State-owned Anglo Irish Bank is set to take control of department store Arnotts, The Irish Times reported. The bank is one of the backers of Arnotts' planned Northern Quarter development, which has been put on hold. The department store will come under the joint control of the nationalised bank and Ulster Bank. Anglo is believed to have told the EU of its intended move. Arnotts is said to have debts of more than €250 million. In February, Art Holdings, which owns Arnotts, was negotiating new banking facilities with the lenders.

The International Monetary Fund began inspecting Greece's public finances on Monday to make sure the government is implementing promised austerity measures before it gains access to a second rescue loan installment in mid-September, the Associated Press reported. The inspectors arrived as strikes continued against the painful spending cuts and an overhaul of labor rules. A walkout by fuel-tanker drivers caused supply shortages in Athens, while serious departure delays were reported at Athens International Airport as air traffic controllers continued a work-to-rule protest started last week.

Former Anglo Irish Bank chief Seán FitzPatrick, who owes creditors a total of €150 million and has assets of around €50 million, was in court as bankruptcy proceedings continued against him. Legal representatives for Anglo Irish Bank, which says it is owed up to €110 million, told the court it was seeking to have a “trustee in bankruptcy” appointed to the case. This trustee would replace a court-appointed official, Chris Lehane, who was assigned a fortnight ago to deal with Mr FitzPatrick’s assets and debts.

A Latvian personal bankruptcy law passed by parliament yesterday won’t hurt Nordic lenders because provisions set aside for bad loans will cover the impact of the bill, according to Nordea Bank AB, Bloomberg reported. Latvia’s 100-seat legislature voted yesterday to pass the law, which will require lenders to forgive debt for private borrowers declared bankrupt after a maximum of three and a half years. Loans late by more than 90 days in Latvia reached 19 percent of the total in May, according to the country’s banking regulator.

Property group Highstreet has agreed to a compromise on rents with insolvent retailer Karstadt, a move which will help investor Nicolas Berggruen rescue the department store operator, according to German daily Bild am Sonntag, Reuters reported. A disagreement on store rents had prevented Berggruen from striking a deal with the highstreet consortium, which consists of Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and Pirelli Real Estate. Highstreet had warned Berggruen that Karstadt, which owns the famous KaDeWe department store in Berlin, could still be liquidated if an accord on rents did not emerge soon.

Four Seasons Health Care has extended the deadline for holders of GBP600 million of bonds, backed by a loan to the U.K. nursing-homes operator, to approve a lockup agreement, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Noteholders now have until July 30 to sign the agreement, which would prevent them from selling their debt in return for a consent fee of 60 basis points, according to a regulatory notice released Friday.

A host of Irish pubs collapsed over the past two years as the downturn ravaged the hospitality sector, InsolvencyJournal.ie reported. In March 2009, the Thomas Read Group entered receivership after an investment plan for the chain of pubs fell through. Earlier this year, the Waterford-based Tweedy Group, one of the largest pub groups outside Dublin, collapsed into receivership when the High Court rejected a rescue deal for the group and final orders have been called on hundreds of smaller pubs across the country.

European regulators have accused Germany and its banks of reneging on a deal to publish full details of sovereign debt holdings, as part of the four-month-long stress test exercise of the country’s banking sector.

Real Mallorca are considering their options after being told they have been denied entry into the Europa League after falling foul of UEFA's financial regulations, ESPN reported. Mallorca in May applied to go into voluntary administration after amassing debts thought to be in the region of €70 million.

As investors anxiously awaited the results of official European bank stress tests due Friday, grumbling emerged from the private sector about the methodology and whether healthier banks would inadvertently be penalized by comparison with weaker institutions, The New York Times reported. A senior Spanish banker said Thursday that, while the stress tests should ease some of the uncertainty about the health of the European banking industry, the exercise would most likely benefit the most prudent banks least.