Headlines

India’s publicly listed firms must disclose any failure to repay loans within 24 hours in cases where 30 days have passed since the default, its securities regulator said on Wednesday, tightening rules at a time when bond defaults have soared, Reuters reported. The decision was aimed at addressing any gaps in the availability of information to investors surrounding corporate defaults, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said in a statement.

Italy’s fractious government may try to delay an agreed-upon plan to overhaul Europe’s bailout fund, throwing efforts to shore up the institutional set-up of the euro area into disarray, Bloomberg News reported. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, under pressure from one of his government’s coalition partners, the Five Star Movement, may ask European Union leaders to postpone a final sign-off on the reform at a December 12-13 summit, according to an official familiar with the matter.

In Argentina’s sunny Mendoza province, officials had been preparing to break ground on the Vecaso solar park, a 115 megawatt project costing $90 million, Reuters reported. The culmination of nearly four years of planning, Vecaso was one of several ambitious projects to take root under a renewable energy push by the government of President Mauricio Macri.

Saudi Arabia is closely monitoring how much banks are lending to local investors rushing to buy shares in Aramco and what impact the mammoth offering will have on the kingdom’s financial sector, Bloomberg News reported. The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority wants daily updates on how much credit banks are providing after it eased lending limits for buyers, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

India’s central bank has found that Yes Bank under-reported bad loans in the most recent financial year by Rs32.8bn ($457m), renewing scrutiny of the lender’s finances as it seeks to raise capital from global investors, the Financial Times reported. Yes Bank reported late on Monday that the Reserve Bank of India had uncovered the discrepancy in its accounts. That brought the total amount of non-performing assets at the bank to Rs111.6bn as of March 31, the end of India’s financial year.

The political crisis in Lebanon has sent yields on some of its dollar bonds into triple digits. Rates on the government’s $1.2 billion of notes maturing in March next year have climbed 28 percentage points this week to 105%, Bloomberg News reported. They were at 13% five weeks ago, just before the start of protests that led to the resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri and exacerbated the nation’s economic woes. Protesters marched to parliament in Beirut on Tuesday, forcing it to suspend a session as the army and riot police tried to disperse them.

The companies involved in trying to save Alitalia SpA got cold feet before a crucial deadline, throwing the mess back into the government’s hands. Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane SpA, the railway operator leading the effort to find a solution, said Wednesday that conditions aren’t in place to form a consortium meant to save the national flag carrier from liquidation, Bloomberg News reported. This follows a similar statement Tuesday by the Benetton family’s Atlantia SpA. A third potential partner, Deutsche Lufthansa AG, isn’t ready to commit equity, FS Italiane said.

India’s central bank on Wednesday said it will begin bankruptcy proceedings against Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL), a move that puts the country’s ailing shadow banking sector back in the spotlight. DHFL’s owes its lenders nearly 1 trillion rupees ($14 billion), including several mutual funds, banks, pension funds, insurance firms and retail investors, Reuters reported. The central bank’s move on DHFL comes after a string of defaults by rival IL&FS last year, which triggered fears about contagion in the financial sector and forced the government to take over the lender.

Ukraine is finalising changes to legislation on bank insolvency in consultation with the International Monetary Fund as part of efforts by Kiev to secure a new loan programme, a senior state official told Reuters. Ukraine wants an IMF deal worth around $5 billion-6 billion over three years to support its economy and signal to investors that the new government of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is committed to reform, Reuters reported.

Whether Brexit purists or radical socialists win Britain’s election next month, a deluge of fresh debt is set to bloat the country’s 1.6 trillion pound ($2.1 trillion) government bond pile, Reuters reported. But the permutations around the Dec. 12 election - and the implications for Brexit - make it tough for holders of British government debt to predict just what the borrowing bonanza will mean for them. In 2010, Bill Gross - then cast as “king of the bond market” - warned that British government bonds were “resting on a bed of nitroglycerine” because of Britain’s large budget deficit.