Headlines

Europe’s top official for winding down failed lenders is seeking reassurances that the US won’t stand in the way of regulators elsewhere forcing bondholders to take losses when big banks fail, Bloomberg News reported. Dominique Laboureix said that he has recently convened a group at the Financial Stability Board (FSB) that is “working seriously” on the matter. “In these topics, you cannot achieve 100% of comfort all around the globe with all the authorities,” Laboureix, who leads Europe’s Single Resolution Board, said in an interview.

The government of Romania, the main creditor of the integrated steel mill Liberty Galati, part of the Liberty Steel group but currently under pre-insolvency procedure, agreed with the sale of the company’s core assets separately, according to Ziarul Financiar, citing the independent manager of the company set under the pre-insolvency procedure, Remus Borza, Romania-Insider.com reported. The executive had previously insisted on the sale of the company as a whole.

In the last year, 7,361 construction companies in the UK were identified as being in ‘critical’ distress – a more than 70 per cent rise on the previous year, ConstructionWave.co.uk reported. Meanwhile, firms experiencing ‘significant’ distress increased year-on-year to 103,551, up 14.6 per cent in Q3 of this year, rising 1.2 per cent since the last quarter. Perhaps unsurprisingly, most businesses in ‘significant’ distress were specialist firms – smaller sub-contractors and SMEs – whose numbers rose 23.5 per cent in Q3 to 6,799.

A union is urging the government to furlough workers at an oil refinery ahead of their final day, BBC.com reported. Staff at Lindsey Oil Refinery in North East Lincolnshire will say goodbye to 124 of their colleagues later, who have been made redundant after owner Prax Group went into administration and the site was taken over by the Official Receiver.

A bus operator providing services across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire has will continue trading after confirming it has entered a company voluntary arrangement (CVA), BBC.com reported. Community Transport for Nottingham (CT4N) announced last week it was looking to enter an insolvency process due to "challenging trading conditions". The decision was unanimously approved by voting creditors, and means 75 staff members will keep their jobs and services for commercial clients and local transport authorities will carry on.

Brazil’s credit flareups are driving up borrowing costs and spooking investors, forcing companies in Latin America’s largest economy to scrap or scale down their plans to tap the debt market, Bloomberg Law reported. Companies’ issuance of hard-currency bonds fell by more than half in October compared to the same period last year, according to Bloomberg-compiled data. Those that have seen borrowing plans upended include CSN, which shelved a deal to refinance its 2028 dollar bonds in September.

The Bank of Japan held rates steady again, narrowing the window of opportunity to hike before year’s end as it waits for clarity on the impact of tariffs and a political leadership change in Tokyo, the Wall Street Journal reported. In a widely expected move, the central bank maintained its overnight call rate target at 0.5%, extending a pause since its last hike in January. That leaves one more chance to resume tightening this year: at the bank’s final meeting in December. BOJ Gov.

China's factory activity shrank for a seventh month in October, dragged by a drop in new export orders as the boost from months of front-loading to beat U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats finally wore off, Reuters reported. The official purchasing managers' index (PMI) fell to 49.0 in October from 49.8 in September, a six-month low, the National Bureau of Statistics' survey showed on Friday, remaining below the 50-mark separating growth from contraction and missing a forecast of 49.6 in a Reuters poll. Policymakers had banked on producers rushing goods to the U.S.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday the United States and Canada will not restart trade talks but Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney apologized to him for an Ontario political ad using former President Ronald Reagan saying that tariffs spell disaster, Reuters reported. "I like him a lot but what they did was wrong," he said. "He apologized for what they did with the commercial because it was a false commercial." Carney did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The European Central Bank has been told to “accelerate” the process of developing the digital euro—a central bank digital currency, or CBDC—by the European Council, Decrypt.com reported. If the European Parliament passes the necessary regulations in 2026, then the digital euro will be piloted in 2027 and, if successful, formally rolled out across Europe in 2029. Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, announced via social media on Friday that the Governing Council is moving into the “next and final phase” of developing its CBDC.