The Construction Industry Federation told the board of the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) last month that its €5 billion working capital facility was “inadequate” to “manage [out] or improve” the €74 billion in distressed property assets that have been transferred from Irish-owned banks, The Irish Times reported. In a hard-hitting presentation, made to the board of Nama on October 7th and seen by The Irish Times , the federation added that “most borrowers now believe Nama to be a massive liquidation vehicle”.

Ireland's credit unions may need to be significantly restructured if arrears continue to rise and lending opportunities remain subdued, the official in charge of regulating the industry warned on Monday, Reuters reported. Some of Ireland's credit unions -- community-based savings and lending clubs owned by their members -- lent aggressively during the go-go years of the "Celtic Tiger" economy and are now struggling during a severe downturn.

British building and social housing repairs firm Rok Plc went into administration on Monday, two months after bigger rival Connaught collapsed, Reuters reported. Rok has appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers as administrator, the auditor said on Monday, and trading in its shares has been suspended. PricewaterhouseCoopers had been working with Rok's banks ahead of loan refinancing talks.

Ireland's commercial-property bust has knocked the country's banks to their knees. Now the lenders are bracing for another blow: losses on home loans, The Wall Street Journal reported. So far, residential mortgages haven't been nearly as big a problem for Irish banks as their portfolios of loans to finance real-estate development and construction projects. Those ill-fated property loans have saddled the banks with tens of billions of euros in losses, forcing the government to mount a series of costly bailouts that have pushed Ireland to the brink of insolvency.

Spain's timid economic recovery stalled in the third quarter as the result of government austerity measures, but should soon pick up again, the Bank of Spain said Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Spanish central bank estimated in its monthly economic report that third-quarter gross domestic product was unchanged from the second quarter. Spanish GDP rose 0.2% in the second quarter and 0.1% in the first after six consecutive quarters of contraction. In annual terms, third-quarter GDP rose 0.2%, its first annual increase in eight quarters, the central bank said.

The Group of 20 is beginning to look more like the G19 plus 1 as emerging and rich countries alike accuse the United States of breaking a vow of unity, Reuters reported. This week's G20 summit will require every bit of President Barack Obama's diplomacy skills after the Federal Reserve embarked on a new $600 billion bond-buying spree, sparking criticism from four continents that the U.S. central bank was ignoring the global repercussions.

WestLB is at growing risk of being wound down, Europe’s top competition watchdog warned on Friday after it accused the troubled German bank of offloading toxic assets at an inflated value and so benefiting from billions of euros in additional state aid, the Financial Times reported. Joaquín Almunia, EU competition commissioner, said the bank would have to take additional restructuring steps to compensate or the aid – put at €3.4bn ($4.77bn) – would have to be recovered. That could cast a new shadow over WestLB’s ultimate survival.

ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet declined to inject new stimulus into the euro zone despite signs of fragility in the currency bloc, further distancing the European Central Bank from other big central banks such as the Federal Reserve that are taking aggressive action to safeguard growth, The Wall Street Journal reported. Mr. Trichet provided some verbal support to European trouble spots—such as Ireland, Greece and Portugal—that face crippling borrowing costs, saying that despite three weeks without purchases, the ECB's government-bond buying program remains active.

The High Court has ordered the liquidator appointed to building contractor Pierse to investigate the group’s activities over the last 18 months, following concerns raised by a number of its creditors, The Irish Times reported. Mr Justice Peter Kelly appointed Simon Coyle of Mazaars as liquidator to Pierse Contracting and Pierse Building Services after the two companies unexpectedly withdrew their petition for the High Court’s protection from their creditors. CF Structures, to which Pierse owes €5.7 million, and a number of other unsecured creditors, proposed Mr Coyle’s appointment.

The chancellor, George Osborne, came under fire today from MPs on the Treasury select committee, charged with "misleading the public" for claiming the UK was near bankruptcy in the weeks after he took office, The Guardian reported. He was accused of using inflammatory language to justify massive public spending cuts. The committee chairman, Tory MP Andrew Tyrie, said Osborne's claim that Britain had been "on the brink of bankruptcy" was "a bit over the top".