The local court in Amberg, Germany, has ordered debtor-in-possession proceedings in accordance with section 270b of the German Insolvency Code (Insolvenzordnung) for SiC Processing GmbH, a Germany-based provider of solar slurry recovery services, AER-Online reported on Monday. The company's Norwegian subsidiary filed for insolvency earlier this month after its only customer, REC Wafer Norway, filed its own insolvency application during the summer. For SiC Processing GmbH, the court has appointed Dr. Hubert Ampferl, a partner at Nuremberg, Germany-based law firm Dr.

Italian business confidence rose for a second month after a recession eased in the third quarter and the nation's borrowing costs declined, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The manufacturing-sentiment index increased to 88.9 in December from 88.5 the previous month, Rome-based national statistics institute Istat said yesterday. Italy’s economy shrank 0.2 percent in the three months through September, about a third of the contraction recorded in the previous quarter. Read more.

Britain needs to introduce legislation that could break up banks if standards slipped because current reform proposals fall short of what is needed, an influential panel of MPs said, Reuters reported. The Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards also said the government could set tougher rules for how much leverage banks were allowed, adding the committee itself would consider next year whether to propose banning proprietary trading. The PCBS said on Friday banks should be allowed to sell simple derivatives within their ring-fenced operation, which had been a point of contention.

Ireland expects to return fully to bond markets late next year but needs a deal on easing its bank debt to make sure it can successfully exit its international bailout, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said, the Irish Times reported. Speaking days before Ireland takes over the six-month EU presidency, Mr Kenny told Reuters he was confident an easing of repayment terms on the promissory notes that Ireland pumped mainly into the failed Anglo Irish Bank would be agreed by a March deadline.

Ailing Franco-Belgian lender Dexia SA received the green light from European Union regulators for a restructuring plan that will see large parts of the bank closed, The Wall Street Journal reported. The move will help bring to a close a long-running probe into Dexia, one of Europe's first casualties of the financial crisis, which last month received its third government bailout in four years. European Commission antitrust chief Joaquín Almunia said he expected to give final approval for the restructuring measures on Dec. 28.

Spain's Banco Mare Nostrum and three other banks secured EU regulatory approval on Thursday for their restructuring plans which include cutting their balance sheets by between 25 to more than 40 percent over the next five years and halting dividend payments, Reuters reported. The European Commission imposed the measures in return for approving the bailouts of savings banks BMN, Caja Espana-Caja Duero, Caja 3 and Liberbank which were hit by the collapse of a long property boom in 2008.

The government is considering a radical overhaul to the insolvency process in the wake of Comet's collapse, according to business secretary Vince Cable, The Guardian reported. Answering business questions from MPs, Cable said that the demise of the electricals retailer had caused "great distress" and hinted that it might be necessary to rethink the UK's insolvency regime after reports that administrators made millions out of the collapse. But he added that a report into the affair would not be made public.

Legislation on personal insolvency, which passed through the Dáil and Seanad today, is “the most radical and comprehensive reform of our insolvency and bankruptcy law and practice since the foundation of the State”, Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has said, the Irish Times reported. The Personal Insolvency Bill 2012 will now be presented to President Michael D Higgins for signature. Mr Shatter warned banks and their public interest directors they will have to accept when a debt cannot be repaid, under the new law.

Almost a year ago to the day, the European Central Bank averted financial disaster in the eurozone by offering banks an unlimited injection of cheap three-year cash. Hundreds of banks participated in the ECB’s loan programme and by March about €1tn had been pumped into the banking system via two tranches of the ECB’s longer-term refinancing operations, the Financial Times reported. The LTRO sugar hit was deemed a success, avoiding a liquidity squeeze, temporarily lifting markets and encouraging a flurry of bond issuance in January and February.

Christmas is bleak this year across southern Europe, the area worst hit by the euro zone debt crisis, with many families struggling to provide even a small celebration for their children, Reuters reported. From Lisbon to Athens, Christmas lights are dim, gift purchases are down and suffering families are bitter at the effect of three years of crisis. Conditions are worst in Greece, the country which sparked the debt crisis in early 2010 and has had to swallow sweeping tax rises and spending cuts in exchange for international aid. "It will be difficult.