Ireland’s 7,400 pubs have combined debts of more than €2 billion and are continuing to feel the pinch from the recession, according to a report on the sector by AIB in conjunction with the Licensed Vintners Association (LVA) and the Vintner’s Federation of Ireland (VFI), the Irish Times reported. That equates to €270,000 per pub and excludes lending for other purposes that might be secured on a bar. According to the report, 53 per cent of respondents said they had a good relationship with their bank while 18 per cent said it was “poor”.

The liquidation vehicle for Ireland's failed Anglo Irish Bank has filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States, it said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The Irish Bank Resolution Corporation's (IBRC) liquidators said they filed an application under Chapter 15 of the U.S. bankruptcy code in the district of Delaware on Monday. Chapter 15 grants a foreign company protection from creditors looking to seize its assets in the country. "These assets form part of the liquidation process currently underway," the liquidators said in a statement.

Italy's cabinet passed a package of measures to trim public spending on Monday, undeterred by a row with Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right party that is threatening to bring down the prime minister's coalition and has rattled markets, Reuters reported. The measures included cutting funding for official cars by a fifth, reducing consultancies now valued at 1.2 billion euros per year, and a decree that will gradually convert about 150,000 temporary state administration contracts into permanent ones.

As Spaniards endure the worst economic crisis and deepest austerity measures in their country’s democratic history, start-up companies are proliferating, Bloomberg reported. Over the first seven months of the year, registrations of self-employed people increased by 21,992 while they fell by 6,826 over the same period a year earlier. The number of companies created increased by 8.2 percent in the first half as a 26 percent unemployment rate spurs entrepreneurship in a country where the government still accounts for one in six jobs.

The liquidation vehicle for Ireland's failed Anglo Irish Bank has filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States, it said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The Irish Bank Resolution Corporation's (IBRC) liquidators said they filed an application under Chapter 15 of the U.S. bankruptcy code in the district of Delaware on Monday. Chapter 15 grants a foreign company protection from creditors looking to seize its assets in the country. "These assets form part of the liquidation process currently underway," the liquidators said in a statement.

The Bank of England's new governor, Mark Carney, is taking his message that interest rates will remain near rock bottom over the next three years directly to businesspeople in the heart of Britain, The Wall Street Journal reported. Mr. Carney heads to the former industrial city of Nottingham in England's east Midlands on Wednesday for his first public speech since taking the helm of the central bank on July 1. The appearance before the city's chamber of commerce comes three weeks after his pledge to keep interest rates to a record low until U.K. unemployment falls to 7%.

Greece may need a further €10bn in extra support from its eurozone partners but would not expect any loan to come with conditions attached, its finance minister told Proto Thema newspaper on Sunday, the Financial Times reported. Athens faces a funding gap of about €11bn in 2014-15 after its current bailout programme ends in the first half of next year and its eurozone partners have pledged additional support until it can tap markets again. “If Greece needs further support, it will be around 10 billion euros,” finance minister Yannis Stournaras told the paper.

The number of homeowners unable to meet their mortgage repayments is continuing to rise despite banks being ordered to deal with the crisis, the Irish Times reported. Figures published by the Central Bank yesterday showed homeowners are now a staggering €2 billion behind on their payments, with almost 30,000 mortgages two years in arrears, and close to 100,000 more than three months in arrears.

Depending on where one stands in the debate on the rising cost of housing in Britain, Paul Thomas and Abigail Walker, first-time home buyers, are either part of the solution or part of the problem, the International Herald Tribune reported. To buy a £248,000, or $386,000, two-bedroom house in Oxfordshire, west of London, Mr. Thomas, a 38-year-old electrician, and his 25-year-old partner, Ms. Walker, who works in an accounting office, are making use of a government program called Help to Buy.

Dublin-based Depfa Bank is to be sold off by its Munich-based parent, Hypo Real Estate, five years after both were rescued from collapse by a German state-backed guarantee. Depfa, based in the IFSC, plays no active role in the HRE group under the terms of a 2008 rescue plan that resulted in the property group’s nationalisation in 2009. A well-placed source confirmed to the Irish Times that a plan would be announced shortly to hive off the Irish institution in an auction, six years after it was bought by HRE.