Headlines

The Bank of Canada is paying more attention to smaller lenders as an area of potential risk in the financial system, a shift that comes amid concerns about a national housing slowdown, The Wall Street Journal reported. The central bank said it is looking to broaden the scope of its in-house stress testing to include smaller financial institutions and mortgage insurers, at a time when tighter mortgage rules are helping to drive some of those lenders’ growth.

Cambridge Analytica LLC, the firm at the heart of Facebook Inc.’s data scandal, is liquidating assets and has asked workers to vacate its London office, The Wall Street Journal reported. Crowe Clark Whitehill LLP, the administrator for the firm, said it marketed Cambridge Analytica’s business assets to potential buyers to stave off liquidation, but no acceptable offers were made. It said because of that, it has terminated employment contracts of U.K. staff Tuesday. Representatives for Cambridge Analytica didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The former chairman of Irish Nationwide Building Society (INBS), Michael Walsh, told an inquiry into the lender that an erroneous report in early September 2008 on the company’s financial position triggered a €1 billion run on its deposits, the Irish Times reported. He said a Reuters report on September 5th, 2008, that INBS was in “talks with its lenders to avoid insolvency”, which was subsequently retracted by the news agency, “was completely untrue, but the impact of that was to cause a run on the society” and added to general uncertainty in financial markets at the time.

Deutsche Bank AG’s head of emerging-market debt trading has become the latest top executive to exit as high turnover roils Europe’s biggest investment bank. Sean Bates, who held senior roles at the firm since before the 2008 financial crisis, will be succeeded by James Davies, Deutsche Bank spokesman Charlie Olivier said Monday. Bates declined to comment, Bloomberg News reported. A string of top managers have departed since Christian Sewing took over as chief executive officer last month and signaled a restructuring of the struggling lender after years of losses.

The Greek government’s master plan to restore growth, after it emerges from eight years under harsh bailout conditions this August, revolves around a key factor that could jump start its economy: its banks. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras presented to his cabinet on Monday in Athens the 110-page plan, which sets as its main priority the reduction of non-performing loans, the elimination of capital restrictions and the improvement of bank governance, Bloomberg News reported.

As corporate defaults pile up in China’s onshore bond market, a unit of a once-promising energy conglomerate with $4.8 billion of debt and a checkered past said it won’t be able to meet its payment obligation Monday, Bloomberg News reported. CEFC Shanghai International Group Ltd., a unit of the privately-held CEFC China Energy Co., failed to repay 2 billion yuan ($313 million) of bonds but said it will seek to pay back the notes in six months, according to a statement on the Shanghai Clearing House website.

Italian assets were pummeled again on mounting concern over the populist coalition’s fiscal plans, with the moves rippling across European debt markets, Bloomberg News reported. Bond yields climbed to the highest levels in almost three years, while the premium to cover a default in Italy’s debt was the stiffest since October.

It should have been a cause for celebration. The European Commission has acted at what by any bureaucratic standard must count as lightning speed to turn advice from the EU’s systemic risk supervisors into a concrete legislative project, the Financial Times reported. Instead, news that the commission is about to propose a financial benchmark asset for the euro has been greeted with misgivings.

For Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the easy part was winning a presidential race where the main opposition candidates were barred, their supporters boycotted the vote, and his government controlled every aspect of the contest, including counting votes, The Wall Street Journal reported. Now comes the hard part: Trying to pull his country out of the worst economic crisis in its history as it faces growing isolation from the international community. Mr.

At least 30 companies of the region are undergoing insolvency proceedings filed by banks before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Chandigarh, since the enactment of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) last year, The Tribune reported. “These include Amtek Auto, SEL Manufacturing, James Hospitality, Arcee Ispat Udyog Ltd, Mor Farms (P) Ltd and Castex Technologies. The cases have been filed by the creditors, including Corporation Bank, SBI and PNB,” said sources. Amtek Auto has a liability of Rs 14,000 crore.