Headlines

Ulster Bank will give new complainants up until the end of the year to seek compensation from a scheme that was set up for companies whose businesses were impacted by being put into a controversial restructuring unit during the financial crisis, The Irish Times reported. The lender is currently issuing a follow-up letter to about 2,000 Irish customers who were put into the group’s now-defunct global restructuring group (GRG), informing them that they have until December 31st to file a complaint about their treatment in the division.

Zambian Finance Minister Margaret Mwanakatwe is no longer having sleepless nights over an International Monetary Fund loan the southern African nation has been trying unsuccessfully to secure for the past two years, Bloomberg News reported. “I’ve talked about four things that keep me awake. Four months ago I was saying IMF. I don’t say that anymore,” she told business leaders Tuesday in the capital, Lusaka, after delivering the 2019 budget last week.

Sean Dunne’s Irish bankruptcy has been extended by 12 years by the High Court over “wilful and deliberate” failure to co-operate with the trustee administering his bankruptcy, including hiding or not disclosing information about certain assets, The Irish Times reported. Ms Justice Caroline Costello also ruled that Mr Dunne must pay €7,000 monthly to his Irish bankruptcy trustee to increase the assets available for his creditors.

The Indian government, which seized control of debt-laden financier Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd., has pledged to ensure the beleaguered lender has the money to prevent further defaults, Bloomberg News reported. Superseding the board of IL&FS, which has defaulted on more than five of its obligations, was essential to restore the confidence of the financial markets, according to a statement by the finance ministry on Monday.

Bahrain’s credit risk declined to the lowest level in five months on optimism the nation’s neighbors will soon come to the island-state’s rescue with an aid package, Bloomberg News reported. The cost of insuring Bahrain’s debt against default fell 34 basis points last week on relief that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait were said to be considering a $10 billion plan. The contracts closed at 307 basis points on Friday, the lowest since May and about half the level in June, when concern over the country’s finances spurred a sell-off of Bahraini assets.

The City is bracing itself for an uncertain six months in the run-up to the UK’s departure from the European Union, the Financial Times reported. Operators of the crucial market infrastructure that ensures that money flows around the world — from exchanges, and fixed income markets to clearing and settlement houses — are activating their plans for life outside the EU. Some of London’s biggest markets operators, such as TP ICAP, Thomson Reuters, Cboe Europe and Turquoise are setting up hubs in Europe, centred on Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin.

Primera Air, a low-cost carrier, has ceased operations and announced it will close as of October 2 after it failed to secure financing, the Financial Times reported. In an announcement on its website, the Latvian-based airline said: “On behalf of Primera Air team, we would like to thank you for your loyalty. On this sad day we are saying goodbye to all of you.” The airline flew nine Boeing aircraft from bases in countries including Iceland, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. It offered transatlantic flights from Birmingham and Stansted airports in the UK.

Finance ministers from the eurozone’s largest economies have urged Italy’s populist government to respect the bloc’s spending rules, as they pushed Rome for clarity on its plans to tear up a previous budget agreement with Brussels, the Financial Times reported. Eurozone finance ministers on Monday met for the first time since Italy’s populist coalition last week presented a spending plan that would inflate Italy’s budget deficit to an estimated 2.4 per cent over the next three years.

German retail sales unexpectedly slipped in August, marking the second disappointing reading in a row for the country’s retail trade and fuelling concerns over growth in Europe’s biggest economy, the Financial Times reported. Retail sales fell by 0.1. per cent in August compared to the previous month, according to data published by Germany’s Federal Statistics Office. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters had expected a 0.4 per cent rise. However, on an year on year basis, turnover in Germany’s retail trade increased by 1.6 per cent, above analyst expectations of 1.5 per cent.

The Greek government is urging bailout inspectors to drop their insistence that it cuts pension further next year, arguing the country is on target to beat budget targets without doing so, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. In its draft 2019 budget, tabled to parliament Monday, the government said Greece's economy will grow 2.5 percent next year, with debt and unemployment steadily falling too. In the 44-page document , it said the issue of pension cuts would be decided later this year.