Headlines

China’s banking system is facing greater risks than it seems as some bigger regional lenders are under pressure just like their smaller counterparts. “Some of the relatively larger stress-tested banks could require sizable recapitalization,” said S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Ming Tan, citing tests conducted by the People’s Bank of China, Bloomberg News reported. China’s vast network of regional banks is under pressure amid the slowest economic growth in three decades and rising loan defaults. The partially resolved trade dispute with the U.S.

Leoni AG, a 450-year-old company that traces its roots to precious-metal threads for embroidery, is seeking salvation through an unusual modern financing tool, Bloomberg News reported. The worst performing stock among major companies in Germany in the last year, Leoni is considering an audacious refinancing package, in part by preparing to sell about 200 million euros ($220 million) worth of receivables. It’s a transaction known as factoring that would let it pay back a 170-million-euro Schuldschein, or promissory note, due in March.

Seán Dunne is seeking a US injunction against his son to prevent him from accessing €14 million the bankrupt developer believes is to be used to help settle the legal liabilities of Mr Dunne’s former wife, Gayle Killilea, The Irish Times reported. Mr Dunne’s lawyer, Luke McGrath, asked a New York court late on Thursday for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction preventing his son John Dunne from accessing funds realised from the 2013 sale of Walford, once Ireland’s most expensive home, to settle the legal case.

Irish home and commercial property prices are forecast to dip slightly over the next three years, according to figures being used by European authorities to stress test banks across the EU in 2020, The Irish Times reported. The European Bank Authority, overseeing the assessment, said on Friday that its central projections were based on data received from national central banks. However, sources said that while the Irish Central Bank provided “a possible path which is based on latest trends” to European officials, it did not issue forecasts.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has all but won a devastating nine-year war, but he faces a challenge to revive an economy devastated by war, shunned by foreign investors and strangled by Western sanctions. Now, the battered economy is suffering a fresh blow, The Wall Street Journal reported. A plunging currency has sent inflation soaring and kindled rare and risky demonstrations against the regime, with Syrians protesting sharp increases in the cost of food, medicine and transportation.

Almost two months into Alberto Fernández’s presidency, Argentina’s private creditors are increasingly worried about the slow progress in fixing the heavily indebted country’s most urgent problem: avoiding its ninth sovereign debt default, the Financial Times reported.This frustration has been reflected in rising bond yields and a widening of the gap between official and parallel exchange rates. With a provincial debt default possible in the coming days and debt payments to international creditors due this year, Mr Fernández is in on a tour to garner support.

India is cutting income taxes and increasing spending, hoping to resuscitate growth, which has tumbled to a 10-year low in Asia’s third-largest economy, The Wall Street Journal reported. Some economists and executives, however, warned that some of the measures unveiled over the weekend could end up hurting the economy more than they help it.

Stocks in China plunged in early Monday trading as investors returned from a long holiday to the prospect of the world’s No. 2 economy virtually shut down by the coronavirus epidemic, the International New York Times reported. Stocks in Shanghai opened 8.7 percent lower, while shares in the southern Chinese boomtown of Shenzhen fell 9 percent. The markets had been closed since Jan. 23 for the Lunar New Year holiday, and government officials extended that closure until Monday while the authorities dealt with the outbreak.

Argentina's lower house of Congress approved a bill on Wednesday that would enable the government of President Alberto Fernandez to handle a massive debt restructuring of bonds issued in foreign currency that it needs to negotiate with creditors, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. With support from the opposition, the bill was approved with 224 votes in favour and two against. The bill moves to the Senate, where it is expected to pass next week. The Fernandez government, inaugurated on Dec.

Deutsche Bank reported a whopping loss for the last three months of 2019 and for the full year as it cut staff and wrote down the value of assets, affirming its status as one of Europe’s most troubled big lenders, the International New York Times reported. The bank said it lost 1.5 billion euros, or $1.6 billion, in the last three months of 2019, bringing the total loss for the year to €5.3 billion. In 2018, the bank effectively broke even for the year and in the fourth quarter.