Amid skyrocketing professional fees, the United States and the United Kingdom have figured out that the self-regulated industry of salvaging distressed companies is in desperate need of rescue. Not so in Canada, the Financial Post reported in a commentary. Consider the four-and-a-half-year winding down of Nortel Networks Corp.

GM Canada faces billions of dollars worth of liabilities later this decade, most of which will come due as vehicle production declines in Oshawa, The Globe and Mail reported. Pension costs are scheduled to soar, interest-free loans from governments will hit their repayment date and payments on a note issued to finance health care costs start kicking in as production commitments the company made to the federal and Ontario governments in 2009 expire.

The patient is doing better but is still in intensive care: That’s the Bank of Canada’s latest assessment of risks to the Canadian financial system amid a prolonged period of fragility for the global economy, The Globe and Mail reported. Risks to the Canadian financial system “have decreased somewhat” in the past six months, the Bank of Canada said in a report issued Thursday, the first release from the bank under the watch of new governor Stephen Poloz. The bank cited an easing of short-term risks in the U.S.

Canadians keep getting new credit cards. And, despite all the worries about record-high household debt, they keep paying them off, The Wall Street Journal Real Time Canada blog reported. Overall consumer credit, excluding mortgages, has grown robustly in the years since 2009, but delinquency and default rates have remained at low levels, according to credit-card data released Thursday by credit rater Equifax and Moody's Analytics.

Some of Canada’s mid-sized cities are flourishing – but not all: Almost half of them have not recouped the jobs they lost during the recession, The Globe and Mail reported. New analysis by the Conference Board of Canada finds that 21 of the 46 medium-sized cities it tracks haven’t yet seen employment return to pre-recession levels. Most of these cities had been bustling up until the 2008-2009 recession. But the ensuing downturn caused economies to contract in 29 of the cities tracked.

Nortel Networks Corp.'s European units on Wednesday appealed a Delaware bankruptcy judge’s decision to forego arbitration and, instead, hold a cross-border trial in conjunction with a Canadian court to decide how to split $7.3 billion in cash between the company’s far-flung affiliates, Law360 reported. The appeal — lodged in Delaware district court — challenges U.S.

Calgary-based oil field services firm Poseidon Concepts Corp. filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection Friday in Colorado bankruptcy court, three days after petitioning for creditor protection in Canadian court and nearly two months after announcing it would have to restate its earnings for three quarters of 2012, Law360 reported.

U.S. units of Canadian telemarketer iMarketing Solutions Group Inc. entered Chapter 15 in Delaware bankruptcy court Friday and sought immediate recognition of the insolvency proceedings commenced by its parent in a Toronto court earlier in the day, Law360 reported. Counsel for Xentel Inc. and seven other IMSG subsidiaries appeared in Wilmington hours after the Chapter 15 filing and asked the Delaware court to officially recognize the foreign proceedings as the company was “gravely concerned” that U.S.

Investors in one-time market darling Poseidon Concepts Corp. are unlikely to recover any value despite the company winning temporary court protection from creditors, a Calgary analyst says, the Edmonton Journal reported. On Wednesday, the Calgary oilfield fluid-handling company that once had a market value of $1.3 billion announced it had been granted a Court of Queen’s Bench order under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act. It was Poseidon’s first official word since Feb. 26, when it announced two executives had quit, and Feb.

Canada's federal budget laid out plans on Thursday to impose higher capital requirements on banks whose failure could disrupt the Canadian financial system and economy, Reuters reported. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty also said the federal government would go ahead with its own capital markets regulatory framework if it cannot agree with the provinces on creating a common securities regulator.