructuring that completed on Oct. 29.

Sweden’s financial watchdog is proposing tighter rules for people taking out new mortgages as the country seeks to manage rising levels of household debt, The Wall Street Journal reported. Finansinspektionen, the Swedish financial supervisory authority also known as FI, said Tuesday it plans to make it mandatory for those taking out mortgages over 50% of the value of a property to pay the mortgage down over a period of time. Those whose mortgage is over 70% of the value of the property will be expected to pay the loan down by 2% a year until it falls to 70%, FI said.

Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) has asked the Supreme Court to overturn a decision permitting the family of bankrupt businessman Sean Quinn advance legal claims which could lead to their avoiding liability for €2.34 billion loans, the Irish Times reported. Patricia Quinn and her five children say they had no knowledge of activities surrounding the loans made to Quinn companies by IBRC’s predecessor, Anglo Irish Bank. They claim the loans were illegal because they were used to support the bank’s share price and they cannot therefore be made liable for them.