The Department of Finance has advertised for people interested in being nominated or appointed to the boards of banks as part of the clear-out process, the Irish Times reported. The department is creating a pool of potential directors after Minister for Finance Michael Noonan announced plans last week to clear out the boards of the banks of the directors who were in place before the banking crisis. This process “should ensure a high-calibre field from which directors may be chosen and makes the process more open and transparent”, the department said.

The lenders to the Quinn Group will receive interest payments of about €100 million a year under the restructuring deal where they have taken control of the business from Seán Quinn with Anglo Irish Bank, the Irish Times reported. Banks and bondholders are owed €1.28 billion by the group, while State-owned Anglo is owed €2.88 billion by Quinn and his family.

The future of Saab Automobile remained uncertain Tuesday after its Dutch owner Spyker Cars NV said it had to fulfill additional conditions to win approval for its short-term funding plans and was unsure whether it could fulfill these conditions within a short period of time, The Wall Street Journal reported. Separately, parts suppliers said they would soon have to start laying off workers as a production suspension continued at Saab Automobile's plant in Trollhattan, Sweden.

Greece and Portugal are deeper in debt than previously estimated, according to official figures that show attempts to contain their financial woes have so far failed, The Guardian reported. The statistics agency Eurostat said Greece's deficit hit 10.5% of economic output in 2010, well above the 9.6% the European commission expected last autumn. Portugal, which is negotiating a bailout similar to those for Greece and Ireland, saw its debts reach 9.1%, far ahead of the 7.3% the commission used as a benchmark until only a few months ago.

A fund controlled by billionaire investor Len Blavatnik has been asked to return EUR100 million ($145.8 million) to the bankruptcy estate of chemical giant LyondellBasell Industries, which emerged from Chapter 11 protection last year but left a trustee to file lawsuits to recover funds for the company's unsecured creditors, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. In a lawsuit filed Friday with the U.S.

HSBC on Monday became the latest foreign bank to pull out of retail banking in Russia as large state-owned banks have come to dominate a business that had been expected to provide a rich growth opportunity for foreign institutions, The New York Times DealBook blog reported. HSBC, Europe’s largest bank by assets, said it would close five retail branches in Moscow and St. Petersburg and focus instead on providing global lending services to industrial and corporate clients.

European Central Bank Chief Economist Juergen Stark said a debt restructuring by a euro country risked triggering a banking crisis that could “worst case” exceed the effects of the failure of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., according to the transcript of an interview posted by German television station ZDF on its website, Bloomberg reported. There is “no painless way” for countries that sought aid to reduce debt, while a restructuring may cut off the respective country from the financial markets for an unforeseeable time, Stark was quoted as saying.

Lights in Lisbon’s finance ministry will burn late into the night this weekend as European Union, International Monetary Fund and Portuguese officials toil over the details of the country’s €80bn ($116bn) bail-out agreement, the Financial Times reported. Outside, the streets have been deserted since Thursday, when the caretaker government granted public administration workers an extra half-day holiday so they could leave early for the long Easter weekend.

It’s an anniversary few are celebrating. A year ago Saturday, with its faltering economy days away from bankruptcy, Greece ended months of speculation and requested bailout loans, The Washington Post reported.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is planning to force companies to give staff a bonus when they raise dividends, but both businesses and unions slammed the proposal, The Wall Street Journal reported. Mr. Sarkozy said late Wednesday that he was in favor of a such a rule; it would apply only to companies with more than 50 employees.