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One of the world’s largest operators of oil product tankers gained more time to devise a restructuring plan on Monday when creditors allowed Denmark’s Torm to waive many of its loan terms and stop making loan repayments until at least January 15, the Financial Times reported. A group of three of the company’s lending banks – Danske Bank, Danish Ship Finance and Nordea – also announced that they had formed a committee to negotiate a solution to the problems of the company, which said on November 17 it needed $300m in new capital.

The International Monetary Fund Monday approved a $2.2 billion tranche of its emergency loan program for Greece, paving the way for the debt-ridden country to avoid default, Dow Jones reported. The IMF board approval of the program allows the fund to immediately disburse financing to Athens, buying time for Europe to prevent a wider spread of the debt crisis into the rest of the euro zone. "Greece has substantial achievements to its credit, including a large fiscal deficit reduction.

Yell, the publisher of Yellow Pages, is seeking a compromise with lenders over the terms of its proposed £2.6bn debt restructuring. If a deal is not reached, people close to the situation said the company could withdraw the restructuring plans all together, the Financial Times reported. On Monday, the company was forced to extend the deadline for a vote on a debt restructuring after a group of lenders, holding over a third of the debts, voted against the proposals. Analysts have raised concerns that Yell could breach covenants in the second quarter of next year.

As European leaders scramble to overcome the Continent’s debt crisis, many are pointing to Ireland as a model for how to get out of the troubles, the International Herald Tribune reported. Having embraced severe belt-tightening to mend its tattered finances, Ireland is showing glimmers of a turnaround. A year after it received a €67.5 billion bailout, or $90.9 billion at current exchange rates, modest growth has returned and the budget deficit is shrinking. But the effects of austerity have pummeled Ireland’s fragile economy, leaving scars that are likely to take years to heal.

Saab's Dutch owner and China's Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile have agreed that the Bank of China , the nation's fourth-largest bank by market value, will come in as part owner of the ailing carmaker, according to a source familiar with the deal, Reuters reported. Under the new deal, the Bank of China will replace Chinese investor Pang Da Automobile Trade Co. Youngman and the Bank of China will own just under 50 percent of the company. The move could help pave the way for an approval by General Motors , which still has preferential shares in Saab and rejected an earlier rescue plan.

Telling Italians that the fate of their country and the euro was at stake, Prime Minister Mario Monti unveiled a radical and ambitious package of spending cuts and tax increases on Sunday, including deeply unpopular moves like raising the country’s retirement age, the International Herald Tribune reported. The measures are meant to slash the cost of government, combat tax evasion and step up economic growth, so the country can eliminate its budget deficit by 2013. Mr.

European leaders will take another run at fixing the debt crisis this week after the failure of their fourth rescue blueprint sparked intensified concern the 17-nation euro area was on the brink of unraveling, Bloomberg reported. With a European Union summit in Brussels looming Dec. 9, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner arrives in Frankfurt tomorrow to prod political leaders and the European Central Bank holds a policy meeting Dec. 8. Today, Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will hold talks in Paris in an attempt to bridge differences on a crisis resolution.

George Osborne must be asking himself how it all went so wrong. The U.K. chancellor of the exchequer was last week forced to acknowledge his economic and political strategy has been comprehensively blown off course, The Wall Street Journal Agenda blog reported. Forget pre-election giveaways in 2014, the economy has performed so far below his expectations that the U.K. can expect no respite from austerity until at least 2016. Some say Mr.

A long-awaited European Commission draft that sets the framework for a new resolution regime for Europe's banks began circulating this week, but left market participants guessing as to what the commission's stance will be on grandfathering outstanding debt, International Financing Review reported.

Prime Minister Lucas Papademos said Friday that a restructuring of Greece's debt burden was needed, just days after the country launched formal talks with private creditors as part of a plan to cut the debt it owes them in half, Dow Jones reported. Speaking in parliament, Papademos defended his earlier position in which he had opposed just such a restructuring along with his former colleagues of the European Central Bank. Papademos, former vice president of the ECB, was appointed as interim prime minister to head a Greek coalition government tasked with implementing the current debt plan.