Sweden’s tough regulations on its own lenders, regarded as even more stringent than the Basel III bank capital rules, could fire up the Nordic country’s corporate debt market in 2012, as small and mid-cap borrowers in particular rush from hard-to-get loans to readily available bonds, International Financing Review reported. While heads of the world’s leading economies have agreed to introduce stricter bank capital and global liquidity rules by 2013, Sweden has urged its four biggest lenders to ensure that they have bigger buffers sooner.

Britain should be relaxed about being "out of the room" when Europe discusses euro zone issues, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday, dismissing any prospect of signing up to a new treaty with other EU states to enforce stricter budget controls, Reuters reported. Cameron infuriated other European Union members last month and sparked speculation about Britain's place in the bloc it joined in 1973 by blocking an EU treaty change and forcing euro zone countries to negotiate a fiscal accord outside the Union.

Negotiations between Greece and its creditors to reduce its debts have developed into an impasse because the nature of the creditors has changed since the scheme to involve private sector investors on a voluntary basis was first mooted nearly a year ago, International Financing Review reported in an analysis. Back then private sector bondholders made up the majority of Greece’s €350bn debts. However, as loans from the original €110bn bailout package have been deployed, principally to pay back maturing bonds, the IMF and European Union countries have built sizeable stakes.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, sharply criticized for her government's prescriptions of austerity as a cure for the euro zone's sovereign-debt crisis, said labor-market reforms and greater European integration also were needed to correct flaws in the makeup of the common currency, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The National Asset Management Agency is believed to have lined up a receiver to take control of assets at Treasury Holdings if an agreement is not reached on the repayment of the developer’s loans by this afternoon, the Irish Times reported. Nama set a 4pm deadline Wednesday for Treasury to repay its near €900 million loans to the state agency. It is understood that accounting firm Ernst Young has been lined up by Nama to take charge of the assets involved if no arrangement has been reached with Treasury by the deadline.

U.K. steel producer Thamesteel, which is owned by Saudi-based Al-Tuwairqi Group, has entered into administration after failing to secure an investor to rescue it from financial difficulties, members of the Community Union said Wednesday, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported. Thamesteel "had planned an investor for the site but that fell through today and consequently the company has been put into administration," said a Community Union spokesman.

Britain's economy may have entered a mild recession in the last three months of 2011, hampering the government's core policy aim of spurring growth and raising the chances that the Bank of England will inject more cash soon, Reuters reported. Britain's recovery from the 2008/2009 recession - the deepest since the depression-hit 1930s - has already been sluggish, and unemployment has crept up to a 17-year high as the government cuts spending deeply to erase a huge budget deficit.

Dublin has announced an overhaul of its bankruptcy and personal insolvency laws designed to tackle a growing mortgage debt crisis and curb “bankruptcy tourism” to the UK, the Financial Times reported. Legislation published on Wednesday would enable people struggling with unsustainable debts to emerge from bankruptcy after three years, rather than the current 12 years. It would also enable consumers on a case-by-case basis to write down mortgage debt while continuing to live in their homes.

The International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday that global growth prospects had dimmed as the sovereign debt crisis in the euro zone entered a “perilous new phase,” the International Herald Tribune reported. Releasing quarterly updates of three reports on the outlooks for the economy, debt and global financial stability, the fund cut its estimates of global growth this year to 3.25 percent, from the 4 percent it forecast in September, on “sharply escalated” risks emanating from Europe.

The Bank of England stands ready to engage in further stimulus and extend support to lenders facing funding shortages in order to shepherd the U.K. economy through a new global slowdown, BOE Governor Mervyn King said Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported. Mr. King told an audience in Brighton, England, that the U.K. faces an "arduous, long and uneven" recovery in the years ahead as it attempts to work off its debts and rebalance its economy away from debt-fueled spending towards exports and investment. This will not be an easy year, Mr. King said.