A Romanian court has approved the insolvency request for construction company Alpine and appointed Casa de Insolvență Transilvania as judiciary administrator, Romania-Insider.com reported. The Romanian subsidiary of Austrian Alpine Bau Gmbh became insolvent after its parent company declared bankruptcy. It has also been affected by a drop in the construction sector on the Romanian market. In June 2013, Alpine Bau Gmbh, with a EUR 2.5 billion debt and a loss of EUR 450 million in 2012, went bankrupt.

New State-backed insolvency deals will fail to lift large numbers of people out of debt, the first academic study of the system has concluded. The findings come after accusations that the Insolvency Service has been set up mainly to benefit the professional classes, and is not for PAYE workers. Critics have charged that the new process is set to be a rescue-mechanism for those with buy-to-lets, after the head of the service admitted that broke families that have no income and no assets they can sell off will be unable to avail of the new deals.

Britain has sued the European Parliament and European Union member states over a controversial plan to cap bankers' bonuses, in a last-ditch effort to block the legislation before it enters into force next year, The Wall Street Journal reported. The legal challenge was filed with the EU's top court, the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice, "in the past couple of months," the court's press division said Wednesday. It follows a series of victories for the U.K. over financial services legislation as the country seeks to claw back powers from Brussels. In its lawsuit, the U.K.

Punch Taverns’ attempt to restructure its £2.3bn net debt will take on a new urgency as looming deadlines focus the minds of bondholders and the company itself, according to the pub group’s executive chairman, the Financial Times reported. Punch said it remained hopeful of launching a consensual restructuring of its heavy debt burden this year, as it posted a 68 per cent drop in annual pre-tax profit. Stephen Billingham, executive chairman, said: “We now have a short runway. When you have a long runway, people don’t focus their mind.

The Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee, formed to spot budding crises, has its eye on the U.K.'s housing market, The Wall Street Journal reported. In its first public comments on real estate, the committee said Wednesday that it would be "vigilant" to potential risks as banks step up mortgage lending and house prices rise. Real estate has long been a hot topic on this property-conscious isle, but in the wake of a government report showing house prices in London rose nearly 10% in the year to July, it has risen to a boil.

The number of bankruptcies awarded in Scotland has fallen by 20% as more people opt to repay their debts through a payback scheme, STV News reported. Figures released on Monday by Accountant in Bankruptcy (AIB), Scotland's insolvency service, revealed a 40% increase in debtors applying for debt payment programmes (DPP) under the Debt Arrangement Scheme (DAS). DAS, which is run by the Scottish Government, helps people resolve multiple debts by freezing interest and fees on the money owed and extending the time within which it must be paid back.

Bank lending to U.K. businesses fell again in August, an indication that a long-standing drag on growth has yet to be eliminated, The Wall Street Journal reported. Lending to businesses has been weak in the years following the 2008 financial crisis, a hindrance to business investment that economists believe has contributed to a significant decline in the productivity of the country's workers.

Sweden's Volvo Group, the world's second biggest lorry manufacturer, announced Tuesday a 5 billion kronor (580 million euros, $780 million) restructuring plan over two years, the Economic Times reported. "The programme encompasses both reduction of white collar employees and consultants and efficiency enhancements in the global industrial system," the company wrote in a statement, without indicating the number of jobs affected. The Volvo Group, which also makes buses, construction equipment and engines, indicated that the restructuring would mainly concern its lorry business.

In France, clear signs of recovery are confounded by other indications that the country is still struggling to get back on a sustainable growth path, the Financial Times reported. This week, as the government prepared to unveil its full 2014 budget on Wednesday, the September Markit purchasing managers’ index for manufacturing and services showed a move back into growth for the first time in 18 months. The OECD club of rich countries recently forecast that the economy as a whole would grow by 0.3 per cent this year – against its previous projection of a 0.3 per cent contraction.

Ukraine's government bonds tumbled to fresh lows Tuesday, narrowing the cash-poor country's options for financing its debt and its spending, and pushing it closer to a bailout from the International Monetary Fund, The Wall Street Journal reported. The ex-Soviet republic has a litany of problems: a wide budget deficit, a wider trade deficit, dwindling reserves of foreign currency and debt coming due that needs to be repaid with it.