Italian directories publisher Seat Pagine Gialle SpA is at the center of a dispute with its stakeholders that may see the company put into insolvency if an agreement isn't reached by the end of the month, said market participants Wednesday, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Seat PG, with total debt of EUR2.7 billion, stated last week that it wouldn't pay a EUR52 million coupon due on Oct. 31 on its EUR1.3 billion subordinated bond via a special purpose funding vehicle called Lighthouse.

Britain is becoming a nation of debtors, with increasing numbers of people being forced to take out loans or turn to credit cards to pay for essentials, despite the worsening economic forecast, The New Zealand Herald reported. The amount of cash borrowed through cards or loans climbed £629 million ($792.7 million) in September, about a third more than the previous month's increase of £478 million, the latest borrowing figures from the Bank of England suggest. In July the figure stood at just £369 million.

The Greek government teetered and stock markets around the world plummeted Tuesday after a hard-won European plan to save the Greek economy was suddenly thrown into doubt by the prospect of a public vote, the Associated Press reported. One day after Prime Minister George Papandreou stunned Europe by calling for a referendum, the ripples reached from Athens, where some of his own lawmakers rebelled against him, to Wall Street, where the Dow Jones industrial average plunged almost 300 points.

One day, it might be possible to spend most of a G20 summit discussing the long-run economic reform that the forum was originally set up to promote. This week’s meeting in Cannes will not be that summit, the Financial Times reported. The gathering is set to be dominated by events in Greece, a country that is not even a member of the G20. Not for the first time, attempts by the host country to use the grouping to achieve structural changes – which in any case were progressing slowly this year – have been knocked sideways by the exigencies of immediate events in the global economy.

National Irish Bank (NIB) has reported a €632 million impairment charge for the first nine months, up from a €504 million charge for the year-earlier period on the back of unexpectedly high loan losses, the Irish Times reported. NIB’s Danish parent bank Danske said pre-tax loss widened to €600 million in the period from a €468 million loss a year ago. The bank said its operating profits fell by 11 per cent to €32 million from €36 million. NIB's chief executive Andrew Healy said the bank hopes "to see a downward trajectory" on its impairment charges related to the property crash.

European stocks sank Monday as investors lost faith in the proposals set out by European leaders last week to solve the region's sovereign-debt crisis, and at the same time the euro slumped after currency intervention from the Bank of Japan caught investors off guard, The Wall Street Journal reported. Banks were particularly hit as investors became wary of the euro zone's rescue package with the lack of detail weighing heavily on sentiment.

The turnaround plan presented Monday for troubled Swedish carmaker Saab Automobile AB is far from complete, said Martin Larsson, the company's executive director of new business development and, according to speculation in Swedish media, the company's next chief executive. The Swedish district court in Vanersborg on Monday gave the company the go-ahead to continue its reorganization under creditor protection, after Chinese companies Pang Da Automobile Trade Co. and Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co.

Last week’s decision by eurozone members to leverage the European financial stability facility will push the eurozone on a divergent path from the rest of the EU, the Financial Times reported in a commentary. The measure is as insufficient as previous “comprehensive plans” to deal with the crisis. But the sceptical reaction of global investors will force further measures. Eurozone members will need the European Central Bank as a lender of last resort. They will move from separate to joint liability of sovereign debt guarantees, possibly leading eventually to a eurozone bond.

The financial turmoil rattling governments and banks in Europe is further weighing on the already-sluggish outlook for business in the region, The Wall Street Journal reported. Even though euro-zone governments' latest package of measures to combat the crisis, agreed upon last week, appears to have warded off a financial crash for now, some damage already was done to many companies in Europe. Growing uncertainty regarding the outcome of the turmoil, coming after the global financial crisis and recession, has caused customers to hold off on purchases.

For the first time, the estimated 700 financial industry lobbyists working in Brussels can now expect to meet with some resistance. Though extremely outnumbered, the new organization Finance Watch is preparing to confront them head-on -- with a former industry insider at its helm, Spiegel Online reported. Indeed, some things will take getting used to in the offices Finance Watch has just leased near the building housing the European Parliament in Brussels. The project is backed by 40 European organizations, including unions, consumer-protection groups, foundations and think tanks.