It’s hard to imagine a worse time for the International Monetary Fund to be without a forceful European leader, the International Herald Tribune reported. Sinking under a mountain of debt, Greece is on the verge of requesting more help from the European Union and the international fund. Ireland’s economic recovery from its banking crisis remains a distant prospect at best. And once an international aid deal is concluded for Portugal, the question shifts to whether Spain’s much larger and increasingly stagnant economy may need a financial lifeline.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has pledged Ireland will not restructure its debts, the Irish Times reported. He made the comments at a conference in Oslo today. The Government is "confident" it will be able to reduce its deficit under the current economic programme, he said. In an Irish Times article last week, economist Prof Morgan Kelly said the country was on track to owe a quarter of a trillion euro by 2014, and said a prolonged and chaotic national bankruptcy was becoming "inevitable".

The bankruptcy receiver of Czech lottery firm Sazka said on Thursday he had accepted debt claims from creditors worth 14.7 billion czech crowns ($859 million), including bonds and a number of bank loans, Reuters reported. Sazka, the largest Czech lottery firm, became insolvent in March after failing to pay back debt it racked up mostly when building a sports arena in Prague in 2004. The recognised claims include Sazka's bonds worth 200 million euros.

A senior International Monetary Fund official said Thursday that debt restructuring would provide no miracle cure for Greece's debt crisis, as a delegation of European and IMF officials continued to pore over the Greek government's finances in Athens, The Wall Street Journal reported. The delegation is in the Greek capital to examine whether the country's tough economic program is still on track and whether its financing plan is sustainable.

Saab Automobile's future was again cast in doubt Thursday after owner Spyker Cars NV said a EUR150 million ($212.2 million) investment agreement with a Chinese auto maker had fallen apart, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The announcement puts Saab Chairman and Spyker Chief Executive Victor Muller under intense pressure to come up with another deal fast. Saab's plant in Trollhattan, Sweden, has been idle since production was halted six weeks ago after suppliers stopped delivering parts because they hadn't been paid.

With Spain's troubled savings banks struggling to attract badly needed private investment, the Bank of Spain is edging toward a variation on the "bad bank" model that aims to reassure investors while minimizing government risk, The Wall Street Journal reported. The model—in which individual lenders create a so-called bad bank that holds toxic assets and is supported by state funds—shows how Spain is ramping up efforts to attract private money as its seeks to plug a €14.1 billion ($20.2 billion) capital hole in the financial sector.

Bank of Ireland has a "good chance" of avoiding State control by offering junior bondholders an opportunity to convert to equity, according to Harris Associates LP, its largest institutional investor, the Irish Times reported. Investors would prefer to see junior bondholders swap debt for equity to help the lender reach its capital target than the government increasing its 36 per cent stake to a majority holding, Robert Taylor, director of international research and portfolio manager with Chicago-based Harris Associates, said in a telephone interview.

A reluctant Spain has been shoved once again into the front line of the battle over the future of the euro, following indications that Greece might need another bail-out to avoid defaulting on its sovereign debt, the Financial Times reported. After the rescues of Greece and Ireland last year and the imminent bail-out package for Portugal, investors say Spain’s €1,744bn ($2,478bn) gross external debt burden and its dependence on foreign financing place it technically next in line for emergency aid from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

German chipmaker Infineon Technologies AG said Tuesday it has bought real estate and manufacturing facilities once owned by its former Qimonda unit for EUR100.6 million and also raised its capital expenditure budget for the current fiscal year, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The purchase covers cleanroom and manufacturing facilities in the German city of Dresden as well as 300-millimeter manufacturing equipment and is part of the company's strategic capacity expansion, Infineon said in a statement. Qimonda, a maker of DRAM chips, filed for insolvency in 2009.

The European Central Bank should provide Ireland with an interest-free loan of €40-50 billion to “overcapitalise” the Irish banks, according to a report issued by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), the Irish Times reported. In its latest quarterly economic commentary, ESRI authors Joe Durkan and Cormac O’Sullivan say there must be “an acceptance that this is an EU problem and requires EU solutions”.