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Ultrasonic launched talks with creditors to try and avoid an insolvency and formally fired its two top executives on Thursday after they disappeared along with the Chinese shoemaker's cash, Reuters reported. Earlier this week, the German-listed firm said chief executive Qingyong Wu and chief operating officer Minghong Wu had gone missing at the weekend, and most of its cash reserves in China and Hong Kong had vanished.

An insolvency company has revealed details of its clients who have gone bankrupt under rules introduced a year ago, RTÉ News reported. The figures show that banks which lent mortgages to these clients have had to write off 68% of the outstanding debt. In all of the cases the borrowers will lose or have already lost their homes. Some of the borrowers had applied for personal insolvency but were turned down by the banks. The figures have been compiled by the Insolvency Resolution Service, which acts as a personal insolvency practitioner to individuals who are in arrears.

The Bucharest court has recently approved the insolvency request for Romanian construction company Tehnologica Radion, whose owner, Theodor Berna, is currently under preventive arrest for tax evasion and money laundry, Romania-Insider.com reported. The company had a turnover of EUR 80.7 million in 2013, and a net profit of EUR 876,000. However, it amassed some EUR 86 million in debts, while its due receivables were of EUR 57 million. Prosecutors recently froze Tehnologica Radion’s accounts and goods, as the company is also part of the trial which involves its owner.

Mauricio Cárdenas, Colombia’s finance minister, describes his government’s economic agenda with a nod to French economist Thomas Piketty, who argues for taxes on the rich to reduce the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. “It is very important to collect revenues from the wealthiest Colombians to be able to invest in security and defence on the one hand, and in social sectors on the other hand,” he told the Financial Times in New York, between meetings with investors. Colombia is one of the world’s most unequal societies.

Banks, insurers and other finan­cial services firms operating across Europe face extra hundreds of mil­lions of pounds of extra tax costs, following a European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling yesterday, City A.M. reported. The ruling means services supplied between a group’s headquarters and its branches may now be subject to VAT. Until now, services such as IT and call centre operations provided to a bank from foreign office were not charged the 20 per cent tax, as they were deemed to be within the same “VAT group”.

Government is one step closer to enacting the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act of 2007, Finance Minister Larry Howai has said. At present, he said, the state was moving apace to create the Office of the Insolvency Regulator which soon after would be filled and the agency would commence operations, the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian reported. Speaking at Monday’s launch of NCB Global Finance Ltd, a subsidiary of NCB Group, on Ariapita Avenue, Woodbrook, the minister said, “The Act was passed in 2007. It’s another piece of legislation that improves our ease of doing business.

Taxpayers may end up footing the bill for third-party claims related to the collapse of Setanta Insurance, the Irish Times reported. The Maltese-registered insurer went into liquidation in April leaving 75,000 motor policyholders in Ireland with no cover. It had been selling mainly commercial motor insurance through brokers and was known as a low-cost operator. Initially Minister for Finance Michael Noonan signalled the industry-funded Motor Insurance Bureau of Ireland (MIBI) would cover all outstanding third-party claims emanating from the collapse.

Some euro zone banks have insufficient liquidity and several will continue to require support from the European Central Bank after long-term funding help runs out at the start of next year, credit ratings agency S&P said, the Irish Times reported. S&P said refinancing risks were lessening for Europe’s banks as they improve their liquidity in the wake of the financial crisis, but they remains a considerable risk for some.

PV group Solon has announced that two Germany-based units will file for insolvency, as its centre of gravity continues to shift away from Europe under parent company Microsol. Solon announced the start of insolvency proceedings in Berlin for its Solon Modules GmbH and Solon Energy GmbH subsidiaries, Recharge reported. The move came as the company appointed Rolando Gennari as its new European head, with a remit to reposition Solon “as a leading player on the continent”. UAE-based Microsol bought Solon – one of the pioneers of the German solar industry – in 2012 after the latter went bankrupt.

The Canadian unit of U.S. Steel Corp. filed for court protection from creditors to restructure its operations. The steelmaker applied to the Ontario Superior Court today for protection under Canada’s Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act, U.S. Steel Canada said today in a statement obtained by Bloomberg News. U.S. Steel, the biggest U.S. steelmaker by volume, will provide C$185 million ($169 million) in debtor-in-possession financing to the Canadian unit during the restructuring. “Despite substantial efforts over the past several years to make U.S.