Headlines

The number of registered unemployed in Spain rose beyond the 5m mark for the first time, but the relatively modest month-on-month increase raised fresh hopes that the country’s economic crisis may be starting to recede, the Financial Times reported. According to labour ministry data, almost 60,000 more people registered as unemployed in February than in the previous month, an increase of 1.2 per cent.

Cyprus, the next euro-zone country in line to receive a bailout, has agreed to submit to an independent review of the country's controls on money laundering, in a bid to ease the currency bloc's concerns about lending billions of euros to prop up Cypriot financial institutions, a popular destination for offshore cash, The Wall Street Journal reported. Pumping more capital into Cypriot banks will be a major part of the bailout, which euro-zone finance ministers said after a meeting Monday would be ready by the end of March.

Mexico's Vitro said on Monday it had ended a lengthy legal fight with creditors after a Mexican businessman bought a chunk of the glassmaker's debt held by funds that had led the court fight, Thomson Reuters News & Insight reported. Under the deal, Monterrey-based businessman David Martinez' Fintech fund will buy all the debt held by U.S. hedge funds that were fighting Vitro in court over payment, the company said in a statement.

Ireland received a significant boost in its bid to seek an extension to the maturities of its bailout loans last night after finance ministers of the countries that share the euro currency backed the deal, the Irish Times reported. Finance ministers from all 27 EU states will consider the issue at a scheduled meeting in Brussels this morning, which is being chaired by Minister for Finance Michael Noonan.

Small Baltic state Latvia decided on Monday to apply to join the euro zone next year, a sign of the faith in the currency which still exists in eastern Europe after three years which have threatened the project, Reuters reported. Latvia pegged its currency to the euro after joining the European Union in 2004. It and Lithuania, which pegged in 2002, stuck with the links through two years of turmoil after 2008 which saw their economies shrink by up to a fifth.

Pescanova SA, Europe’s second- biggest fish processor, plunged 60 percent after it started the initial phase of seeking creditors’ protection and delayed results pending asset sales and a debt renegotiation, Bloomberg reported. The shares tumbled to 6.96 euros in Madrid, or 60 percent lower than its previous close at 17.40 euros on Feb. 28, a day before it was suspended from trading by stock market regulator CNMV. The one-day decline was the most since at least 1994, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Swiss voters on Sunday overwhelmingly backed a plan giving shareholders sweeping authority over executive pay, the latest in a series of moves aimed at curbing what is seen as excessive remuneration levels at top companies, The Wall Street Journal reported. Roughly 68% of those who voted supported the Minder Initiative, named after the businessman and politician who created it, according to the government. The 24-item measure enables shareholders of Swiss companies to approve or block proposed compensation for corporate executives and board members.

European leaders demanded that euro members press on with budget cuts to end the debt crisis as Italy edged closer to a new election after an anti-austerity vote last week resulted in political deadlock, Bloomberg reported. Finance ministers from the 17-member single-currency bloc meet in Brussels today to discuss issues including a bailout for Cyprus. In Rome, a top aide to Democratic Party leader Pier Luigi Bersani said the country may need to hold another election this year after passing new electoral laws.

The former head of the defunct Anglo Irish Bank will face a second trial connected to Ireland's most expensive banking failure, charged with misleading auditors, a Dublin court heard on Friday, Reuters reported. Sean FitzPatrick, who oversaw the rapid rise and stunning fall of Anglo, is already due to be tried on fraud charges next year. He is the highest-profile banker to be charged in connection with the financial meltdown that dragged Ireland into an 85 billion euro ($111 billion) international bailout.

Since the downturn, a series of Irish passport holders have opted to declare themselves bankrupt in Britain. The difference between the two jurisdictions is stark: in Ireland, bankrupts may be faced with up to 12 years of financial purgatory. In the UK they can be clear after one year, The Guardian reported. After initially attracting Germans, who face a minimum of six years in bankruptcy, the British system soon received an increasing number of Irish people.