Business News Roundup: BP plc, Slovakia and the ESFS, draconian European banking regulations, M&S return to France.

Slovak government says no to enhanced EFSF

Slovakia’s government became the first in the eurozone to fall over opposition to bailing out indebted economies after the country’s parliament voted down approval for enhancing the bloc’s rescue fund.

After hours of debate, the final vote on approving new powers for the €440bn European financial stability facility failed late on Tuesday evening with only 55 of the parliament’s 150 MPs voting in favour, causing the coalition government of Iveta Radicova to collapse. Slovakia is the last of the 17 eurozone countries to approve the improved rescue fund, writes the Financial Times.

Draconian measures for European banks

The European authorities are preparing to impose draconian standards on the region’s banks that could force them to raise hundreds of billions in additional capital.

It is understood that the European Banking Authority is considering a minimum capital buffer of up to 10 per cent to ensure that lenders can weather swingeing writedowns on their holdings of sovereign debt, says the Times.

M&S returns to France

Marks & Spencer returned to France for the first time in 10 years ­yesterday, looking to defy eurozone fears and ramp up growth in Western Europe.

The retailer, which abandoned France in 2001 to turn around its then ailing UK business, has launched a French-language website offering more than 10,000 products in its clothing and homeware ranges to shoppers in the mainland, Corsica and Monaco, according to the Daily Express.

On the corporate reporting front…

Fresnillo reported YTD attributable silver production, including the Silverstream, down 0.3% and quarterly production down 5.8% compared to 3Q10 "due to backfilling of long-hole stopes at the Fresnillo mine to reinforce safety conditions."

The Co added: "We are expecting to return to normal operations by the end of October. (...) Silver and gold production at Saucito continued ramping-up, and we are revising our full year target from 4.7 million ounces of silver to 5.5 million ounces."