Headlines

Ukraine launched a new effort to restructure certain sovereign debt obligations as the nation vies to improve its financial health and defend itself against Russia, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The finance ministry on Monday announced an offer for investors holding $3.2 billion of growth-linked warrants to swap them into a mix of cash and new bonds. Ukraine defaulted on the warrants over the summer after failing to make payments due in June. The warrants entitle holders to payments if the nation’s gross domestic product growth surpasses 3%.

The Enforcement Directorate has said that realty developer Experion Developers misused the provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code in acquiring 9.3 acres of land in Sector 62 of Gurugram, the Economic Times of India reported. While investigating a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case against Religare Finvest, the ED had attached assets belonging to the corporate debtor, Dignity Buildcon, which was later acquired by Experion.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he’s ready to throw a financial lifeline to Budapest, where the opposition leadership blames the government’s tax policies for pushing the capital city to the brink of insolvency, Bloomberg News reported.

British banks will no longer need to hold so much capital, as the U.K. joins the U.S. in unwinding some measures put in place after the global financial crisis, the Wall Street Journal reported. The benchmark ratio of capital to risk-weighted assets will fall to 13% from 14%, the Bank of England said Tuesday. The BOE, like the Federal Reserve, both regulates banks and sets interest rates. The lenders it oversees include major international players such as HSBC and Barclays, whose shares rose in London.

As Canada turns to stablecoin regulation, Scotiabank argued that the move is unlikely to shake domestic markets, CoinDesk.com reported. Any framework is really about upgrading payment speed, efficiency and 24/7 settlement, rather than managing systemic risk, economist Derek Holt wrote in last week's report. In November, the government committed itself to legislation that will regulate stablecoins backed by the Canadian dollar. It follows in the footsteps of the U.S. which passed a law to govern stablecoin issuers in recent months.

A group of Swiss and German law enforcement agencies ​said on Monday they shut down cryptomixer.io, ‌one of the largest platforms to cover up the tracks of bitcoin transfers ‌from illegal activities, Reuters reported. Germany's federal investigation agency BKA said in a statement it worked with regional prosecutors in Frankfurt as well as authorities in Zurich to shut down the cryptomixer.io site on Wednesday last ⁠week.

President Karol Nawrocki of Poland has refused to sign a bill that he believed would have imposed overly-stern regulations on the cryptocurrency market, CoinDesk.com reported. The president vetoed provisions of the bill on the basis that they "pose a real threat to the freedom of Poles, their property and the stability of the state," according to an update on his website on Monday.

The annual rate of inflation in the eurozone rose further above the European Central Bank’s target in November, making another cut in the key interest rate less likely, the Wall Street Journal reported. The European Union’s statistics agency Tuesday said consumer prices in the 20 countries that share the euro were 2.2% higher than a year earlier, an increase in the annual rate of inflation from the 2.1% recorded in October. The ECB targets an inflation rate of 2%. A third straight month of faster rises in the prices of services was one of the drivers behind the pickup in inflation.

Taiwan is aiming for tariffs on its exports to the United States to be cut to 15% from 20% now, though help in training U.S. workers is not among the "conditions" figuring in their trade talks, senior Taiwan officials said on Monday, Reuters reported. A major semiconductor producer, Taiwan has repeatedly said its offer to the United States in talks has been the "Taiwan model", to help replicate the island's success in building tech clusters around dedicated science parks.

A U.S. judge on Saturday authorized the sale of shares in the Venezuela-owned parent of Citgo Petroleum to an affiliate of Elliott Investment Management, following his approval earlier this week of a $5.9 billion bid from the company in a court-organized auction to pay Venezuela-linked creditors, Reuters reported. The sale order is the last major legal step to wrap a two-year auction aimed at paying up to 15 creditors for debt defaults and expropriations in the South American country.