Spanish industrial production fell at an accelerated pace in February, the latest sign that the euro zone's fourth-largest economy remains mired in contraction, as Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy expressed renewed support for deep spending cuts, The Wall Street Journal reported. Industrial production declined 5.1% in February from a year earlier in calendar-adjusted terms after sliding 4.3% in January, because of lower activity in the construction and car-manufacturing sectors, statistics agency Instituto Nacional de Estadística, or INE, said on Wednesday.

European Union officials are putting the final touches to a detailed economic growth plan they hope to unveil next week. The move comes as investors, spooked by the prospect of a deepening recession in the eurozone’s south, have pushed Spanish borrowing costs to their highest levels for four months. A draft of the 28-page plan by the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, calls on national governments to implement a series of job-creating policies, including cutting labour-related taxes, and shifting the burden to property, energy and emissions levies.

European companies are swarming to the corporate-bond market for financing and vastly reducing their reliance on banks, a move that could mark a significant change in the region's financial landscape, The Wall Street Journal reported. During the first quarter, European companies borrowed more from the bond market than they did from banks, according to Dealogic, a data provider. That is a rare phenomenon in Europe, where banks have long dominated lending.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), a part paymaster in the €67.5bn in bailout loans to Ireland, has recommended the "bold" restructuring of household debt including mortgage writedowns in a bid to prevent prolonged recessions, The Independent reported. Such moves could help avert cycles of household defaults, further house price declines and additional contractions in output, according to the IMF’s bi-annual assessment of the global economy. It cited the examples of Iceland and the US where this policy has worked in the past.

Progress made by France's largest banks with restructuring plans they launched late last year in response to the European debt crisis should help ease pressure on their ratings, Fitch Ratings said Tuesday, Dow Jones reported. French banks were hit hard last summer when investors retreated from the euro zone because of deepening concerns over their exposure to sovereign debt in Europe's weaker economies, forcing the main listed players to start reducing assets and to cut funding needs. Fitch said that because of those actions they have since won back some market confidence.

Britain's most powerful shareholder group has said it has concerns about executive pay levels at Barclays Plc, adding to growing criticism over a 17 million pound award for Chief Executive Bob Diamond, Reuters reported. IVIS, the shareholder advisory service of the Association of British Insurers (ABI) - whose roughly 440 members own about 20 percent of the FTSE All-Share index - said it had issued an "amber top" warning on Barclays' remuneration, which indicates it has some concerns. A red top warning signals its most serious criticism about an issue.

The global banks group that recently negotiated Greece's historic debt restructuring Monday outlined principles it believes should inform possible future privately-held government debt write-downs, Dow Jones reported. "The experience with the protracted negotiations and the scope of the Greek debt exchange have given rise to a number of issues that could usefully be discussed in the period ahead," the Institute of International Finance said in a policy letter written ahead of International Monetary Fund ministerial meetings.

The minority shareholders of Agrobanka AD, a Serbian bank that reported a loss last year and was placed in receivership three months ago, demand another audit before the lender is overhauled, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. A new shareholders’ meeting to pick the auditor will be held by the end of April, Branislav Bogdanovic, chairman of AC Broker, a Belgrade-based brokerage, said in a phone interview on April 6. The bank, in which the government holds a 20 percent stake, had an unaudited 2011 loss of 29.7 billion dinar ($348 million).

The dependence of the Portuguese banking system on the European Central Bank rose to a record high in March, as banks took advantage of easier borrowing conditions, The Wall Street Journal reported. Bank of Portugal said domestic banks' use of the ECB's various credit facilities rose to €56.32 billion ($73.76 billion) from €47.55 billion in February. Seven individual central banks in the euro zone, including Portugal's, received approval from the ECB in February to expand the type of assets banks can pledge to tap loans.

Thomas Cook is close to striking a £1.2bn refinancing deal that will give the troubled travel group two more years' breathing space to turn round its business, The Guardian reported. A consortium of 17 banks including Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays is expected to approve an extension of loans until 2015. Although the conditions are likely to be stringent, with higher interest rates and the lenders taking a significant stake in the company, the deal is regarded as good news by Thomas Cook.