Headlines

The High Court has confirmed an examiner to B&Q Ireland Ltd, which operates nine home improvement stores employing 690 people, of whom 500 are part-time workers, the Irish Times reported. As part of further cost-cutting proposals, the company’s two stores in Athlone and Waterford would close with the “regrettable” loss of 92 jobs, Mr Justice Peter Kelly noted. A key ingredient for the survival of some of the company’s other stores includes renegotiation of what he described as “extraordinary” rents.

A plan to close international tax loopholes was outlined on Tuesday by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which warned that a failure to take action against profit shifting by multinationals would put “the integrity of the corporate income tax” at stake, the Financial Times reported.

For a second day in a row, the European Union's top financial official sought Tuesday to quash speculation that private bank depositors in Cyprus might be forced to take losses as part of a bailout deal - a suggestion that's fueled fears of large-scale withdrawals from the country's troubled banks, Bloomberg reported. The new head of the euro area's 17 finance ministers stoked concerns Monday about the security of uninsured private deposits in Cyprus when he declined to rule out such a step following repeated questions from reporters.

Small carrier Bahrain Air said on Tuesday it was shutting down, blaming political unrest in the island kingdom and the government's refusal to pay it compensation, Reuters reported. The privately owned airline, launched in 2008, has four planes and was flying to about a dozen destinations in the Middle East and south Asia. It struggled to compete with Bahrain's larger flag carrier, Gulf Air, and low-cost airlines in the region.

The uncertain global economy isn’t the only hurdle for SsangYong Motor to clear this year. South Korean politicians are putting up another, The Wall Street Journal Korea Real Time blog reported. Some lawmakers from opposition parties want the National Assembly to look into a possible accounting fraud by Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp., or SAIC, the previous owner of Ssangyong, which is South Korea’s fourth-biggest car maker by output.

Everybody seemed to be talking about monetary financing of debt last week – the ultimate taboo in monetary policy. And hidden behind a veil of unbelievable complexity, the eurozone may have done just that, the Financial Times reported. Various European central bankers rushed to proclaim that the agreed rescheduling of Ireland’s so-called promissory notes would not set a precedent for sovereign debt laundering. In legal terms, the agreement is probably watertight. It may be a borderline issue, but who cares? In economic terms, the situation is much clearer.

German do-it-yourself chain Praktiker AG is closing its stores in Turkey and withdrawing from the country after failing to sell the nine stores its operates there, Reuters reported. The company, which is battling to return to profit, said on Monday its Turkish subsidiary filed for managed insolvency proceedings with an Istanbul court earlier in the day. "We cannot afford a persistent loss-maker like Turkey.

When the eurozone financial crisis was still unfolding in early 2011, a senior German official speculated on the most worrying problem ahead, the Financial Times reported. “Cyprus,” he said, rather surprisingly. Some people might think it was too small to endanger the stability of the eurozone. But “its banking sector is overblown and it’s heavily exposed to the crisis in Greece. It could be a nightmare to resolve.” The divided island, half-in and half-out of the EU, is still on the German radar. But now the nightmare is a reality.

Euro zone finance ministers meeting in Brussels will discuss the workings of the euro zone’s rescue fund, the ESM, though any discussion on its application to AIB and Bank of Ireland is likely to be some months away, the Irish Times reported. While the issue of legacy assets was discussed by euro zone finance ministers last month, senior EU sources have indicated the issue has been put on the back burner, and serious consideration of the question of retrospective recapitalisation will not be on the agenda until April at the earliest.

Banks in the European Union may need to comply with an international liquidity rule before competitors in other parts of the globe as part of a deal on how the bloc should implement Basel banking standards. Nations are weighing calls from the European Parliament for an “accelerated” introduction of the so-called liquidity coverage ratio, according to a document obtained by Bloomberg News. Ireland, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, is pressing for an agreement to have the rule take full effect on Jan.