Central banks in the developing world have lost $81bn of emergency reserves through capital outflows and currency market interventions since early May, even before renewed turmoil in emerging markets, the Financial Times reported. The figure, which excludes China, is equal to roughly 2 per cent of all developing country central bank reserves, according to Morgan Stanley analysts, who compiled the data from central bank filings for May, June and July. However, some countries have suffered more precipitous drops.

The need for a new rescue programme for Greece promises a drawn-out drama of late-night negotiations but is unlikely to trigger the sort of crisis that has threatened the breakup of the euro in the recent past, Reuters reported. That the collapse of the single currency is no longer an immediate danger reflects the solidity of the political bargain that saved Greece a year ago. Then, Germany, the euro zone's paymaster, agreed to keep aiding Greece so it could stay in the euro as long as it continued to tighten its belt and implement reforms to restore competitiveness.

Airfare search startup Everbread has been placed into insolvency in the UK after a four-year run trying to make in-roads into the world of travel shopping IT, Tnooz.com reported. The London-based company (TLabs here) was officially wound up with a notice to the UK’s Companies House on 14 August this year and its affairs are now in the hands of accountancy firm Carter Backer Winter. Documents state that the company’s liability to creditors is estimated to be in the region of £8.7 million.

The German real estate company IVG Immobilien AG has entered insolvency, but will be allowed to draw up its own refinancing plan in accordance with German law, IP Real Estate reported. In a surprise statement issued to investors and the public on Wednesday, IVG had announced its creditors had not agreed to a refinancing plan after all – contrary to statements from earlier in the month. The parent company of the IVG group, IVG Immobilien AG, has filed for a so-called Schutzschirmverfahren - or protective shield proceedings – introduced by Germany's Bundestag last year.

When European leaders engineered a harsh bailout deal for this tiny Mediterranean nation in March, they cheered the end of an economic model fueled by a flood of cash from Russia. Wealthy Russians with money in Cyprus’s sickly banks lost billions. But the Russians, though badly bruised, are now in a position to get something that has previously eluded even Moscow’s most audacious oligarchs: control of a so-called systemic financial institution in the European Union, the International Herald Tribune reported.

The European Central Bank was checking up on how well Greece is meeting its international bailout obligations Wednesday, a day after Germany’s finance minister said a third aid programme would be needed to keep Athens afloat, the Irish Times reported. Joerg Asmussen, a member of the ECB’s executive board, was to meet Greece’ prime minister, finance minister and central bank governor, and to have talks with Greek business leaders. His immediate concern is with the next tranche of aid from Greece’s second international bailout, due in October.

Ireland is set to end its three-year reliance on international aid at the end of this year, but that achievement will be of little immediate benefit to many Irish people trapped with home loans they will likely never be able to repay, The Wall Street Journal reported. The painful legacy of the property market and banking collapse that forced Ireland to seek a €67.5 billion ($90 billion) bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund has left house prices at nearly half their boom-time levels of 2007, according to official data published this week.

Portugal raised 1 billion euros ($1.34 billion) in an auction of short-term debt Wednesday amid signs the country's deep recession has bottomed out, though investors remain wary of the political and economic risks of planned new austerity measures, the Associated Press reported. The government debt agency said it sold 700 million euros in 12-month Treasury bills at a cost of 1.619 percent, which was down from 1.72 percent at an equivalent auction last month. It also raised 300 million in 3-month bills at 0.766 percent, but that was slightly higher than 0.743 percent paid in April.

McCarthy & Stone announced on Tuesday it has completed the restructuring of 518.9 million pounds ($813.55 million) of debt, reducing the debt burden of the UK retirement home developer by 350 million pounds, Reuters reported. As part of the transaction, a group of 24 institutional investors in the company have injected 367 million pounds into the business and refinanced a further 160 million pounds with a new five-year term loan facility. A core group of these investors comprising Goldman Sachs, Anchorage, TPG and Alchemy Partners now own over 50 percent of the business.

IVG Immobilien AG (IVG), the German property company that’s lost most of its market value, said it will file for court protection to reorganize 3.2 billion euros ($4.3 billion) of debt after talks with creditors failed, Bloomberg reported. IVG will apply today with the Bonn District Court to initiate a proceeding similar to U.S. bankruptcy reorganization, the company, based in the same city, said in a statement. The procedure protects companies from claims while they try to reach a court-approved agreement.