Austria's finance minister no longer rules out letting nationalised lender Hypo Alpe Adria go bust, he told a newspaper, softening his earlier position, Reuters reported. Michael Spindelegger said he would still prefer to get commercial banks to support a "bad bank" that would absorb toxic assets from Hypo, which Austria had to nationalise in 2009, but said he would now consider other options. "If no solution is found with the banks, nothing is ruled out. For me, it's about finding the most favourable solution for taxpayers.

Greece has met the conditions demanded of it by its international creditors and should get its promised bailout funds, central bank Governor George Provopoulos said Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported. In a speech at a London think-tank, Mr. Provopoulos said that his country had posted a primary budget surplus in 2013, a key condition for aid loans from the euro zone and International Monetary Fund under the agreement struck in November 2012.

Siac’s future remains undecided after three creditors claiming they are owed a total of more than €30 million yesterday challenged a proposed rescue plan for the construction group in the High Court, the Irish Times reported. Investors, including owners the Feighery family, director Finn Lyden, French group Colas and private backer Ducales, are willing to put €10.5 million into the troubled group under the terms of a rescue plan proposed by High Court-appointed examiner Michael McAteer of Grant Thornton.

A disorderly insolvency of nationalised Austrian lender Hypo Alpe Adria could cost nearly 25 billion euros ($34 billion), the central bank has warned the government, a newspaper reported on Thursday. Der Standard reported that a letter sent in November by the central bank and a special Hypo task force said letting Hypo go bust may quickly cost the public sector and subordinated creditors of Hypo up to 16 billion euros.

Commerzbank has sold some of its property loans in Spain, as it continues to rid itself of the assets held in its so-called “bad bank”, the Financial Times reported. The German lender said it had sold non-performing loans worth €710m from its Spanish commercial property portfolio to undisclosed “international investors”. The sale follows reports in recent days that Commerzbank is in talks with private equity companies Apollo and Cerberus to offload its entire Spanish property portfolio, which is now worth a little more than €4bn, according to one person familiar with the situation.

Spanish gaming group Codere failed to reach an agreement with bondholders over a major debt restructuring on Thursday, increasing pressure on the company as it battles to avoid insolvency, Reuters reported. The bingo hall and casino owner is struggling to keep up with debt payments because of higher tax bills and other costs and is one of many Spanish companies grappling with high debt levels even as the country emerges from recession.

The first protective certificate in a High Court personal insolvency case was issued yesterday for a woman with debts of about €2.5 million, which she cannot repay, the Irish Times reported. Although such certificates protecting a debtor from bankruptcy proceedings have already been issued at Circuit Court level, the case was the first of its kind to be dealt with in the High Court. Ms Justice Marie Baker said she was satisfied to issue the certificate, having considered the application from the new Insolvency Service of Ireland.

Barclays will begin to hand out bonuses on Friday to its 140,000 staff around the world from a bonus pool expected to be bigger than last year's, The Guardian reported. In a move that could inflame relationships with shareholders after the bank's £5.8bn cash call last year, the bank is thought to be planning to hand out larger bonuses to some employees than a year ago to prevent top staff quitting for higher-paying rivals. This time a year ago the bank handed out a total of almost £2.2bn in bonuses – £1.8bn for the 2012 financial year and another £300m in deferred payments.

Hopes that Punch Taverns might finally be able to put its debt woes behind it appeared to be dashed on Wednesday as lenders to the pubs group dismissed a financial restructuring plan as “unsignable” and “flawed”. Bondholders reacted angrily to a last minute plea by Stephen Billingham, the executive chairman of Punch Taverns, to back a deal to restructure the group’s £2.3bn debt pile, which will be put to the vote next Friday. Punch, which is the second biggest pub landlord in the UK with some 4,000 properties, last month published a final proposal to solve the group’s complex debt problems.

The European Commission’s proposals to extend cross-border insolvencies to rescue proceedings has received backing from the European Parliament today, with 580 votes in support, Insolvency News reported. The proposed changes received only 69 votes in opposition and 19 abstentions. As the proposal has been approved by one of the European Union’s two co-legislators, the focus will shift to the member states in the Council to reach an agreement on the draft law along with the European Parliament for it to enter the EU’s statute book.