Headlines

Still struggling to calm financial markets, European governments are debating whether to increase the lending power of a backstop fund intended to rescue countries threatened by the debt crisis, the International Herald Tribune reported. As European Union leaders prepared for a meeting Thursday and Friday, intensive discussions were under way on whether the fund’s full headline figure of 440 billion euros ($589 billion) could be made available for loans.

New rules regarding the subordinated debt of Irish banks, including Bank of Ireland and AIB, and a proposal to transfer the deposits of Irish Nationwide Building Society to Anglo Irish Bank, are expected to be introduced tomorrow as part of the Credit Institutions (Stabilisation) Bill 2010, the Irish Times reported.

Irish lawmakers are expected to pass a parliamentary vote on accepting a €67.5 billion ($89.2 billion) aid package from the European Union and International Monetary Fund Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported. The ruling coalition, led by Prime Minister Brian Cowen's Fianna Fail party, is expected to win the vote with the support of lawmakers unaffiliated to any political party. The government has already passed parts of its 2011 budget with the help of independent lawmakers' support.

AbitibiBowater Inc. has set its sights on renewed growth after emerging from creditor protection with a revamped balance sheet and about $6 billion less debt than when it declared bankruptcy about 19 months ago, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. "I think it's a very exciting new chapter in the company's history after several years of fighting a declining market and a pretty drastic recession," Dick Evans, the Montreal company's chairman, said in an interview.

The lawyer for controversial businesswoman May Wang was back in court today seeking to have her bankruptcy suspended ahead of her fight to have it revoked, The New Zealand Herald reported. Wang, the front person for a group of Chinese investors seeking to buy $1.5 billion of New Zealand dairy farms, was last week ruled bankrupt at the High Court in Auckland. The court also turned down a proposal to repay 6c in the dollar to creditors who were owed $22 million following the collapse of Wang's hotel and property business Dynasty Group.

International accountancy group PwC is alleged to have missed numerous warning signs about the state of Iceland’s banks long before they collapsed in 2008, according to a leaked investigation that exposes widespread irregularities among the doomed lenders, the Irish Times reported. The findings were made by a team of international investigators in reports commissioned by the Icelandic special prosecutor, who is investigating possible criminal wrongdoing before the bank crash.

The CBI is urging the government to delay by a year its plan to scrap the default retirement age of 65, fearing it will create legal confusion and a wave of employment tribunal cases, the Financial Times reported. John Cridland, director-general designate of the employers’ group, said the government’s proposals were “not fit for purpose” and urged simplification of the rules. He said it was the “number one employment regulatory issue” for employers in the coming year and was causing deep concern.

Banks' total exposure to Ireland and the southern rim of the euro zone in the second quarter was greater than previously thought, according to data from the Bank for International Settlements published Sunday, The Wall Street Journal reported. The data confirm that German and French banks are among the world's largest creditors to the region.

The New Zealand company that operates the coal mine where 29 miners died in a series of explosions last month said Monday it has been placed into receivership, Bloomberg reported on an Associated Press story. Pike River Coal Ltd chairman John Dow said that the largest shareholder, NZ Oil & Gas, appointed accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers as receivers. The coal miner is expected to announce mass redundancies on Tuesday among its 180-strong work force. The first major methane-fueled explosion ripped through the mine on Nov.

Banks may become more reluctant to lend to businesses with large pension deficits after a far-reaching judgment at Europe's High Court on Friday found that the two estates of Lehman Brothers Europe and Nortel Networks Corp. were on the hook for GBP2.2 billion ($3.5 billion) in pensions bills between them, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The High Court handed out a much-anticipated ruling on a multibillion-dollar dispute between the U.K.'s Pension Regulator and the two estates of Lehman Brothers, the collapsed U.S. bank, and Nortel Networks, the telecoms group.