Bank of Scotland Ireland is to cut 750 jobs from its Irish workforce of 1,600, with most of the redundancies due to take effect by July. The bank plans to close down the retail network which it operates under the Halifax brand. But it is expected that 850 jobs will remain in the corporate and commercial banking sections, Finfacts reported. The bank which operates 44 retail branches in Ireland under the Halifax brand, unexpectedly announced its decision to staff this afternoon.

Adam Opel, the European unit of General Motors, announced an ambitious turnaround plan Tuesday, vowing to become profitable in 2012 by cutting capacity by 20 percent and reducing its work force by 8,300, while introducing a raft of new models, including the battery-powered Ampera, The New York Times reported. But the chief executive of Opel, Nick Reilly said Tuesday that the plan was contingent on €2.7 billion ($3.7 billion) in loans or loan guarantees from European governments, as well as luring car buyers back to the Opel and Vauxhall brands.

The problems facing Greece are just the beginning, Spiegel Online reported. The countries belonging to Europe's common currency zone are drifting further and further apart, and national bankruptcies are a distinct possibility. Brussels is faced with a number of choices, none of them good. Accruing debt is becoming increasingly expensive for other countries in the euro zone as well, among them Portugal and Spain. The southern members of the euro zone are especially being eyed with mistrust.

Greece's government was tackling the thorny issue of pension and wage reform Tuesday, part of its plan to fight a debt crisis that has alarmed global markets, even as strikes were being planned nationwide, The Wall Street Journal reported. Prime Minister George Papandreou's center-left government is accelerating austerity measures meant to calm markets and European Union partners, who have urged Athens to swiftly deal with the crisis. Mr.

Jean-Claude Trichet, the European Central Bank president, is returning early from a conference in Australia to take part in a summit meeting of European leaders this week, amid speculation over possible action to ease the debt crisis several countries are facing, The New York Times reported. Mr. Trichet will attend the meeting Thursday of the European Council called by Herman Van Rompuy, the bloc’s first full-time president, an E.C.B. spokesman said Tuesday. He said Mr. Trichet was only invited to the meeting on Monday. The E.C.B.

Group of Seven financial leaders agreed on the need to continue supporting their economies until financial recovery takes a firmer hold, but they have yet to reach a consensus on how to overhaul regulation of their financial sectors, The Wall Street Journal reported. French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said leaders were unable to make collective decisions on a U.S. proposal to limit proprietary trading at commercial banks, partly because financial institutions in countries including France, Germany and Japan aren't plagued by the same issues as U.S. banks.

German officials said they were weighing fresh offers from informants after deciding last week to pay €2.5 million ($3.4 million) for the names of suspected tax evaders in what is rapidly evolving into a broad attack on Switzerland's system of banking secrecy, The Wall Street Journal reported. Over the past week, German officials have launched a tactical and rhetorical assault on Swiss banking, a strategy that appears to be aimed at undermining both Switzerland's tradition of secrecy and its pre-eminence as a tax refuge.

Government-finance specialist Dexia SA agreed on a restructuring deal with European regulators Friday, ending months of indecision over its future, The Wall Street Journal reported. The lender, which was handed a €6.4 billion ($8.7 billion) lifeline when it became engulfed in debt during the credit crisis, promised to sell off about 35% of its balance sheet to offset the competitive advantages it gained from state subsidies and guarantees. Before the credit crisis, Dexia was a major lender to local governments.

Prime Minister George Papandreou got a measure of relief Friday in his fight to curb Greece's runaway deficit, as protesting farmers scaled back highway blockades in opposition to the government's austerity measures, The Associated Press reported. The prospect of strikes and protests have raised fears Papandreou won't be able to push through an austerity plan aimed at dousing the country's financial crisis, which has undermined the euro because markets fear Greece may default on its debts.

A messy Greek default would harm almost everybody, The Economist reported in an editorial. As markets and governments know only too well, behind Greece stand others: Portugal, Ireland, Spain and even Italy, the world’s third-biggest sovereign debtor. Hence the selfish case for other euro-area countries to help. There is plenty of money around. The EU can advance structural-fund aid that is due to be paid in future years. The European Investment Bank can lend more.