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Applications for reverse mortgages, which are typically taken out by elderly or retired homeowners who borrow money in the form of monthly payments against the equity in their homes, are surging to the highest in six years. Loans backed by state- run financing firm Korea Housing Finance Corp. jumped 71 percent in 2012 as retirees like Kim sought a steady income in a nation wracked by personal debt, falling home values and a rapidly aging population, Bloomberg reported.

Almost eight months after it heard oral arguments in the case, the Supreme Court of Canada will be releasing its decision in Sun Indalex Finance, LLC v. United Steelworkers on Friday, Feb. 1, 2013 at 9:45 AM, the Financial Post reported. The case involves an appeal from the Ontario Court of Appeal’s April 2011 judgment in Re Indalex Limited, a landmark case holding that pension plan deficiency claims can have priority over the claims of debtor-in-possession (DIP) lenders in the context of Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) proceedings.

Seat Pagine Gialle's bonds slumped by a third in the debt markets on Tuesday after the Italian phone directory firm suspended an interest payment just five months after a drawn-out debt restructuring, Reuters reported. Seat PG said its 2011-2013 business plans were under review, as were its 2015 targets, but also said it had the resources to honour upcoming debt maturities. Like other directories firms, including France's PagesJaunes and Yell in the UK, Seat PG has been struggling to reduce debts and fight competition from Internet search giants such as Google.

PSA Peugeot Citroen was ordered by a court to pause its restructuring plans as auto workers across France went on strike to protest industrywide job cuts amid signs the decline in European car demand is accelerating, Bloomberg reported. Workers burned tires and blocked access to some Renault SA factories and protested outside a Peugeot plant in a Paris suburb that is set to close. A court in the French capital said separately that Peugeot can’t eliminate jobs until a parts supplier that it controls tells workers how they may be affected by the automaker’s reorganization.

Ireland's banking recovery could yet be derailed by its international creditors, Reuters reported. The European Central Bank's refusal so far to give Dublin any relief on the 30-billion euro cost of bailing out Anglo Irish Bank is a major setback for government ambitions to exit an EU-IMF bailout this year and give the euro zone its first post-crisis success story. The failure to agree a deal on Anglo Irish also overshadows the country's banks.

Largely ignored by public opinion, the European Commission has drafted a new directive on bank resolution which creates the legal basis for future bank bailouts in the EU. While paying lip service to the principle of shareholder liability and creditor burden-sharing, the current draft falls woefully short of protecting European taxpayers and might cost them hundreds of billions of euros, the Financial Times reported in a commentary. Further lobbying by banks is likely to make things only worse.

More than 450 workers are not returning to their jobs today, as transport and logistics company Wettenhalls collapsed on Friday afternoon, SmartCompany.au reported. The business has been operating for almost 90 years and has a turnover of approximately $120 million per annum and has 14 sites nationally. BDO administrators Luke Targett, Rachel Burdett-Baker and Dennis Turner have been appointed as voluntary administrators. Independently, Ferrier Hodgson partners Brendan Richards and George Georges were appointed receivers and managers of the Wettenhalls business on Friday, January 25.

Sales of European property loans will rise by about 15 percent to 25 billion euros (21.6 billion pounds) this year as Spain and Ireland speed the sale of unwanted and bad loans, confronting the extent of the real estate crash as they clear their books, Reuters reported. Both countries suffered the worst of Europe's property collapse, with prices falling more than 50 percent in some areas from the previous peak in 2007.

Cash is king in the Persian Gulf emirate’s rebounding property market, limiting the power of regulators to control rising prices that fueled the last property bubble by imposing restrictions on mortgage loans to foreigners. Buyers from Iran to Russia to Greece are paying cash in as many as 70 percent of Dubai home purchases, up from 49 percent in 2007, according to researcher Reidin.com, Bloomberg reported.

Iceland was within its rights not to repay billions of euro to the United Kingdom and Dutch governments, who were forced to compensate depositors after an Icelandic bank collapsed at the height of the global financial crisis, a court has ruled, the Irish Times reported. The decision was taken by the court of the European Free Trade Association (Efta), which ruled that Iceland had not broken depositor protection laws by refusing to compensate people who had invested in Landsbanki’s Icesave online banking accounts.