The two biggest foreign banks in Russia have been heavily tapping the rouble bond market to replace funding from their parent companies in Europe as they rush to reduce their exposure to the country, the Financial Times reported. Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International and France’s Société Générale, which operate the two biggest foreign-owned bank branch networks in Russia, have both issued large amounts of rouble bonds for their Moscow-based operations in recent weeks.

The European Union is preparing to reject France’s 2015 budget, according to European officials, setting up a clash that would be the biggest test yet of new powers for Brussels that were designed to prevent a repeat of the eurozone’s sovereign-debt crisis, The Wall Street Journal reported. French Finance Minister Michel Sapin said last month that his country would run a budget deficit of 4.3% of gross domestic product next year—far from the 3% deficit it had previously pledged.

There were around 28,000 new insolvency procedures in Romania last year, and this year this figure could reach or even exceed 30,000, said Valentina Burdescu, director of the Bulletin of Insolvency Procedures (BPI), during the second National Insolvency Conference, Balkans.com reported. She said that companies in the services, commerce, constructions, HORECA (hotels, restaurants, cafees) and transport sectors are prone to go into insolvency, a situation that has remained rather unchanged in the last years. “Most of the procedures are simplified and (e.n.

The European Central Bank’s plans to buy rebundled packages of debt have drawn sharp criticism from officials in Germany, including the head of the Bundesbank, the ECB’s former chief economist and allies of chancellor Angela Merkel, the Irish Times reported. On Thursday, the ECB laid out plans to buy reparcelled debt and covered bonds, secured on solid assets such as property. It will include buying debt with a “junk” credit rating from Greece and Cyprus as long as such countries are under a formal international financial programme.

A Luxembourg court on Friday rejected a request by two holding companies of Portugal's Espirito Santo family for "controlled management", a sort of bankruptcy protection from creditors, Reuters reported. Espirito Santo Financial Group (ESFG) and its subsidiary Espirito Santo Financiere SA still have the right to appeal, and the court has yet to decide on two other holding companies controlled by the family. ESFG is Banco Espirito Santo's largest shareholder, and is controlled by the bank's founding Espirito Santo family.

German property company IVG Immobilien has started looking for a buyer for its office and hotel building The Squaire as it seeks to offload legacy assets after emerging from insolvency last month, its chief executive said. IVG became insolvent after being weighed down by debt and cost overruns. The Squaire, which sits perched on top of the train station at Frankfurt airport, has been one of its most problematic assets. "We are taking The Squaire to the market. We have been in talks with potential investors since September," Ralf Jung told Reuters in an interview published on Thursday.

Antonis Samaras’s ambition to drive Greece out of its rescue program is running into a roadblock, Bloomberg News reported. The country’s prime minister might be thwarted by conditions for the European Central Bank’s asset-purchase program, as detailed by President Mario Draghi. Policy makers meeting in Naples yesterday were resolute that Greece should stay under economic surveillance to be eligible, according to a euro-zone central-bank official involved in the negotiations. The official asked not to be named, as talks are private.

UK short-term lender Wonga is writing off the debt of around 330,000 customers worth about 220 million pounds ($356 million), after being forced to overhaul its lending practices by Britain's financial regulator, Reuters reported. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said on Thursday Wonga had entered into a so-called voluntary requirement agreement to make the changes, which ensures immediate redress for consumers while allowing the regulator to continue investigations and possible enforcement action.

Two European airports and airlines including Ryanair Holdings PLC and Deutsche Lufthansa AG's low cost carrier will be required to pay back millions of euros in illegal subsidies, European Union regulators said Wednesday, as part of a broader investigation into the use of public funds to support regional airports, The Wall Street Journal reported. The European Commission, which enforces the 28-member bloc's competition rules, said financial aid granted to the airports of Zweibrücken in Germany and Charleroi in Belgium had violated EU law.

The European Central Bank said it will start purchasing private sector assets as soon as this month, in an attempt to revive lending in the eurozone and stave off the risk of deflation, the Financial Times reported. The ECB governing council opted to leave its benchmark interest rate at 0.05 per cent. The deposit rate charged on a portion of banks’ reserves parked at the ECB stayed at 0.2 per cent.