China's central bank renewed its call on Friday for the creation of a super-sovereign reserve currency to reduce the dollar's global domination, which it said had worsened the financial crisis, Reuters reported. In its annual financial stability report, the central bank did not mention the dollar by name but said it was a serious defect that one currency should tower over all others. "An international monetary system dominated by a single sovereign currency has intensified the concentration of risk and the spread of the crisis," the People's Bank of China said.

South Korean companies operating at a joint industrial estate in North Korea have said they face bankruptcy in many cases because of icy cross-border relations, Agence France-Presse reported. In a joint statement they demanded that the South Korean government improve ties with the North so that the Kaesong estate can run normally. The factory bosses also demanded that the communist North withdraw "unilateral and unacceptable" wage and rent demands, ease restrictions on border crossings and guarantee the safety of South Koreans working there.

Bank of Queensland says there is no evidence of dishonest practices by the bank in connection with Storm Financial clients, the Brisbane Times reported. BOQ sought on Thursday to clarify its position given what it said was "significant misinformation'' in the media about its dealings with Storm Financial and Storm customer accounts. Based on "the bank's knowledge and enquiries to date'', it said, "there is no evidence of improper or dishonest practices or conduct by the bank in connection with Storm clients''.

Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co. held discussions this week with General Motors Corp. about the possibility of buying Adam Opel GmbH if an existing bid for the European unit of GM falls through, a person familiar with the situation said, The Wall Street Journal reported. GM executives in Europe met with representatives of Beijing Auto after the Chinese government-owned company expressed interest in Opel for a second time, the person said.

Global insurance-industry regulators are set to begin talks this week on creating the first common rules on solvency requirements for international insurers, in an effort to prevent crises like that which nearly buried American International Group Inc. last year, The Wall Street Journal reported. At a three-day meeting in Taiwan scheduled to start Wednesday, the International Association of Insurance Supervisors is expected to work out a detailed schedule to come up with requirements for major insurers' solvency margin ratios, people familiar with the matter said.

Strains in pensions systems, in both private and public provision, threaten to turn the financial crisis of the past two years into a social crisis lasting for decades, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development warned on Tuesday. In its annual analysis of the health of pensions systems globally, the Paris-based organisation found private pension plans lost 23 per cent of their value last year, while higher unemployment “leaves little room for more generous public pensions”, the Financial Times reported.

Western consumers are buying fewer luxury goods, and demand for cashmere has plunged, The New York Times reported. The painful effects of this are being felt all the way to these nearly empty plateaus of Inner Mongolia, by goatherds and factory workers and owners — showing how ripples from markets in the United States, Europe and Japan can reverberate to some of the most remote corners of the world. The problem is not just the collapse of the cashmere market, but also a government ban on Kashmir goats across much of Inner Mongolia for environmental reasons.

Bankruptcy petitions in Hong Kong in May jumped 54 percent from a year earlier, totalling 1,417, as the territory continued to struggle with economic recession, but they fell on a monthly basis for a second straight month, government data showed on Friday, Reuters reported. Bankruptcies in April totalled 1,490, up 56 percent from a year earlier. The number of bankruptcies in May was the lowest since January and marked only the third time since August that bankruptcy petitions, which give an indication of future bankruptcies, had fallen from the previous month.

The receivers of ABC Learning have sold the failed childcare operator's UK operations, Busy Bees, for an undisclosed sum, The Australian reported. McGrathNicol today said Busy Bees Group, the largest children's nursery group in the UK, was sold to Singapore's Knowledge Universe Education. The receiver said the sale of ABC's New Zealand assets was progressing well; the sale timetable had been extended following strong interest from a number of bidders.

Porsche Automobil Holding SE said Wednesday that the company's owner family backs its talks with Qatar over taking a stake in the Stuttgart-based company, dismissing a German media report published earlier Wednesday, Dow Jones reported. "The family unanimously supports the talks with an investor," Porsche said in a statement, adding that there was no family meeting at which Ferdinand Piech allegedly hindered a decision for Qatar to take a stake. Financial Times Deutschland reported earlier Wednesday that the planned deal with Qatar was at risk after Piech intervened at a family meeting.