Headlines

Lebanon's banks further tightened limits on foreign currency withdrawals on Monday, with at least one financial institution restricting depositors to a maximum withdrawal of $400 a month, Al Jazeera reported. Curbs on withdrawals and other unofficial capital controls were first implemented in November following bank closures in response to nationwide protests against corruption, political sclerosis and the government's mismanagement of the economy.

Dublin-based Depfa Bank’s weakness as a “structurally lossmaking” business has been highlighted by two debt-ratings firms as the German government pursues a second attempt to sell the company, The Irish Times reported. “Given that Depfa’s recurring revenue is insufficient to cover its cost base, we believe that – without outside assistance – Depfa has limited scope to engineer a sustainable turnaround and will therefore likely remain lossmaking in the medium to long term, although there may be potential to reduce losses,” Moody’s said in a note published last week.

Developer Sean Dunne’s latest court filing is “a baseless ploy” aimed at sinking settlement of his long-running US bankruptcy case, and he should be sanctioned for it, his bankruptcy trustee says in court papers filed Monday, The Irish Times reported. “Your client is intentionally interfering with the trustee’s attempt to liquidate his judgment, which is based on your client’s actual fraud,” wrote trustee attorney Timothy Miltenberger in an angry letter to Mr Dunne’s lawyer, Luke McGrath. The letter was included as an attachment to the trustee’s motion to intervene in the case.

Bridegrooms in the Gaza Strip are finding marriage a path to debtors’ prison rather than to happiness. Wedding celebrations cost around $10,000 in the Palestinian enclave, but a tradition of strong family ties and large gatherings often trumps financial common sense, Reuters reported. So with unemployment in Gaza topping 50% and the economy in a parlous state, many bridegrooms turn for help to money-lending associations that offer wedding loans ranging from $2,000 to $4,000, but repayment often becomes impossible.

The European Commission has been forced to grin and bear it for years as member states hurl bricks at its benighted fiscal rules. This week the commission finally has an opportunity to give its own take on the regime it oversees, the Financial Times reported. The occasion is the publication of a review of the so-called Two Pack and Six Pack reforms — legislation that was pushed through during the euro crisis notionally to make the regime more economically coherent. The review will not offer a sparkling verdict.

A month after Argentine President Alberto Fernandez took office, economists and investors still don’t know how he plans to dig his way out of a $311 billion debt hole and kick-start growth. They only know a when, Bloomberg News reported. His government last week laid out an ambitious timeline for debt talks that it aims to wrap up by the end of March. While light on detail and deserving of skepticism, it offers at least an inkling of a plan from a president and economic team that have so far eschewed any sort of big picture road-map.

The province of Buenos Aires has broken through an impasse with a group of its bondholders, inching closer to avoiding a messy default over an overdue payment and helping the national government press on with the restructuring of more than $100bn of debt it is struggling to repay, the Financial Times reported. Negotiations between the province and its bondholders broke down last week, but on Monday, the government sweetened the terms it would offer, just days before the already extended deadline was set to expire.

Abu Dhabi-based construction firm Al Fara’a Group is in talks with banks to restructure about 2 billion dirhams ($545 million) in liabilities, according to people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News reported. A large chunk of this is held by local lenders including Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC and First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. The group has been facing difficulties for a number of years and has cut thousands of jobs, delayed payments to employees and vendors, some of the people said.

The French government is set to block the sale of its British Steel factory to Jingye, throwing doubts on the rescue of the failed UK manufacturer. In October, Chinese conglomerate Jingye agreed to buy British Steel in a £50m rescue deal, saving 5,000 jobs and promising £1.2bn investment, the Financial Times reported. For the takeover of all of British Steel’s assets to go ahead, Jingye needs approval from authorities in Paris as the steelmaker’s plant in Hayange, northern France, is deemed a strategic industrial asset.

French retail group Fnac Darty is being sued for £115m by the liquidator to Comet, the UK electrical chain it used to own. Fnac Darty sold Comet for £2 a year before it collapsed but received £115m as part of a controversial financing agreement with the new owners, the Financial Times reported. The failure of Comet in 2012 left UK taxpayers footing a £44m bill and more than 6,000 staff losing their jobs.