Headlines

Sean Quinn, once one of Ireland's richest business leaders, voluntarily applied for bankruptcy in the Belfast High Court Friday, marking one of the most spectacular business failures amid the country's property and banking crash, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. But Dublin-based Anglo Irish Bank Corp.---the nationalized lender now renamed the Irish Bank Resolution Corp.---said it will question the right of Quinn, its largest debtor, to have applied for bankruptcy in Northern Ireland because he is resident in the Irish republic.

The bankruptcy trustee for the Canadian arm of MF Global has filed a motion to move client accounts from the failed futures broker to a unit of Royal Bank of Canada, Reuters reported. MF Global fired all 1,066 of its brokerage employees on Friday, triggering anger and resentment about the firm's collapse after bad bets on European debt under former CEO Jon Corzine's leadership. KPMG said on Saturday it filed the motion with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, seeking authority to transfer certain MF Global Canada Co customer accounts to RBC Dominion Securities Inc.

A consortium of 17 banks have agreed to a restructuring package for Air India where Rs 20,000 crore of short term working capital loans will be converted into longer duration term loans and part of this money will be converted to unsecured credit that the government will repay, the Financial Chronicle reported. The repayment period of the loan has been extended by 10 years with a corporate guarantee from the Government of India and hypothecation of aircraft with the instalment beginning within two years.

German and French officials have discussed plans for a radical overhaul of the European Union that would involve setting up a more integrated and potentially smaller euro zone, EU sources say. "France and Germany have had intense consultations on this issue over the last months, at all levels," a senior EU official in Brussels told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s pledge to resign failed to quell a growing investor panic Wednesday over indebted Italy’s ability to pass austerity measures and pay its bills, sending the nation’s borrowing rate soaring to levels that could force the world’s eighth-largest economy to seek international help, The Washington Post reported. The negativity spread to global markets, as Italian borrowing rates surged above 7 percent and stock markets in Milan, Paris, Frankfurt and New York dropped markedly.

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron will Thursday announce a new deal with HSBC Holdings PLC and Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC to lend £95 million to small and midsize British companies that are struggling to get normal bank loans, The Wall Street Journal reported. The deal is designed to stimulate employment and boost the U.K.'s flagging economy, with the government saying it will create 4,000 jobs and unlock around £500 million of new investment by small and medium-sized companies.

Dexia SA, the Belgian-French bank navigating a government-orchestrated dismantling, Wednesday booked a EUR4.1 billion ($5.6 billion) loss on the sale of its Belgian subsidiary and a EUR2.3 billion loss on its holdings of Greek sovereign debt, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Dexia didn't report third-quarter earnings because of the break-up, which will see the bank's public finance business sold to French savings banks and other businesses sold off once buyers are found.

The three major banks in the State rebuffed the Government’s efforts to get them to lower interest rates during a “tense” and “frosty” meeting yesterday with the Taoiseach Enda Kenny and the Coalition’s most senior Ministers, the Irish Times reported. Senior executives from Bank of Ireland, AIB and Ulster Bank faced down pressure from the Government to pass on the recent reduction in the European Central Bank’s interest rates to variable rate mortgage customers.

Debt-choked Italian directory group Seat Pagine Gialle said it was confident that a debt restructuring accord could be reached that would allow it to continue operating, as it reported a 17.7 percent fall in nine-month core earnings, Reuters reported. Seat, which is in the process of restructuring its 2.7 billion euro debt, said nine-month revenues fell 10.5 percent to 695.6 million euros from a restated 2010 figure. Operating free-cash flow stood at 290.7 million euros it said and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) totalled 273 million euros.

A euro zone may survive, but it will not be the present 17-member-state euro zone. What will emerge, if it is to survive, will be smaller and more focused around German financial and monetary disciplines, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. There should no longer be dramatic European Union summits with Nicolas Sarkozy, accompanied by a reluctant Angela Merkel, creating an impression of progress soon to be followed by the grim realisation that little has changed. For instance, the announced 50 per cent haircut in Greek government bonds has not yet been voluntarily accepted.