Wind Hellas Telecommunications SA, the Greek mobile phone operator that restructured its debt last year, will miss 40.5 million euros ($50 million) of debt payments due in the next two weeks, according to Naguib Sawiris, its Egyptian billionaire owner. Greece’s third-largest mobile-phone operator has asked creditors not to push it into default as it seeks to restructure its debt for the second time in seven months, Sawiris said in an interview.

U.K law may prevent the Financial Services Authority from releasing detailed information on banks’ stress-tests without the lenders’ consent, Bloomberg reported. The U.K. banking supervisor can’t disclose confidential information “without the consent of the person from whom” the regulator obtained the information, according to the Financial Services and Markets Act, which was enacted 10 years ago. EU leaders agreed this month to disclose how banks perform in European stress tests, seeking to show investors that the financial system can withstand shocks.

The heavily indebted Greek government has adopted the International Monetary Fund's recommendation to raise some of the €320 billion ($390 billion) it owes foreign lenders through privatization. And that has transformed central Athens into a stage for daily demonstrations, even in the heat of summer when many here typically take long vacations, The Christian Science Monitor reported. While Tuesday's demonstration was smaller than past protests this year, strikes are expected to pick up again when vacationers return from the beach. Privatization continues at a rapid pace.

The euro and European stock markets strengthened slightly on relief that banks borrowed less than expected from the European Central Bank in its latest liquidity operation, Telegraph.co.uk reported. The ECB lent banks €131.9bn (£107.7bn) in three-month funds on Wednesday in an auction that was seen by economists as a test of the sector's health. With the amount below the €150bn-€250bn expected, concerns about bank finances which have rocked stock markets and weighed on euro this week were temporarily eased. The ECB said 171 banks borrowed funds at a flat rate of 1pc in the operation.

The European Commission Tuesday cleared Spanish aid for the restructuring of the local savings bank Caja Castilla-La Mancha, Dow Jones reported. "The commission is satisfied that Caja Castilla-La Mancha has been restructured in a way that limits distortions of competition and ensures the viability of the banking activities," said Joaquin Almunia, the commission's vice president in charge of competition.

Failed Dutch bank DSB should not have been given a licence to operate, the commission that investigated its collapse said on Tuesday, pinning the ultimate blame on bad management of the bank. The tough report will put added pressure on central bank president Nout Wellink, who has been heavily criticised for his work since the start of the financial crisis. The Dutch central bank, known as the DNB, issues banks their operating licences. DSB, which got its license in 2005, failed after an Oct. 1 TV interview with a lawyer for a DSB mortgage holders' foundation.

It is time to recognise that Greece is not just suffering from a liquidity crisis; it is facing an insolvency crisis too, the Financial Times reported in a commentary. Rating agencies have started to downgrade its public debt to junk level, while spreads on Greek sovereign bonds last week spiked to new highs. The €110bn bail-out agreed by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund in May only delays the inevitable default and risks making it disorderly when it comes. Instead, an orderly restructuring of Greece’s public debt is needed now.

Public services in Greece ground to a halt and transport was disrupted on Tuesday as thousands of workers joined a general strike, the fifth this year, to protest deeply unpopular spending cuts that the debt-ridden government has promised its international creditors, The New York Times reported. The country’s two main labor unions, representing some three million workers, vehemently oppose a draft law that aims to raise retirement ages, reduce monthly payments to pensioners and facilitate layoffs.

The Financial Stability Board on Sunday urged leaders of the world's 20 largest developed and emerging nations to support the introduction of stricter capital rules to help banks withstand possible future crises, Dow Jones reported. The statement, made in a letter to the Group of 20, comes amid a tussle involving governments, banks and regulators on the scope of the new rules and the timing of their implementation.

The French government on Friday announced a further €3.5bn of tax rises for 2011 the latest in a series of announcements that puts Paris’s austerity drive on par with Berlin’s much-criticised plan to trim its budget, the Financial Times reported. The latest announcement – intended to reassure the markets while not scaring the French public about impending austerity –- brings to €13.2bn the amount France aims to raise from tax increases next year.