Headlines

Canadians are piling into mortgages at more than double the historical pace as the housing market appears to moderate after a pandemic boom, Bloomberg News reported. The total value of residential mortgages rose by 1.2% to C$1.73 trillion ($1.4 trillion) in June, according to data released Thursday by Statistics Canada. That’s the fastest monthly increase in loans borrowed for real-estate purchases since 2007. The spike in mortgages is evidence of Canadians’ demand for more living space during the Covid-19 pandemic, which sent sales and prices to record highs.

A London court on Wednesday approved a 10 billion pound-plus ($14 billion-plus) class action against global payments processor Mastercard that claimants said could entitle 46 million British adults to roughly 300 pounds each if it is successful, Reuters reported. The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) had been expected to certify Britain's first mass consumer class action, brought by former financial ombudsman Walter Merricks, after the UK Supreme Court overruled objections to it in December.

Indonesia’s central bank left its benchmark interest rate at a record low to protect the currency, and said it had formulated a plan to deal with eventual U.S. policy tightening, Bloomberg News reported. Bank Indonesia kept the seven-day reverse repurchase rate at 3.5% on Thursday. Interest rates have been on hold since February’s 25-basis point reduction, and are widely expected to stay at this level throughout 2021.

Swiss-Irish food group Aryzta has agreed a new €500 million revolving credit facility with three banks and has announced the disposal of its Brazilian businesses, the Irish Times reported. No financial details have been disclosed on the sale of the Brazilian subsidiaries to Grupo Bimbo SAB de CV. The transaction is expected to close shortly. Aryzta said the new credit facility, which is expected to be used by early October, is underwritten by Credit Suisse, Rabobank and UBS. It replaces the group’s current €800 million facility, which maters in September 2022.

Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Thursday he’ll seek central bank approval to use $12 billion in International Monetary Fund reserves to pay down debt, as he presses ahead with austerity, Bloomberg News reported. Lopez Obrador thanked bank Governor Alejandro Diaz de Leon for being open to the idea of using the windfall, which is being transferred to the monetary authority from the IMF, to prepay liabilities. He declined to comment on Diaz de Leon’s prior remarks that the government must purchase the reserves from the bank.

Nigeria will return to international capital markets next month to offer a portion of its planned $6.2 billion Eurobond sale, Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed said, according to a Bloomberg News report. The amount to be issued will depend on market conditions, Debt Management Office Director-General Patience Oniha said on Aug. 5. “We expect to issue in September, but that will depend on the advice of book runners and financial advisers,” Oniha said in an emailed response to questions on Thursday.

China Huarong Asset Management Co. is poised to receive about 50 billion yuan ($7.7 billion) of fresh capital as part of an overhaul plan that would shift control of the embattled company to state-owned conglomerate Citic Group, Bloomberg News reported. The plan, some details of which are still being finalized and could change, calls for Citic to assume the Chinese government’s controlling stake in Huarong from the Ministry of Finance, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing a private matter. The capital injection would come from a Citic-led consortium.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen should intervene at the International Monetary Fund to prevent Taliban-led Afghanistan from being able to use almost $500 million in reserves, Republican House members said, Bloomberg News reported. The group of 18 lawmakers, including Arkansas’s French Hill, wrote to Yellen on Tuesday in a letter obtained by Bloomberg News, asking Yellen to take action at the fund and respond to their request by Thursday afternoon.

The pandemic has led to the International Finance Corporation massively ramping up its impact investment in India - its largest client nation globally - at USD 1.7 billion as of June, a 51 per cent rise over the past 12 months, the largest developmental lender into third world private sector said on Tuesday, the Economic Times of India reported. This is nearly half of its investment in the whole of South Asia since the pandemic, which touched USD 3.8 billion as of June 2021, it said.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Wednesday backed the central bank's recent moves to raise interest rates, but took a swipe at a board member for criticizing his plan to allocate International Monetary Fund resources to pay off debt, Reuters reported. "I respect that decision they're taking because inflation must be kept under control," he told a regular news conference. "This should be something that matters to all of us." Inflation in July stood at 5.81%, well above the bank's target of 3%, and the bank last week raised its key interest rate by 25 basis points to 4.5%.