Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne readied a sweeping emergency budget on Tuesday that is likely to combine severe spending cuts and tax increases in Britain’s deepest fiscal retrenchment since the early years of Margaret Thatcher’s rule, The New York Times reported. Mr. Osborne’s address was anxiously awaited by a nation that, in the wake of the debt crises in other European countries such as Greece, Ireland and Spain, has been steeling itself for cuts in public services but has by no means accepted that it must make sacrifices.

Greece won’t restructure its debt, and December tranches of international loans are secure provided the nation keeps implementing its stability plan, Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou told the Proto Thema newspaper, Bloomberg reported. Greece “battled to avoid and avoided” restructuring its debt with the help of the 110 billion-euro ($136.3 billion) European Union and International Monetary Fund loan package, the newspaper cited Papaconstantinou as saying in an interview published today.

Spanish banking giant Santander today confirmed its bid for more than 300 branches that are being sold off by part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland in Britain, Finfacts reported. The owner of Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley is the sole bidder for the 318 branches which NatWest owner RBS is disposing on the instructions of the European Commission. The business being sold has about three million customers - - - two-thirds of which are small businesses - - and consists of RBS branches in England and Wales as well as its NatWest uniits in Scotland.

Russian state-owned bank Sberbank is seeking a seat on the board of failed Kazakh bank BTA, the head of Kazakhstan's national welfare fund, Kairat Kelimbetov, said on Friday. "The talks are only with Sberbank," Kelimbetov, who also has a seat on Sberbank's supervisory board, told Reuters. "We are formulating a plan for the next 2-3 years." The welfare fund owns BTA. Sberbank has been in talks to take over the bankrupt Kazakh lender, one of the largest in the oil rich central Asian state. If it takes a board seat it would likely signal the takeover is ready to proceed.

Germany wants to see the results of stress tests for banks in the European Union to be made public in an effort to restore market confidence, a finance ministry official said Thursday, the Associated Press reported. The comment marks a turn-about in Germany's position - previously it had opposed publication of the tests checking the banks' stability, citing fears the results could spook investors.

The auction of Italian fashion house Gianfranco Ferre, one of Milan's top designer names, was launched on Wednesday by the special commissioners running parent company IT Holding. A call for bids comes the day before the third anniversary of the death of Gianfranco Ferre, known for his signature "architectural" style in suits and jackets and his trademark white shirts. IT Holding went into administration in February 2009 after running out of cash. In a notice published in newspapers, the three overseers set a July 6 deadline to submit binding offers for Ferre and an Aug.

Car parts supplier Vorwerk Autotec has renewed its interest in insolvent German peer Karmann's roof business, having lost out in a previous auction earlier this year, Reuters reported. Previously, at least four suitors were in the race for the insolvent company, including Vorwerk Autotec, financial group Nordwind Capital, Canada's Magna International and CIE Automotive. In May Magna's leading bid was blocked by German competition authorities.

General Motors Co.'s European division said Wednesday it has decided to withdraw all applications for state aid in the region and finance the planned turnaround with a further €1.4 billion of funds from its parent, marking a broad strategic shift after the German government last week refused to provide aid to the U.S. auto maker, Dow Jones reported.

The Bank of Spain’s decision to publish the results of stress tests on the nation’s lenders may prompt European neighbors to follow suit as investors demand more disclosure of the risks on banks’ books, Bloomberg reported. The Bank of Spain will make the findings public to give investors more information on the state of the banks, said Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez, the central bank governor, in a speech. Spain will publish the results on individual banks, Finance Minister Elena Salgado said in a television interview. Banking groups in Germany and the U.K.

Spanish banks are borrowing record amounts from the European Central Bank as the country’s financial institutions struggle to gain funding from the international capital markets, the Financial Times reported. Spanish banks borrowed €85.6bn ($105.7bn) from the ECB last month. This was double the amount lent to them before the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 and 16.5 per cent of net eurozone loans offered by the central bank.