Headlines

Europe’s top official in charge of winding down failed banks has urged the industry to press ahead with preparations for a no-deal Brexit, saying lenders should not expect regulators to help them cope with any upheaval caused by the UK’s departure, the Financial Times reported. Elke König, the head of the eurozone’s Single Resolution Board, told the Financial Times in an interview that banks should not expect any leeway in meeting a key regulatory standard set by the agency.

Chinese equities have already lost $3 trillion in market value since January, and hopes for better days ahead are fading, Bloomberg News reported. Anyone counting on a breather in this year’s final stretch got slapped with another 7.9 percent drop for the Shanghai Composite Index so far in October. That sets the gauge up for one of its worst annual performances ever, behind a 65 percent meltdown at the height of the global financial crisis in 2008, and nearing the 22 percent slumps seen in 2011 and 1994. China ranks among the world’s worst places to own shares in 2018.

The International Monetary Fund’s executive board approved a $56.3 billion credit line for Argentina, clearing the way for the embattled South American economy to receive a larger amount of funding at a faster pace than originally negotiated, Bloomberg News reported. The board’s sign-off Friday ratified a revised agreement announced in September. Under the new deal, Argentina will receive about $35.8 billion throughout the remainder of this year and all of 2019, representing nearly a $19 billion increase from the original arrangement negotiated in June.

China’s economic growth continued to slow in October, a period in which the trade conflict with the U.S. has intensified and policy makers have stepped up support for businesses, Bloomberg News reported. That’s the signal from a Bloomberg Economics gauge aggregating the earliest-available indicators on business conditions and market sentiment. The government effort to stabilize the mood among executives and investors hasn’t been effective yet.

The International Monetary Fund said it wants assurances from the Republic of Congo’s creditors about how the nation’s debt will be restructured before it considers a bailout, Bloomberg News reported. The debt-laden country has been trying to secure a bailout since last year from the IMF, which has asked the government to curb rampant corruption and divulge the assets of high-level officials before providing any support. Oil-producing Congo’s economy has contracted for the past two years and it owes creditors at least 5.31 trillion CFA francs ($9.2 billion).

European Union states are close to a deal on rules for banks saddled with bad loans, according to diplomats and EU documents, with a plan that would give banks less time to build a backstop against new soured debt, Reuters reported. Euro zone banks have yet to recover from the 2008 financial crisis, and this year their shares dropped more than 20 percent . Italian banks have fallen nearly 30 percent and seen increased losses after a eurosceptic government took office in Rome in June. The new rules, if adopted, could cause them further trouble.

Creditors of India’s bankrupt Essar Steel have accepted an offer from ArcelorMittal, the global steel giant said on Friday, in a major step towards its efforts to establish a meaningful presence in India, the Financial Times reported. The announcement came a day after Essar’s founding Ruia family offered to pay off the company’s entire outstanding debt of Rs543bn ($7.4bn), in a last-ditch attempt to pull the company out of the insolvency proceedings and halt the sale by creditors.

A Portuguese court approved on Friday a debt restructuring plan that was passed by creditors in major Brazilian telecom firm Oi SA, marking a step forward in the company’s tortured bankruptcy recovery process, Reuters reported. With the court’s approval, seen by Reuters, bankruptcy courts in all relevant jurisdictions - Brazil, the United States, the Netherlands, and now Portugal - have signed off on the recovery plan, which was approved by creditors in December.

Italy's banks are charging households and businesses more to borrow after a fall in the value of the country's bonds, the first sign of a credit tightening that could disrupt the populist government's economic revival plans, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Investors have been dumping Italian assets since the formation in June of a coalition government whose draft 2019 budget plan this month prompted Moody's to cut Italy's credit rating and the European Commission to demand a revision.

Turkey’s central bank is readying itself for a key policy meeting on Thursday that could disrupt the fragile stability of the country’s currency following months of turbulence, the Financial Times reported. While the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey is expected to follow up September’s dramatic interest rate rise — when it hiked the benchmark lending rate by 6.25 percentage points to stem a developing lira crisis — by keeping rates on hold, the meeting is nonetheless a test of the bank’s credibility.