Of all the many striking policy measures taken since the financial crisis, one of the most extraordinary has gone almost unremarked – the introduction of negative official interest rates by Denmark, the Financial Times reported. In an attempt to maintain its strict currency peg to the euro, the Danish central bank lowered its main deposit rate for banks – the certificate of deposit or CD rate – to -0.2 per cent last month. The Nationalbanken felt it had little choice.

Just over one in five home loans was in some form of financial difficulty at the end of June, according to new figures on mortgage arrears from the Central Bank, the Irish Times reported. The figures include for the first time mortgages where borrowers have missed repayments for fewer than 90 days in addition to regularly reported figures on mortgage arrears of 90 days or more.

Barclays is set to assume control of debt-burdened French poultry group Doux next month, a union said on Thursday, enabling the UK bank to pursue a turnaround plan for the business supported by the family that controls the company, Reuters reported. Barclays is expected to take an 80 percent stake in Doux, which went into court administration in early June, in exchange for forgiving debt of 140 million euros ($175 million). The plan received implicit backing from a French court on Aug. 1. "The transformation of Doux's Barclays debt into 80 percent of its capital should be implemented on Sept.

Germany's Hahn airport needs government funding to avoid insolvency, a shareholder representative was quoted as saying on Wednesday, as falling passenger numbers exacerbate losses, Reuters reported. Jochen Riebel, a former local secretary of state who represents minority shareholder Hesse on the airport's board, said Hahn would use up all its cash within about six months without more finance.

Troubled German shipbuilder P+S Werften, which operates two of the country's biggest shipyards, has asked some of its customers to pay for ships in advance to bridge a liquidity shortfall and avert insolvency, Reuters reported. New Chief Executive Ruediger Fuchs has approached Danish shipper DFDS, passenger ferry operator Scandlines and Greenland's Royal Arctic Line, a P+S spokesman said on Wednesday. P+S had planned to file for insolvency on Wednesday, the spokesman said, the possibility of receiving funds from customers gave Fuchs a couple more days to come up with a rescue plan.

Bild, Germany’s most-read newspaper, has accused Greece of “making our euro kaput” and only a few days ago referred to the country as “a bottomless pit,” the International Herald Tribune reported. On Wednesday, though, the paper featured a friendly chat with the man in charge of that bottomless pit: Antonis Samaras, the Greek prime minister, who pleaded during an interview for more time to repair his country’s shattered economy. The Bild reporter even inquired how Mr. Samaras was feeling after an eye operation.

The Irish Banking Federation has rejected the findings of a Central Bank report that claims Ireland is second only to Greece in terms of refusing loans to small businesses, the Irish Times reported. The Central Bank report published this morning found that Irish banks reject more business loan applications than any other state in the euro zone except Greece, with small and medium businesses in Ireland twice as likely to have a loan application turned down as the average across the region.

Britain’s public finances deteriorated in July as corporation tax receipts plunged, highlighting the coalition government’s struggle to balance the books while the economy is in recession, the Financial Times reported. Public sector net borrowing is £9.3bn higher so far this year than at the same stage last year, excluding some distorting effects, putting strain on the coalition’s plan to close the structural current deficit within five years.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel faces one of the toughest choices of her career in the coming weeks: whether to risk the unraveling of the euro zone—or her government, The Wall Street Journal reported. After a summer lull, Greece is again Ms. Merkel's biggest headache. The Greek government, struggling with depression-like conditions that have pushed the economy to the brink, is likely to need many billions of euros of additional aid to avoid bankruptcy.

Bondholders are demanding higher yield premiums from OAO Mechel relative to other Russian metals and mining companies on concern its debt load will soar with the takeover of a smaller steel producer, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. Billionaire Igor Zyuzin’s coal company, which agreed on new covenants under its international debt less than four months ago, will seize control of the indebted Estar Group if the Moscow-based company can’t repay a $945 million bank loan guaranteed by Mechel’s units by the end of September, according to the debt agreement.