Headlines

The Japanese subsidiary of Sam Bankman-Fried’s failed crypto empire FTX has put together a draft plan for clients to withdraw funds, in what would be one of the rare cases of investors getting money back from the collapsed exchange, Bloomberg News reported. The proposal, which has yet to be finalized, centers on using a platform called Liquid to facilitate the return of assets starting in January. Bankman-Fried’s sprawling tangle of FTX group companies slid into a chaotic bankruptcy on Nov.

The annual rate of inflation in the eurozone fell in November for the first time since mid-2021 as energy prices dropped, the Wall Street Journal reported. However, the slowdown isn’t likely to stop the European Central Bank from increasing interest rates further, economists warned. Consumer-price inflation across the 19 countries that share the euro has increased since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the Kremlin’s decision to weaponize the country’s vast stores of energy to undermine European support for Kyiv.

Out-of-court settlements in cases of loan default are gaining traction among both creditors and debtors as parties are looking for ways to avoid initiation of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), the Economic Times of India reported. According to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI), 23,417 applications for initiation of the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP), having underlying default of ₹7.31 lakh crore, were resolved even before their admission, as on September 31.

Bitcoin is being artificially propped up and should not be legitimised by regulators or financial companies as it heads for "irrelevance", the European Central Bank said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been variously presented as an alternative form of money and a shield from the inflationary policies pursued by major central banks such as the ECB in recent years.

Argentina’s central bank expects to keep its key interest rate unchanged at 75% until at least early next year as internal indicators show that monthly inflation is cooling, Bloomberg News reported. The central bank board is seeing slower monthly price gains in November and is preparing to hold its key rate if that forecast is confirmed, said the people, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private. The estimates the central bank tracks suggest monthly inflation could slow to about 5.5% in November, down from 6.3% in October.

Rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve are significantly increasing the cost of capital for South Korea’s startups, elevating the chance many may face bankruptcy in coming months, according to the nation’s Minister for SMEs and Startups, Bloomberg News reported. “US rate increases are too fast and too violent and we are puzzled,” Lee Young said in an interview in Seoul.

Royal Bank of Canada, which just struck its largest deal ever to expand in its home market, is getting a boost from its dominant position in the country’s retail banking landscape at a time when rising rates are making lending more profitable, Bloomberg News reported. Net interest income rose 24% to C$6.28 billion ($4.64 billion) in the fiscal fourth quarter, the Toronto-based company said Wednesday. Overall profit topped analysts’ estimates in the three months through October.

India’s gross domestic product grew 6.3% from July to September as global pressures on prices and supply chains, along with economic downturns in the U.S. and European Union, slowed its economic recovery, the Wall Street Journal reported. In April to June, the economy grew 13.5% from a year earlier, benefiting from the easing of covid restrictions, and from a comparison to a quarter in which India’s economy was hit hard by a fierce wave of the illness.

Banks in the US and Europe with around $42 billion of buyout debt stuck on their balance sheets are making the most of their last chance to get rid of it this year, Bloomberg News reported. Stabilization in the leveraged loan and high yield bond markets has led to an opening for deals -- including for bonds and loans tied to the buyout of TV ratings business Nielsen Holdings Plc -- as banks try to reduce debt on their balance sheets before the holidays.

As French President Emmanuel Macron makes the rounds in Washington starting Wednesday for the first state visit of the Biden administration, high on his agenda are his plans for a nuclear energy “renaissance.” His entourage includes the major players from France’s nuclear energy industry, who will be looking to the French leader to help boost the development and export of their technology, including smaller and more versatile reactors, the Washington Post reported. But there could hardly be a more awkward time to promote French nuclear know-how.