Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has asked European Central Bank (ECB) chief Jean-Claude Trichet to deepen the bank’s emergency support for Ireland’s financial system, the Irish Times reported. At his first EU meeting yesterday, the Minister said he wanted the Frankfurt-based institution to allow a longer deleveraging process for the Irish banks and to provide medium-term liquidity so they do not have to rely on two-week funding.

More than half the market value of Southern Cross Healthcare was wiped out on Monday after the UK’s largest care home operator said it was seeking to renegotiate the rent paid to its landlords and admitted cuts by local authorities in the amounts paid for elderly care would force a breach in its banking covenants, the Financial Times reported.

A new survey claims that Irish banks are refusing almost half of the credit applications being made by small businesses, RTÉ News reported. The survey by the small business group, ISME, also indicates that 79% of firms found that banks were making it more difficult to get credit. Those that were successful said they were being penalised with higher interest rates and charges. Mark Fielding, the chief executive of ISME, said the bailed-out Irish banks had ignored Government instructions to get credit flowing again.

The Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement has no power to investigate practices at Irish Nationwide as building societies do not fall under its remit, a spokesman for the office said, the Irish Times reported. The spokesman said the office could not comment on reports around corporate governance failures at the building society under former chief executive Michael Fingleton as it did not cover entities such as the building societies.

European finance ministers will meet in Brussels Monday and Tuesday to discuss the fine print of a deal covering the euro zone's bailout funds after the currency area's leaders vaulted low expectations to secure a crucial agreement early Saturday, The Wall Street Journal reported. Following a rancorous discussion, the leaders agreed to expand the euro zone's current bailout capacity to €500 billion ($694.9 billion), the figure leaders originally promised last year, from just over €300 billion now. They also pledged to establish a new €500 billion permanent bailout fund in 2013.

Below you find the newsletter of the International Department of Schultze & Braun with information on current issues in German insolvency law as well as an article about discussion in the US and Germany regarding illegal real estate foreclosure. Dr H. Philipp Esser, LL.M. (Chicago) Attorney at law (Germany) Attorney at Law (New York State) Comfort Letter In a company crisis shareholders frequently grant enforceable comfort letters (in German: „hard“ comfort letters) for the benefit of a subsidiary and its creditors.

Some 80 homes are being sold for half their original value in the biggest ever receivership auction, the Herald.ie reported. The list includes a mews apartment in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 for €600,000 -- down from €1.6m -- an apartment in Dublin's city centre Temple Bar for €80,000, and an apartment in Portlaoise for €35,000. Hundreds of thousands of euro have been cut from boom-time prices with some apartments being sold for less than €24,000.

“Group think” and a “herd instinct” which forced the banks to chase profits made by Anglo Irish Bank were among the causes of the banking crisis, according to draft findings of the Nyberg commission of investigation, the Irish Times reported. The commission has, however, concluded it is difficult to assign blame more specifically for the crisis as many parties share some degree of responsibility.

European officials meeting Friday are meant to lay the groundwork for a comprehensive fix to Europe's debt crisis. Bond investors already are betting against success, The Wall Street Journal reported. Two months ago, a resolution seemed within reach. The region's paymaster, Germany, would agree to beef up a rescue fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, in size and in scope by permitting its use for government-bond purchases and credit lines. That would keep the debt crisis that engulfed Greece and Ireland last year from also forcing a bailout of Portugal and Spain.

Euro zone leaders are set to agree a "competitiveness pact" at a summit on Friday and will push Portugal to announce new reforms to increase market confidence as they seek to draw a line under the debt crisis, Reuters reported. Germany has lowered expectations for a major breakthrough at the summit, saying the best that can be hoped for is an agreement on competitiveness. Bigger decisions to tackle the crisis -- such as whether to strengthen the euro zone bailout fund -- will be handled at an end-March summit.