The Irish State’s prospects of exiting its international bailout “depend importantly on the delivery of European commitments”, the International Monetary Fund has said, the Irish Times reported. Stressing the fragility of Ireland’s position, the fund’s staff said that financial market doubts about the State’s capacity to repay its debt “could easily re-emerge”. It also said risks to economic growth in Ireland “have profound adverse implications for debt sustainability”.

Global regulators gave banks four more years and greater flexibility on Sunday to build up cash buffers so they can use some of their reserves to help struggling economies grow. The pull-back from a draconian earlier draft of new global bank liquidity rule to help prevent another financial crisis went further than banks had expected by allowing them a broader range of eligible assets.

France’s socialist government has hinted that a replacement for its controversial 75 per cent income tax bracket, struck down late last month by the country’s constitutional council, may be at a lower rate but imposed for the rest of its five-year mandate, not just two years as previously proposed, the Financial Times reported. It is also to divert €2bn in extra funds into state-backed job creation schemes in a bid to meet President François Hollande’s bold promise to reverse a trend of fast-rising unemployment by the end of this year.

Finance chiefs at big U.K. firms plan to further bolster their balance sheets in 2013 because of continuing uncertainty about Britain's economic prospects, according to a survey published Monday, damping hopes for an investment boost to drive economic growth, The Wall Street Journal reported. A quarterly survey of chief financial officers at 112 of the U.K.'s biggest companies by business services firm Deloitte LLP found executives rate cash flow and controlling costs as their top priorities for the year ahead.

Permanent TSB has promised to increase its personal lending targets fivefold in 2013 to €450 million, up from €90 million last year, the Irish Times reported. Group chief executive Jeremy Masding said the bank’s lending capacity in key product areas such as mortgages, personal loans and credit cards would all increase this year. The bank plans to lend €350 million in mortgages, €100 million in personal lending, including car loans, and €5 million in new credit card finance.

David Cameron has thrown down the gauntlet to Paris and Berlin, warning that he would block moves to closer eurozone integration unless Britain was allowed to repatriate some powers from the EU, the Financial Times reported. The prime minister said on Sunday it would be “difficult but possible” to renegotiate a better membership deal for Britain when the EU begins talks on a new treaty to deepen political and economic co-operation in the eurozone.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said debt restructuring is not on the table for Portugal and the country’s authorities are determined to continue their aid program to regain access to bond markets, Expresso reported, citing an interview. Portugal’s aid program is on the “right path” and a significant part of the adjustment has been carried out, Lagarde was cited as saying by the newspaper. The IMF is worried about the increase in unemployment, she said in the interview, carried out in mid-December.

Spain has been quietly tapping the country's richest piggy bank, the Social Security Reserve Fund, as a buyer of last resort for Spanish government bonds, raising questions about the fund's role as guarantor of future pension payouts, the Wall Street Journal reported today. At least 90 percent of the €65 billion ($85.7 billion) fund has been invested in increasingly risky Spanish debt, according to official figures, and the government has begun withdrawing cash for emergency payments.

U.K. lenders increased the availability of mortgages and company loans “significantly” in the fourth quarter as the Bank of England’s credit-boosting program began to take effect, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. An index of the availability of secured loans to households rose to 26.2 from 21.9 in the third quarter, the Bank of England said in its quarterly Credit Conditions Survey in London today. A measure for corporate loans jumped to 29.4 from minus 5.5. Both are at the highest level since the survey began in the second quarter of 2007.

Switzerland's oldest private bank yesterday admitted to helping Americans evade U.S. taxes, the first time a foreign financial institution has pleaded guilty to tax law violations, the New York Times DealBook blog reported today. Representatives for Wegelin & Company, a Swiss bank founded in 1741, acknowledged that for nearly a decade the firm helped dozens of wealthy American customers dodge taxes by hiding more than $1.2 billion in secret accounts. As part of guilty plea, Wegelin agreed to pay $74 million in fines, restitution and forfeiture proceeds to the U.S. government.