Canadian households are wallowing in debt. Home prices are falling. Credit growth, the key driver for bank earnings, is hovering close to its slowest pace since 1983, Bloomberg News reported. All of which should be bad news for the country’s lenders -- and good news for investors betting against them. “Should” being the operative word. Even with danger signs piling up, the shares of the six biggest Canadian banks have stubbornly refused to drop, instead surging 9.4 percent this year -- and frustrating short sellers hoping to make money on stock-price declines.

Household debt in Canada, a nation generally known for moderation, has reached levels that could be qualified as excessive, Bloomberg News reported. Canadians owe C$2.16 trillion—which, as a share of gross domestic product, is the highest debt load in the Group of Seven economies. With the housing market cooling, a reckoning may be fast approaching.

Philip Morris International Inc on Friday said its Canadian unit, Rothmans, Benson & Hedges Inc (RBH), was granted creditor protection, following a tobacco class action ruling in Quebec this month, Reuters reported. The company said it would deconsolidate RBH from its financial statements, and it cut its full-year 2019 diluted earnings per share forecast to at least $4.90 at prevailing exchange rates, from at least $5.28 in the forecast it made on March 4, shortly after the ruling in Quebec.

The Canadian subsidiary of British American Tobacco PLC has become the second Canadian tobacco company to get restructuring protection in the wake of an $11 billion Quebec appeals court judgment, with the company saying it is under "existential threat" from tobacco suits, Law360 reported. On Tuesday, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice granted protection to Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act, staying the collection of the more than $6.8 billion the company expects it will owe on the judgment.

The head of SNC-Lavalin told the Canadian government it had to change its anti-corruption rules “as expeditiously as possible” in a 2017 letter to the minister in charge of procurement, just as her department was helping oversee public consultations on lighter punishments for corporate misconduct, The Globe and Mail reported. SNC-Lavalin chief executive Neil Bruce wrote to Public Services Minister Carla Qualtrough on Oct. 13, 2017, and sent copies of his message to seven other senior cabinet ministers. Mr.

Trichome Financial Corp., a company led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. alumnus Michael Ruscetta, is readying a C$100 million ($75 million) war chest to dive into the business of debt financing for cannabis companies, Bloomberg News reported. Toronto-based Trichome is planning to raise between C$25 million ($18.8 million) and C$35 million of new equity, adding to C$15 million already raised by partners, managers and some investors, Ruscetta said in an interview at Bloomberg’s offices in Toronto.

QuadrigaCX, the Canadian exchange that claimed insolvency after the death of its founder two months ago, was granted creditor protection and a month-long stay of proceedings, Canadian media reported. With 115,000 traders hurt in the recent insolvency crisis, the company may be attacked by lawsuits, and the court decision is a way to diffuse the tension. QuadrigaCX lawyer Maurice Chiasson described the move as “an attempt to call a time-out.” In the meantime, the Nova Scotia police force has begun investigating the case.

For much of the last decade, Canadians have been told their debt levels were unsustainable and that their day of reckoning was fast approaching. Data recently released by the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy (OSB) seem to indicate that day has arrived. According to the data, insolvencies by Canadian consumers were up 9.2 per cent in October 2018, compared to a year earlier, the Financial Post reported in a commentary. To say the least, these results appear alarming. But in light of what we know about homeownership and net worth, we are not so sure.

Sunrise Records, a Canadian chain of record stores, agreed to buy most of HMV Group Plc in an auction overseen by the embattled music retailer’s administrators, fending off a rival bid by retail magnate Mike Ashley, Bloomberg News reported. Douglas Putnam, who runs Sunrise and bought HMV’s Canadian unit in 2017, will gain control of 100 stores across the U.K., KPMG LLP said Tuesday. The remaining 27 shops will be shut down, putting 455 employees out of work.

Canada’s Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that bankrupt oil companies must clean up inactive wells, overturning lower court decisions that prioritized paying creditors and potentially raising the risks of investment in the industry, Reuters reported. The 5-2 ruling means that the Alberta Energy Regulator, which had appealed the earlier court decisions, can order the cleanup of inactive wells even when their owners have filed for bankruptcy protection. “Bankruptcy is not a license to ignore rules,” the court said in a written decision.