U.K. retailer La Senza has said that it intends to enter administration, according to BBC News on Friday. The lingerie chain blamed "trading conditions" and "the overall macro environment" for its decision. An administrator will now be chosen within 10 days, in accordance with the U.K. Insolvency Act. The retailer, which has some 2,600 U.K. staff at 146 stores and 18 concessions, said that it continued to trade as normal, and there have been no unplanned redundancies or store closures.

Italy's Senate voted overwhelmingly to give final approval yesterday to a $40 billion austerity and growth package aimed at eliminating Italy’s budget deficit by 2013 and stimulating the economy as part of a broader plan to stabilize the euro, the New York Times reported today.

Greece's creditors are resisting pressure from the International Monetary Fund to accept bigger losses on holdings of the indebted nation's government bonds, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Lenders want the 70 billion euros ($91 billion) of new bonds the government will issue in return for existing securities to carry a coupon of about 5 percent. The IMF is pushing for creditors to accept a smaller coupon in order to reduce Greece's debt-to-gross domestic product ratio to 120 percent by 2020, a key element of the Oct. 27 agreement by European Union leaders.

Hundreds of euro-zone lenders took out €489.19 billion ($640 billion) in low-interest loans from the European Central Bank on Wednesday, as the currency area extended a massive financial lifeline to its struggling banking industry, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Under the three-year loan offer on Wednesday, banks could borrow as much as they wanted at the low rate as long as they had the necessary collateral. Another batch of three-year loans will be available Feb. 29.

Solar Millennium, which has its U.S. headquarters in downtown Oakland,, Calif., filed for insolvency in a German court, the Oakland Tribune reported today. In May, Solar Millennium said it was awarded a $2.1 billion loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy. The money would have been used to underpin the company's construction of a solar energy complex in the California desert community of Blythe, using its solar trough technology. However, Solar Millennium on Aug. 18 abandoned its focus on the cutting-edge technology that was the basis for the loan guarantee.

Hungary defended its economic management after a second credit-rating firm stripped the country of its investment-grade status, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Announcing its decision to lower Hungary to junk status, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said late Wednesday that the economy was suffering from policies that lack predictability and credibility. Moody's Investors Service already downgraded Hungary to junk status last month and analysts expect Fitch Ratings to follow suit early next year.

A new report released by the European Commission late last week underlines the devastating consequences of the financial crisis on youth employment, and acknowledged the difficulty in implementing policies to alleviate this crisis as the European Union focuses on austerity, The Wall Street Journal Real Time Brussels blog reported. “Young people remain the hardest hit by the crisis and its aftermath,” says the report, and the faltering recovery is expected to make things worse.

The turmoil in the eurozone is posing a serious threat to Ireland’s efforts to stabilise its debt burden and return to healthy economic growth, according to the International Monetary Fund, the Financial Times reported. In its latest report on the Irish economy, the fund cut its forecast for economic growth in Ireland next year by almost half, and said that the downside risks to growth had increased.

International regulators' efforts to strengthen the financial system by tightening bank rules may inadvertently serve to boost opportunities for unregulated or "shadow" financial players, Reuters reported. That is because it is the shadow players, primarily hedge funds and private equity firms, who are expected to buy the billions of euros worth of assets that banks will be selling in the coming months as they slim down their balance sheets to comply with the new rules. "The growth of the shadow banking system is a logical consequence," said Merck Finck analyst Konrad Becker.

China's Pang Da Automobile Trade said on Wednesday it would halt its attempt to acquire Swedish carmaker Saab in light of Saab's bankruptcy, Reuters reported. Saab was declared bankrupt by a court on Monday, ending a nine-month survival battle by its Dutch owner. "In view of Saab being declared bankrupt, Pang Da Automobile Trade has decided to stop the acquisition transaction of Saab," Pang Da said in a statement to the Shanghai stock exchange.