Talks between Greece and a delegation of international inspectors are set to enter a second week after bogging down in a spat over public-sector layoffs, setting back government hopes for a speedy review of its reform program, The Wall Street Journal reported. Government officials signaled on Sunday that representatives from the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, known as the troika, were expected to stay in the Greek capital for several more days to discuss plans to shrink Greece's bureaucracy.

Banks across Europe are racing to amend executive pay deals by the end of the month in an attempt to adhere to new EU bonus rules and secure shareholder approval at upcoming annual meetings, the Financial Times reported. “It couldn’t be a more difficult time,” said one remuneration committee member whose bank’s annual meeting is looming in May. “Our lawyers thought they had all the paperwork done and signed off.

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi played down fears that Italy's indecisive election could reignite Europe's debt crisis, saying financial markets have taken the election results in stride and that Italy's current political mess doesn't threaten its budget discipline, The Wall Street Journal reported. The ECB announced no new measures after its monthly meeting Thursday to spur economic growth in the euro zone, despite cutting its inflation forecasts for 2014 to well below the bank's 2% target.

The number of people falling behind on their mortgages seems to be slowing, according to the Central Bank, the Irish Times reported. The number of mortgages that have not been paid for more than three months rose to 9,426, or 11.9 per cent, of all home mortgages, said the bank. The comparable figure in for last September was 11.5 per cent. However the increase in the last three months was the smallest seen in more than three years.

Royal Bank of Scotland is understood to have received a £1 billion bid from a consortium of institutional investors for more than 300 branches, The Scotsman reported. The state-backed lender is being forced to sell the assets, which comprise 311 RBS branches in England and Wales and five NatWest outlets in Scotland, in return for receiving £45.5bn in UK government aid during the financial crisis. Spanish bank Santander pulled out of a £1.65bn deal in October and RBS chief executive Stephen Hester has admitted that the group was struggling to find another buyer.

Prime Minister David Cameron will promise on Thursday to stick to his government's deficit reduction plan despite the loss of his country's top-notch AAA credit rating, saying Britain would plunge "back into the abyss" if he changed course, Reuters reported. Speaking ahead of a March 20 budget that will be dissected by the markets and ratings agencies alike, Cameron said there were signs his government's economic policies were beginning to work and that it was imperative to "hold firm to the path".

Bondholders who snubbed an aggressive tender offer from Santander last year have been rewarded, following a more generous and investor-friendly approach for the same bonds from the Spanish bank, Reuters reported. Santander on Wednesday launched an any-and-all buyback offer for a maximum of just over USD12bn in subordinated bonds as it seeks to boost its capital ratios. "Bondholders that balked at Santander's unmodified Dutch auction liability are now being offered a more straightforward offer with a higher premium," said a banker.

Property investors Brian and Mary Patricia O’Donnell have lost their bid to get a High Court judge in London to reverse his decision in December refusing them the right to go bankrupt in the UK, rather than in the Republic, the Irish Times reported. Mr Justice Guy Newey in the High Court in the Royal Courts of Justice said that only “exceptional circumstances” would justify the reopening of a decision already made, particularly when the issues had been heard at a full trial.

The British government stood isolated on an important European Union issue Tuesday after finance ministers from elsewhere in the bloc rejected its effort to water down proposed limits on bankers’ bonuses, the International Herald Tribune reported. The ministers, taking up rules provisionally approved last week by representatives of the European Parliament and member states, broadly agreed on Tuesday to cap bonuses at no more than the annual salary for bankers working in the 27-nation European Union and for those working for European-based banks worldwide.

The Central Bank of Ireland met with the country’s main lenders yesterday to begin a process that it hopes will lead to a voluntary framework on how “multi-borrowed distressed borrowers” are dealt with by credit institutions, the Irish Times reported. This will encompass the thorny issue of mortgage arrears, which is the biggest source of debt for many individuals. The regulator is seeking to agree a set of “general principles” that would be applied by lenders when dealing with borrowers who are in arrears with their repayments and owe money to a number of institutions.