Viajes Marsans, one of Spain’s biggest and oldest tour operators, has been declared insolvent, according to a court ruling seen by AFP on Monday. The judge took the decision on Friday after about 20 companies made complaints over unpaid bills. But the judge ruled that Posibilitum Business, which acquired Marsans earlier this month for 600 million euros (740 million dollars), can continue to run the firm. Marsans’ financial difficulties took a turn for the worse in December when a British court ordered its airline Air Comet to close owing...  Lire la suite

Europe should tax its banks in order to build up an emergency bail-out fund whatever other major economies decide at this weekend’s G20 summit, EU finance commissioner Michel Barnier said on Tuesday. Europe and the United States are pushing for a levy on banks to raise funds to support collapsing institutions and prevent a repeat of recent financial disasters, but other economic powers are opposed to the idea. “We should put it in place whatever happens, whatever the others decide,” Barnier told reporters in Paris, adding that...  Lire la suite

European governments are taking big steps towards revealing if banks can withstand shocks such as hit the global economy two years ago, and now in reaction to concern about finances in Spain. Officials in Germany and Spain have agreed to publish results of so-called stress tests done on banks to reassure investors who fear banks might be hit by massive losses on government bonds and real-estate loans. Germany, which had resisted such a move, “approves the publication of stress tests within the European Union. The details must be defined by...  Lire la suite

Italy’s competition watchdog on Tuesday called for more deregulation of the transport, energy and finance sectors to breathe “oxygen” into the economy struggling in the global downturn. “The injection of massive doses of competition” is needed in these sectors, Antitrust president Antonio Catricala said in the agency’s annual report to parliament. Italians pay twice as much for auto insurance, 28 percent more for electricity and six percent more for bank overdrafts than the European average, Catricala said. Bringing...  Lire la suite

France and Germany on Wednesday called for a European ban on certain high-risk market dealings such as naked short selling in a joint appeal that came amid tensions over the eurozone debt crises. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel wrote jointly to EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and urged quick action to regulate certain transactions due to “turbulence” on the markets. “The commission’s work should include a possible ban at European level on naked short selling of all or certain...  Lire la suite