Headlines

A German lawyer handling the insolvency of Greensill Capital’s bank unit won a request to freeze the collapsed lender’s Australian assets, as part of an effort to cooperate with counterparts to recover as much as possible for the supply-chain finance firm’s creditors. Michael Frege had submitted an application to the Federal Court of Australia on March 31 asking for the court to hand over insolvency proceedings on the business to the German unit, where the entity has its “main interest,” according to court documents.

Citibank N.A. has lodged an application with Australia’s Supreme Court of New South Wales to wind up two businesses run by Indian-British steel magnate Sanjeev Gupta as part of insolvency measures, Reuters reported. The London branch of Citibank lodged an application on Tuesday to wind up OneSteel Manufacturing, which includes the Whyalla steel plant in South Australia, and Tahmoor Coal, which includes a coal mine in New South Wales, according to the court. A directions hearing is listed for May 6.

Malaysia's scandal-plagued former prime minister Najib Razak is facing bankruptcy for allegedly failing to pay more than $400 million in taxes, which could bring his political career to an end, Agence-France Presse reported. Najib lost power in 2018 when his party, which had governed the Southeast Asian nation for six decades, was defeated at the polls after he became embroiled in a financial scandal.

China’s 36 million university students are starting to learn what it’s like to live without easy credit, Bloomberg News reported. Last month authorities effectively shuttered student access to the once ubiquitous online loan industry, a sprawling collection of apps, fintechs and other unregulated lenders. Internet platforms were told to stop offering online loans to students and unwind existing credit. Banks will need to seek regulatory approval before promoting such loans on campus.

Japanese regulators will heighten scrutiny on high-risk trades by domestic financial institutions in the wake of the Archegos fallout, the Nikkei business daily reported on Wednesday. Top investment bank and brokerage, Nomura Holdings, was one of the highest-profile casualties while Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) warned of a loss of around $270 million. The Financial Services Agency (FSA) and the Bank of Japan (BOJ) will scrutinise how financial institutions that incurred losses had been managing transaction risks, the Nikkei said.

Global airline industry body IATA said international passenger traffic plunged 89% in February compared to the same month last year as COVID-19 infections climbed once more, and there was no sign of an aviation recovery yet, Reuters reported. “International passenger traffic was down almost 89% and is showing no signs of recovery in the current environment,” IATA’s new director general Willie Walsh said at a presentation on Wednesday.

Russia is looking at introducing measures to cool a rally in steel prices to the highest in more than a decade and support the construction industry, Bloomberg News reported. One option may include a mechanism that could be used to tax sales over a certain price to provide funds to aid the construction sector, according to two people familiar with government discussions. Such a move has been proposed by the Industry Ministry.

Two former Societe Generale SA bankers are challenging Swiss fines issued for failing to report suspicious deposits worth more than $700 million made by a one-time ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Bloomberg News reported. The former head of SocGen’s Swiss private bank and the ex-head of compliance, who can only be named as L. and K. under Swiss reporting restrictions, are appealing fines totaling 90,000 swiss francs ($96,000) at a trial starting Wednesday in Bellinzona.

Air France on Tuesday said it would receive a new bailout from the French government worth 4 billion euros ($4.7 billion) to help the beleaguered airline cope with mounting debts as a third wave of pandemic lockdowns around Europe prolong a slump in continental air travel, the New York Times reported. The support comes on top of €10.4 billion ($12.3 billion) in loans and guarantees that Air France and its partner, the Netherlands-based KLM, received from the French and Dutch governments last year.