Linklaters has filed negligence claims against Italian law firm Gianni Origoni Grippo & Partners relating to advice given by the magic circle firm to Credit Suisse on a deal with Italian food company Parmalat nearly 10 years ago, LegalWeek.com reported. The claims, which were filed in the Admiralty and Commercial division of the High Court earlier this month (10 March), see Linklaters suing the Italian independent law firm as well as launching five claims against individuals.

When Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne presents his budget to the House of Commons on Wednesday, he will seek to make the point that while the U.K. is ardently sticking to the course of eliminating the budget deficit, there won't be additional pain for squeezed households, The Wall Street Journal reported. The first part of this message—reasserting his commitment to the ambitious austerity measures that will result in £111 billion of fiscal tightening by 2015—leaves Mr.

The world’s most powerful central banks joined forces to sell billions of dollars worth of yen, battling speculators – described as “sneaky thieves” by one Japanese official – who have driven the currency to record highs, the Irish Times reported. The intervention by banks including the Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of Japan and Bank of England began early yesterday, after ministers from the Group of Seven most industrialised nations approved the first such co-ordinated action in more than a decade.

The U.K.'s financial regulator broke ranks with its colleagues in Europe Thursday, urging banks to include the risk of a sovereign-debt restructuring in the euro zone in their stress tests, The Wall Street Journal reported. "In their stress testing, firms should consider a range of policy options in the euro-area peripheral countries, including a prolonged period of austerity and possible restructuring of bank and sovereign debt," the Financial Services Authority said in an annual survey that assesses the main risks facing the U.K.'s financial sector.

The U.K.'s new financial regulator will focus on how to solve the problem of large banks taking on excessive risk because they are too important to be allowed to fail, a top official said Thursday, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Andrew Bailey, who will be deputy chief executive of the Prudential Regulation Authority, said the reliance of banks on public funds was "the most unacceptable aspect" of the financial crisis that erupted in 2007. Solving that problem "will be the objective" of the PRA, he said in a speech in Manchester, England. The U.K.

Embattled tycoon Vincent Tchenguiz's property management company, Peverel Group Ltd, has entered administration after failing to repay a loan, Reuters reported. Bank of America Merrill Lynch demanded repayment within 24 hours of a 124.6 million pounds loan plus 11.4 million pounds in accrued interest, another Vincent Tchenguiz company, Consensus Business Group (CBG), said in a statement.

Shares in Southern Cross Healthcare, the UK's biggest care homes operator, have plunged 60% on news that financial problems are mounting, the BBC reported. The firm has appointed KPMG to look at restructuring options after cuts in local authority spending worsened its trading outlook. Southern provides care to more than 31,000 people, with the bulk of funding coming from the NHS and councils. The company said that budget cuts meant its rent burden was "unsustainable".

More than half the market value of Southern Cross Healthcare was wiped out on Monday after the UK’s largest care home operator said it was seeking to renegotiate the rent paid to its landlords and admitted cuts by local authorities in the amounts paid for elderly care would force a breach in its banking covenants, the Financial Times reported.

A court has rejected a “mechanical” definition of balance sheet insolvency in a ruling that could deter creditors from using this route to push struggling companies into collapse, lawyers have claimed, the Financial Times reported. On Monday the Court of Appeal upheld a lower-court ruling against bondholders in a Lehman Brothers mortgage-backed securitisation deal known as Eurosail-UK 2007-3BL.

Struggling British sportswear retailer JJB Sports is offering its landlords a share of up to 7.5 million pounds ($12.25 million) if they back its rescue plan, Reuters reported. JJB Sports, in which America's richest man Bill Gates holds a 5.5 percent stake, on Thursday set out the details of its second company voluntary arrangement (CVA) in as many years. It needs creditors, including landlords, and shareholders to back the plan or it will likely go into administration, threatening 6,300 jobs.