British music and DVDs retailer HMV confirmed on Monday that it was calling in the administrators as talks over a deal to prevent an imminent covenant breach failed, Reuters reported. "The board regrets to announce that it has been unable to reach a position where it feels able to continue to trade outside of insolvency protection," the company said in a statement on Monday evening. Deloitte would be appointed as administrators and the business would continue to trade while a purchaser was sought, it said.

Eurozone countries facing Irish-style bank collapses will still have to shoulder a large portion of future bailouts if they want to receive any aid from the eurozone’s €500bn rescue fund, according to a proposal seen by the Financial Times. The plan, circulated late last year among eurozone finance ministry officials, would force struggling countries to either invest in failing banks alongside the rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism, or guarantee the ESM against any losses.

Goldman Sachs is among a handful of banks considering delaying UK bonus payouts until after April 6 when the top rate of income tax falls from 50 to 45 per cent, the Financial Times reported. The bank’s plan, which relates to bonuses paid for performance in 2009, 2010 and 2011, rather than new awards, is expected to prove controversial despite being perfectly legal.

The Spanish government may remove a clause from its bailout fund for cash-strapped regions that gives it first claim on their revenue, according to two people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported. The move is intended to placate creditors who have told officials that the introduction of the regional bailout fund in July 2012 changed the terms of their bond holdings and gave them the right to call in the debts, one of the people said. Legislation may be approved as early as this month to clarify seniority, said the two people who asked not to be named because the talks are private.

The European Central Bank hailed a “normalisation” in financial market conditions on Thursday as its governing council voted unanimously to keep rates on hold, signalling confidence that the eurozone would stage a gradual recovery from recession later in the year, the Financial Times reported. The euro rallied against the US dollar, gaining 1 per cent on the day to touch $1.3195 as Mario Draghi, ECB president, spoke at a regular monthly press conference after its decision to leave its main refinancing rate unchanged at 0.75 per cent.

Investors in 262 billion euros ($347 billion) of Dutch residential mortgage-backed securities risk being penalized by new bank liquidity rules, even as the securities prove among the safest home-loan bonds globally, Bloomberg reported. The notes won’t be categorized as liquid assets under regulations approved last week by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision because the underlying mortgages have an average loan-to-value ratio of 95 percent, a quirk of the Dutch housing finance system, where borrowers take on more debt because they can use tax deductions in place since the 19th century.

European Commission president José Manuel Barroso has said he is supportive of Ireland finding a solution to the promissory notes issue, echoing comments by European Council president Herman Van Rompuy yesterday. In an interview with The Irish Times on the eve of today’s European Commission visit to Dublin, Mr Barroso said the commission was generally in favour of a deal, though he declined to comment on specific proposals, stressing it was in the remit of the European Central Bank.

Camera specialist Jessops called in administrators PwC on Wednesday, becoming Britain's first high street casualty following a tough Christmas for retailers, Reuters reported. The group, which operates from 192 stores and has around 2,000 employees, has seen demand for its digital products come under pressure from the rising use of camera phones and online rivals. Many British retailers have struggled recently as inflation, muted wages growth and government austerity measures squeeze household budgets.

Switzerland, for decades a paragon of safety in finance, is engaged in a high-risk strategy to protect its export-driven economy, literally betting the bank in a fight to contain the prices of Swiss products sold abroad, The Wall Street Journal reported. The nation's central bank is printing and selling as many Swiss francs as needed to keep its currency from climbing against the euro, wagering an amount approaching Switzerland's total national output, and, in the process, turning from button-down conservative to the globe's biggest risk-taker.

David Cameron will damage Britain's fragile economy if he demands major changes that could threaten the country's relationship with the European Union, business leaders said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. In an open letter, the heads of some of Britain's biggest companies said Britain can't afford to quit a market of 500 million people that buys half of its exports. Other countries in the 27-nation bloc would probably reject Cameron's attempts to claw back powers from Brussels, isolating the country from its biggest trading partner, they said.