The CBI is urging the government to delay by a year its plan to scrap the default retirement age of 65, fearing it will create legal confusion and a wave of employment tribunal cases, the Financial Times reported. John Cridland, director-general designate of the employers’ group, said the government’s proposals were “not fit for purpose” and urged simplification of the rules. He said it was the “number one employment regulatory issue” for employers in the coming year and was causing deep concern.

Banks' total exposure to Ireland and the southern rim of the euro zone in the second quarter was greater than previously thought, according to data from the Bank for International Settlements published Sunday, The Wall Street Journal reported. The data confirm that German and French banks are among the world's largest creditors to the region.

Banks may become more reluctant to lend to businesses with large pension deficits after a far-reaching judgment at Europe's High Court on Friday found that the two estates of Lehman Brothers Europe and Nortel Networks Corp. were on the hook for GBP2.2 billion ($3.5 billion) in pensions bills between them, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The High Court handed out a much-anticipated ruling on a multibillion-dollar dispute between the U.K.'s Pension Regulator and the two estates of Lehman Brothers, the collapsed U.S. bank, and Nortel Networks, the telecoms group.

Iceland's finance minister said today he backed a deal with Britain and the Netherlands over debts incurred in a bailout of depositors in a failed bank, while opposition parties were more cautious, the Irish Times reported. Icelandic negotiators said yesterday they had a draft deal offering better terms than one rejected by voters in March for repaying the $5 billion (€3.8 billion) the two countries spent reimbursing British and Dutch Icesave account holders.

French bank Natixis Thursday denied allegations made by a trustee seeking to recover assets for victims of Bernard Madoff's investment fraud, The Wall Street Journal reported. A lawsuit filed late Wednesday is seeking around $1.4 billion from seven U.S. and European banks, including Natixis. The trustee, Irving Picard, said the lawsuits, which were filed under seal, accuse the banks of overlooking warning signals about Mr. Madoff's fraud while receiving transfers of money from his firm through so-called "feeder funds" that invested most or all of their assets with him.

Ireland's lawmakers narrowly voted Thursday to cut welfare benefits and debated a raft of other cost-slashing measures, but their efforts to combat Europe's worst deficit didn't stop the Fitch agency from slashing the nation's credit rating, the Associated Press reported. A legislative bill to cut payments to the unemployed, single parents, children, the blind and disabled passed on an 80-75 vote that reflected Prime Minister Brian Cowen's slim majority in parliament.

An Italian court sentenced Parmalat SpA founder Calisto Tanzi to 18 years in prison for his role in the 2003 collapse of the Italian dairy firm, wrapping up a seven-year investigation and trial into one of Europe's biggest corporate bankruptcies, The Wall Street Journal reported. Parmalat filed for bankruptcy in December 2003 after information emerged that a decade-long fraud had left the maker of long-life milk, yogurts and juice saddled with €14 billion ($18.57 billion) in debt. The savings of thousands of bondholders around the world were wiped out.

The trustee overseeing the bankruptcy of Bernard Madoff's investment firm joined an English liquidator on Wednesday in filing an $80 million lawsuit against former directors of the convicted felon's London operation, including his sons and brother, and related entities, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The suit was filed in the United Kingdom's High Court of Justice Commercial Court by trustee Irving Picard and Stephen J. Akers, a joint liquidator of Madoff Securities International Ltd.

K1 Group hedge fund founder Helmut Kiener’s personal assets were placed under the control of a court-appointed administrator less than two weeks after he was charged with running an international fraud scheme, Bloomberg reported. A court in Aschaffenburg, Germany, opened preliminary insolvency proceedings on Nov. 25 after a creditor request, according to a filing in Germany’s online insolvency registry. The creditor was a health insurer, insolvency judge Juergen Roth said in an interview today.

Wind Hellas Telecommunications SA’s bondholder-led plan to restructure the company by injecting 420 million euros ($555 million) and writing off debt in exchange for control of the company was approved by a London court, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reported. Under the plan by senior secured floating-rate noteholders, Wind Hellas’s 250 million-euro revolving credit line would be repaid in full, while the company’s senior secured notes and 355 million euros of subordinated bonds will be written off, according to a statement Oct. 18.