Finnish miner Talvivaara, hurt by falling nickel prices and production problems, said it would seek a court-supervised overhaul after failing to raise funds and might face bankruptcy if the reorganisation failed, Reuters reported. Friday's announcement, which sent Talvivaara shares down 43 percent to a record low, was made after the group failed to raise more cash from investors including Finnish state investment fund Solidium, which decided additional investment was not viable.

European Union finance ministers struggled to advance a bank-failure plan for the euro area today, hampered by the interregnum in Berlin and persistent divisions on basic points. Ministers will be pressed to meet a year-end deadline to broker an accord after cutting short talks in Brussels today, the Irish Times reported. The bloc’s 28 nations are split on who should be the ultimate decision-maker in the planned Single Resolution Mechanism, whether it should be backed by a central fund and which banks should be covered.

Insolvent German home improvement store chain Max Bahr is to enter liquidation after talks to sell the retailer to rival Hellweg failed, its administrator said on Friday. Max Bahr's parent Praktiker is already being liquidated after the administrator failed to find a buyer for the whole group. The Max Bahr negotiations were at an advanced stage but collapsed over demands from Royal Bank of Scotland, owner of 66 of the chain's 73 buildings, the administrator said. He added that 3,600 jobs are now at risk.

U.K. households reported that their finances deteriorated at the fastest pace for seven months in November, as weak pay growth and rising inflation expectations combined to limit cash availability, a survey showed Monday, highlighting the underlying fragility of the recovering economy, The Wall Street Journal reported. Data firm Markit's monthly household finances index fell to a balance of 38.8 in November from October's 41.0--the lowest since April--reflecting concerns over low pay rises and the recent increases in energy prices announced by several suppliers.

Germany challenged a central plank of plans to forge a banking union in the euro zone on Thursday, arguing against the use of the currency bloc's funds to help lenders exposed as dangerously weak by health checks next year, Reuters reported. As finance ministers gathered in Brussels to outline plans to deal with banks still in difficulty, Germany's finance minister hardened his stance on the use of the bloc's emergency fund, according to people close to the talks.

Ireland and Spain said Thursday they could stand on their own feet once their bailout programs end in the coming months, marking significant steps as the euro zone battles to exit a four-year debt crisis, The Wall Street Journal reported. The currency union's finance ministers hailed the decisions as signs that their strategy of budget cuts, economic overhauls and long-term rescue loans was working.

Top shareholder Air France-KLM refused a plea for cash on Thursday to rescue Alitalia, saying a new business plan was not enough to save the stricken Italian carrier unless its creditors also write off some of its huge debts, Reuters reported. Alitalia, which was privatised in 2008, has been unprofitable for more than a decade and has been stuck in a months-long tussle with Air France-KLM over whether to keep their strategic and financial partnership alive.

KBC Bank Ireland chief executive John Reynolds is to step down after almost 30 years with the company, the Irish Times reported. The Belgian lender also announced it would need to make a provision of up to €775 million in the fourth quarter for potentially lost loans and mortgages in its Irish loan book. This was as a result of moving restructured mortgages from a non-impaired status to an impaired status, it said. In a statement this morning, the bank said Mr Reynolds, who has been chief executive of the company for four years, is leaving to pursue other interests.

Spain's biggest consumer appliance company Fagor said on Wednesday it had started insolvency proceedings after failing to reach a deal on debt which it needed to keep going as sales fell, Reuters reported. Spanish bankruptcies have risen steadily this year, after a prolonged economic downturn that sapped consumer spending and as bank lending falls. Fagor, however, was part of the Mondragon group in the northern Basque Country region, a large cooperative seen as a flexible organisation that was riding out the crisis. Fagor is the fifth-largest electrical appliance company in Europe.

Germany's status as Europe’s industrial powerhouse could be damaging the single-currency bloc, the European Commission has said, as it launched a probe into whether the country’s large trade surplus was hindering Europe’s recovery, The Telegraph reported. Europe’s biggest economy was one of three countries singled out for an “in-depth review” by the EC’s Alert Mechanism Report on Wednesday. The Commission said Germany’s large current account surplus, which accounts for most of the eurozone’s positive balance, “may put pressure on the euro to appreciate vis-à-vis other currencies.