Headlines

The UK taxpayer faces losses of as much as £23bn so far in bad loans across the state coronavirus emergency bailout schemes, according to government estimates that will raise concerns over the cost of supporting unviable companies through the pandemic, the Financial Times reported. The warning comes just days after chancellor Rishi Sunak extended the programme of business support to the end of November to protect companies from collapse this winter.

The world’s poorest countries could soon be facing a tough decision -- double up on debt relief from the G20 with the caveat they must default on private creditors, or quit the programme to try to keep financial markets on side, Reuters reported. Rich countries on Friday backed an extension of the G20's Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI), approved in April to help developing nations survive the coronavirus pandemic and which has seen 43 of a potential 73 eligible countries here defer $5 billion in 'official sector' debt payments.

Businesses have been granted more time to pay outstanding tax bills to Revenue at a discounted rate of interest, The Irish Times reported. The decision comes as a spokeswoman for the tax office said there had been strong demand for the incentivised repayment programme, with €46 million of outstanding business taxes now covered by it. A measure in the July stimulus package allowed companies to warehouse Covid tax debt, deferring payment until their businesses reopened and then availing of reduced interest rates.

Foreign bondholders are minded to block Zambia’s plans to suspend interest payments without assurances of equal treatment with large lender China, indicating that the test case for a potential string of pandemic-related defaults across Africa could prove contentious, the Financial Times reported. A group of creditors, which includes hedge funds such as Pharo and Amia Capital, is concerned the government is not being clear about the true scale of the Chinese debt it has accumulated in recent years, people familiar with the matter said.

October 7. That is when the tenure of Rajnish Kumar as the Chairman of State Bank of India gets over. And that is why the date has come in play in the Jet Airways insolvency process even as lenders, sources say, meet on September 30 and start the voting process, Moneycontrol reported. The moot question is: Will the airline get a new owner before Kumar completes his tenure and his successor Dinesh Kumar Khara takes over?

Singapore’s central bank on Wednesday directed embattled German payments firm Wirecard to cease providing services in the city state and return all customers’ funds, Reuters reported. Wirecard, which primarily processes payments for merchants and helps companies to issue pre-paid cards in Singapore, filed for insolvency in June after a 1.9 billion euro (1.8 billion pounds) hole was discovered in its books. Singapore police are among a number of global authorities investigating Germany’s biggest post-war corporate fraud.

Nearly half of Argentina’s population was living in poverty in the second quarter, a sharp increase from last year, as the country’s longstanding economic crisis deepened due to the coronavirus pandemic, researchers estimated on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The Catholic University of Argentina (UCA) estimated the poverty rate spiked to between 46% and 47% by the end of June following months of strict lockdowns to battle the spread of the virus.

Arabtec Holding shareholders authorised the board of the Dubai-listed construction company on Wednesday to file for liquidation due to its untenable financial position following the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, an internal company email said, Reuters reported. Shareholders also authorised Arabtec to appoint AlixPartners and Matthew Wilde, or any other person or persons the board considered fit, as liquidator, two sources told Reuters.

Fashion retailer New Look’s application for examinership in Ireland is “not about saving jobs” but an attempt to rewrite its contracts with landlords, it has been claimed, The Irish Times reported. A lawyer for some of the landlords told the High Court the company was in “more robust health than most”, despite the Covid-19 pandemic, and was seeking to make changes that could save it around €5 million per year in rent reductions.

Andrew Bailey issued a clarification of the Bank of England’s stance on negative interest rates on Tuesday, saying the central bank had not yet reached a judgment whether or when to set rates below zero for the first time, the Financial Times reported. The governor’s online speech to the University of Belfast was the latest in a series comments from BoE policymakers over the past two weeks, which have served to confuse, rather than clarify, the bank’s intentions on negative rates.