Headlines

Greece’s jobless rate was steady at 20.9 percent in November, unchanged from an upwardly revised figure in October, the country’s statistics service ELSTAT said on Thursday. Greece’s jobless rate was steady at 20.9 percent in November, unchanged from an upwardly revised figure in October, the country’s statistics service ELSTAT said on Thursday. Among younger persons aged 15 to 24, the jobless rate eased to 43.7 percent from 46.1 percent in the same month in 2016, Reuters reported.

France’s finance minister has hit out at German-backed plans to impose debt writedowns on investors in bailed out countries, warning that the issue was a “red line” for Paris in talks on eurozone reform, the Financial Times reported. Bruno Le Maire told a Politico conference in the French capital on Thursday that France was opposed to any “automatic” mechanism that would force private sector holders of sovereign debt to take losses when a eurozone country applies for a bailout. He said the step would make the euro area more vulnerable and fuel Eurosceptic populism.

A senior German central banker has urged UK banks to hasten their Brexit plans and apply for EU banking licences, warning they could be left “high and dry” if they wait on hopes for an EU-UK agreement for financial services, the Financial Times reported. Andreas Dombret, a Bundesbank executive board member, said on Thursday that he was “sceptical” whether a proposal from Britain’s banking industry for “mutual recognition” would be possible.

Greece will sell 3 billion euros ($3.7 billion) of seven-year bonds in another step toward exiting a bailout program in August that has kept the nation afloat, Bloomberg News reported. The offer for the 2025 notes will price to yield 3.5 percent, inside an initial target of about 3.75 percent, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because they’re not authorized to speak about it. Investor orders for the sale topped 6 billion euros, the people said. Barclays Plc, BNP Paribas SA, Citigroup Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

The norms for fast track insolvency proceedings have been tweaked wherein both fair value and liquidation value need to be assessed for the entity concerned. Under fast track mode, the resolution process is to be completed in 90 days, moneycontrol.com reported. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has amended the Fast Track Insolvency Resolution Process for Corporate Persons. The board has already revised the norms pertaining to insolvency resolution process for corporate persons. Under this category, the proceedings have to be completed within a maximum of 270 days.

A Rio de Janeiro judge decided on Wednesday that a shareholders meeting called by a major equity holder in debt-laden Brazilian telecoms carrier Oi SA will have no legal effect on the company’s in-court restructuring, Reuters reported. Responding to various petitions from Oi shareholders, Judge Ricardo Lafayette Campos also upheld a plan approved by bondholders in December and courts in January to take the company out of bankruptcy protection. “I maintain ... the decision that made the recovery plan official,” he wrote.

Britain’s J. Murphy & Sons Limited has bought Carillion’s UK power framework business for an undisclosed sum, the privately held engineering and construction company said on Wednesday. It will take over Carillion’s position on National Grid’s overhead electricity lines, substation and underground cable framework contracts and Carillion employees will join Murphy, the company said.

A deal to sell National Bank of Greece's insurance unit to U.S. and Dutch investors looked fragile after a legal row erupted between the two buyers on Wednesday, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. U.S. investor Calamos Family Partners (CFP) said in an emailed statement it had filed a lawsuit in the U.S. against Dutch EXIN Financial Services Holdings for defaulting on loans.

S&P Global Inc. plans to offer its ratings services in the Chinese domestic bond market, with an eye on buying a majority stake in a local agency or setting up a new entity there to do so, its chief financial officer said. The world’s largest credit rater’s plan to assess the yuan-denominated bonds of Chinese firms follows the People’s Bank of China’s decision last year to allow international ratings companies to set up their own businesses in the nation, according to CFO Ewout Steenbergen, Bloomberg News reported.

Former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King says a buildup of debt needs to be more closely monitored to ensure it doesn’t spark the next financial crisis, Bloomberg News reported. “The areas of weakness in the current system are really focused on the amount of debt that exists, not just in the U.S. and U.K. but across the world,” he said on Bloomberg Radio on Wednesday. “Debt in the private sector relative to GDP is higher now than it was in 2007, and of course public debt is even higher still.” The level of bad loans in European banks and tax cuts in the U.S.