Spain's central bank called for a suspension of the minimum wage in selected cases, saying a year-old overhaul of labor laws had made the economy more competitive but failed to encourage hiring, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Bank of Spain's recommendation, though not binding on the conservative government, reflects growing concern among policy makers about the country's 27% unemployment rate.

Shares in state-owned lender Bankia could slide another 30 percent despite a multi-billion-euro cash injection, analysts say, with little hope of a quick recovery as tough business conditions and a challenging restructuring plan weigh, Reuters reported. More than 11 billion shares issued as part of a 15.5-billion-euro ($20 billion) recapitalisation of the Spanish bank are to start trading on Tuesday at 0700 GMT in what was meant to be a new beginning after a 24-billion-euro bailout last year.

A Spanish High Court judge has charged the former chairman of fishing firm Pescanova, Manuel Fernandez de Sousa, with falsifying information and insider trading, according to a court document published on Thursday, Reuters reported. Pescanova, one of the world's largest fishing firms, filed for insolvency in April and the dealings of Sousa, who sold a large stake in the firm in the months before the insolvency petition, have come under scrutiny.

Germany has agreed to give jobs or apprenticeships to about 5,000 young unemployed Spaniards every year, under a deal signed by labour ministers from both countries in Madrid on Tuesday, the Financial Times reported. The deal reflects rising concern in Berlin and other European capitals about a looming social crisis in countries such as Spain, where the rate of youth unemployment now stands at 57 per cent. But it also highlights Germany’s growing need for qualified workers, which is fuelled both by demographic changes and by the recent strong performance of the German economy.

Codere SA, the Spanish gambling company that last week reported its worst earnings in more than two years, sunk to a record after Moody’s downgraded its credit rating on concern it may default on loans by the end of June, Bloomberg reported. Codere, which depends on Argentina for more than one-third of its revenue, reported a 21 percent drop in first-quarter earnings after an anti-smoking law went into effect in that country. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization amounted to 62.1 million euros ($79.9 million), the lowest in 10 quarters.

Many duped savers at Spanish lender Bankia are shunning a state-supervised compensation scheme in favor of expensive lawsuits, prolonging a mis-selling scandal and complicating efforts to restore faith in the banking system, Reuters reported. The disputes over mis-selling at Bankia and other nationalized banks have created a major headache for the government as it tries to take the next step in their rescue, imposing large losses on holders of junior debt.

Spanish judges this week sent the strongest signal yet that they intend to crack down on former executives at bailed-out banks by putting the ex-president of Caja Madrid into custody in the first detention of a top financier since the financial crisis began, the Irish Times reported. Amid intensifying anger at a banking crisis that last year forced Spain to accept a European rescue for its lenders, Miguel Blesa, the 65-year-old former head of the bank, the precursor to the rescued Bankia, will remain in jail ahead of trial until he posts bail of €2.5 million.

Promotora de Informaciones SA, the publisher of El Pais newspaper, wants to reorganize the terms of about 2.9 billion euros ($3.8 billion) of debt, according to a person familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported. Prisa, as Spain’s biggest media company is known, plans to propose terms of the restructuring to lenders as soon as next month, the person said, asking not to be identified because the deliberations are private. The unprofitable media company is reopening talks as about 1.28 billion euros of loans near an initial maturity date in March 2014, according to its latest annual report.

Even in a record year for Spanish bankruptcies, the filing by Pescanova, a household local name that farms, catches and processes fish, stands out not just for scale, but for the opaque culture and boardroom dysfunction it has revealed, Reuters reported in an insight. The April 15 insolvency filing mentions debts of 1.5 billion euros ($2 billion), but financial sources who have had dealings with the company say total debt is probably more than double that amount, potentially making it the country's third-largest bankruptcy.

Unemployment in Spain and France has jumped to new highs, data showed Thursday, lending ammunition to a growing chorus calling for easing the euro zone's austerity drive as the cure for its debt crisis because of the high social fallout, The Wall Street Journal reported. The jobless rate in Spain rose sharply to 27.2% of the workforce in the first quarter, the highest level since records began in the 1970s. In France, the number of registered job seekers who are fully unemployed rose to more than 3.2 million, topping a previous record set in 1997.