Germany

Germany has insisted that eurozone countries impose losses on all bondholders in ailing banks before taxpayers’ money can be used to clean up the financial system, a move that would make it harder to activate Europe’s common safety net for lenders, the Financial Times reported. At a meeting of EU finance ministers in Luxembourg, Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s finance minister, hardened his position on deploying common eurozone funds to cover any big capital shortfalls exposed in next year’s European bank stress test. Berlin is able to veto use of the funds.

Creditors of insolvent German aluminium plant Voerde Aluminium voted to extend production to the end of next year while the search for a buyer continues, a spokesman for Voerde's insolvency administrator said on Monday, Reuters reported. The Voerde smelter, which makes about 10 percent - or 115,000 tonnes - of Germany's yearly aluminium output a year, declared insolvency in May 2012. The plant in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia employs about 280 staff.

A German insolvency court in Coburg Tuesday granted Loewe AG permission to carry out insolvency proceedings under the company's own administration, and the television and entertainment console maker has already received several offers from interested investors in recent days, Loewe said Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported. The company has been under creditor protection since July.

Angela Merkel’s third term, after her overwhelming election victory yesterday, is likely to force a decision on where to spend political capital: on Europe’s ills or Germany’s, Bloomberg reported. While Germany ranks fourth in the global competitiveness study by the World Economic Forum thanks to policies enacted by her predecessor Gerhard Schroeder, the challenges are piling up. Merkel must address the aging population, shortfalls in education and infrastructure spending and ballooning pension costs, say policy makers, economists and investors.

Many Germans feel that whoever wins Sunday's election, they should not fund any more bailouts of fellow European countries, whose errant banks are a particular bugbear for Berlin, Reuters reported in an analysis. But a cornerstone of Germany's own banking system, which has already received state bailouts, is facing fresh challenges, increasing the need for reforms which will be very hard for any new government to deliver.

Germany’s pared down vision for Europe’s banking union has suffered a blow after the legal adviser to EU finance ministers largely rejected Berlin’s claim that creating a powerful central executioner to shut failing eurozone banks goes beyond the law. A confidential paper from the Council legal service, obtained by the Financial Times, upholds the foundations of the European Commission’s resolution authority proposal, in spite of Angela Merkel of Germany saying such radical reforms require EU treaty change.

Windreich AG, Germany's largest developer of offshore wind farms, has filed for insolvency and its chief executive has stepped down after financing talks for a 400 megawatt (MW) project stalled. The company made its filing with a German court late last week and now its CEO Willi Balz, who also owns the group, has resigned effective immediately, Windreich said in a statement late on Monday. "In talks with our investors it became clear that a change in management was a prerequisite for the successful continuation of talks," Windreich's new chief Werner Heer said.

Cyprus is having its worst economic downturn since the 1970s and that's bad news not only for Cypriots but also for Germans and other eurozone members, United Press International reported. Fears over what German taxpayers may have to do next to bail out Greece are already an election issue as German Chancellor Angela Merkel seeks a third term in Berlin's Bundestag parliament elections Sept. 22. Greek and Cypriot economies are so interlinked that Greek economic troubles are seen behind the crisis that forced Cyprus to seek EU help in return for a crushing austerity program.

Insolvent German home improvement store chain Praktiker, a household name in Europe's biggest economy, will be dismantled and sold off piecemeal after its administrator failed to find a buyer for its remaining 130 outlets, Reuters reported. The stores, which have about 5,330 employees, will start a clearance sale in the coming weeks so their empty shells can be sold off individually, Praktiker's insolvency administrator Christopher Seagon said in a statement on Wednesday.

Dublin-based Depfa Bank is to be sold off by its Munich-based parent, Hypo Real Estate, five years after both were rescued from collapse by a German state-backed guarantee. Depfa, based in the IFSC, plays no active role in the HRE group under the terms of a 2008 rescue plan that resulted in the property group’s nationalisation in 2009. A well-placed source confirmed to the Irish Times that a plan would be announced shortly to hive off the Irish institution in an auction, six years after it was bought by HRE.