Canada

Canada’s biggest banks are trying to quell investor concern about their exposures to the energy sector given the plunge in oil prices, The Wall Street Journal reported. Bank stocks have taken a beating on those worries with the S&P/TSX Composite Bank Index down about 8% year-to-date as of Wednesday afternoon, amid broader concerns about the potential impact on the Canadian economy of a prolonged slump in energy prices.

Alberta’s Premier said Tuesday that collapsing crude-oil prices will hurt the energy-rich Western Canadian province for “several years” and likely force his government to offset mounting deficits by cutting spending and raising taxes, The Wall Street Journal reported. “This is a challenging time for our province,” Alberta Premier Jim Prentice said at a news conference on Tuesday, referring to a drop in crude-oil prices to six-year lows. “This is the most significant public financial circumstance that we’ve seen in this province for a generation,” he said. Mr.

Victims of the Lac-Megantic oil-by-rail disaster that killed 47 people in the Canadian province of Quebec in 2013 agreed to a nearly $200 million settlement with some of the firms involved, including the insolvent rail operator at the center of the tragedy, a lawyer for the victims said on Friday. Montreal Maine and Atlantic (MMA), along with its insurers, founder Edward Burkhardt, and various other companies, will pay into the settlement fund, which will be distributed to the victims of the train derailment and explosion, lawyer Peter Flowers of Meyers & Flowers in Chicago told Reuters.

Canada’s Nortel Networks Corp. is appealing a U.S. court ruling that could put the bulk of the dissolved company’s cash into the hands of distressed-debt trading firms, The Wall Street Journal reported. The ruling under attack blessed a settlement between Nortel’s U.S. unit and investors who bought the company’s debt after its 2009 collapse. The pact allows bondholders to collect more than $1 billion in interest on their $4 billion holdings in the former telecommunications company.

A key gauge of household debt in Canada climbed to a record high in the third quarter as Canadians accumulated debt faster than their incomes grew, illustrating what the central bank has deemed the top risk to the domestic financial system, The Wall Street Journal reported. The ratio of household credit-market debt to personal disposable income rose to 162.60% from a revised 161.45% in the second quarter, Statistics Canada said Monday. That means Canadians owe roughly 1.63 Canadian dollars ($1.41) on every dollar of disposable income.

When Canada disbursed billions of dollars in the auto-sector bailout nearly half a decade ago, it did so without reviewing the automakers’ final restructuring plans and with limited research on how the loans would be repaid, a government watchdog says, The Wall Street Journal Canada Real Time blog reported. Canada’s Auditor General, the equivalent of the U.S. General Accountability Office, highlighted the flaws in the government’s approach to providing the funds to General Motors Co.’s Canadian unit and Chrysler Canada in a report Tuesday.

Lawyers representing the provincial government took centre stage at U.S. Steel Canada’s restructuring hearing on Thursday, as the court worked toward figuring out who should gets paid first if the company is sold or goes bankrupt. The province won the right to file future claims against U.S. Steel Canada during its restructuring, while also successfully arguing the court will be allowed to examine the American parent's claim when it comes time to decide who what piece of the proceeds or assets. U.S.

Lawyers representing the provincial government took centre stage at U.S. Steel Canada’s restructuring hearing on Thursday, as the court worked toward figuring out who should gets paid first if the company is sold or goes bankrupt, CBC News reported. The province won the right to file future claims against U.S. Steel Canada during its restructuring, while also successfully arguing the court will be allowed to examine the American parent's claim when it comes time to decide who what piece of the proceeds or assets. U.S.

Seven years after the global financial crisis started, Canada’s banks remain selective in what they disclose – a problem illustrated by Ottawa’s recent crackdown on credit-card transaction fees, The Globe and Mail reported. Despite being one of the banking sector’s most widely discussed issues, with lenders lobbying Ottawa furiously out of fear that any ruling would be too harsh, the average investor had almost no way of calculating how many millions or billions of dollars were at stake.

Engineering and construction company SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. on Thursday said it would cut 4,000 jobs and record significant charges over the next 18 months as part of a restructuring aimed partly at combating a global slowdown in mining, The Wall Street Journal reported. Montreal-based SNC said it plans to scale back some underperforming activities and its corporate structure in a bid to improve efficiency and bolster its competitive position.