Headlines

Canadian mortgage growth is slowing as the country’s policy makers step up efforts to cool overheated housing markets in Vancouver and Toronto. With four of Canada’s biggest banks reporting second-quarter results, the trend shows decelerating growth in home loan portfolios and, in some cases, shrinkage, Bloomberg News reported. It’s a welcome sign for officials struggling to curb house prices in two of the nation’s largest cities.

As recently as two years ago, owning shares in a bad bank charged with cleaning up nonperforming loans in China probably seemed like a good bet. Not so any more, at least for China Cinda Asset Management Co.The Beijing-based firm's costs are rising and soured-loan growth has leveled off, or in some cases, dropped at the banks Cinda purchases nonperforming advances from. Cinda's Hong Kong-listed stock is down 46 percent from its peak in January 2014 and is trading at a price-to-book ratio of 0.67 times, well below the one times at which it was listed at the end of 2013.

ChemChina has raised $20 billion (15.4 billion pounds) mainly in perpetual bonds to finance its purchase of Swiss seeds firm Syngenta, with Bank of China becoming the single largest investor providing half of that funding, according to a regulatory filing, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

The downgrade of China’s debt by Moody’s Investors Service may push Chinese companies to borrow even more money from domestic banks as overseas debt becomes more expensive, increasing risks for the nation’s finance industry, Bloomberg News reported. With growing indebtedness at home, compounded by a slowing economy, there’s a risk of a “negative feedback loop,” said Khoon Goh, head of Asia research for Australia & New Zealand Banking Group who sees state-owned enterprises and property developers feeling the biggest impact.

Seadrill Ltd. jumped as much as 26 percent as the offshore driller controlled by John Fredriksen said it’s getting closer to a solution to restructure the industry’s heaviest debt load and that it’s promoting a company insider to chief executive officer, Bloomberg News reported. Seadrill has been working for well over a year to restructure a wall of debt incurred before crude prices started collapsing in 2014, abruptly closing a decade-long boom for the oil-service industry.

Marks and Spencer’s pre-tax profits fell by 64 per cent in the year to April 1, dragged down by restructuring costs, property impairments and lower clothing sales as the high street fixture turned away from a packed calendar of promotional events, the Financial Times reported. Profits before tax and exceptional items were down 11 per cent, slightly ahead of analyst expectations according to an average compiled by Bloomberg. Britain’s biggest apparel retailer said its market share had “stabilised” and that it now accounted for a higher proportion of full-price sales than a year ago.

Bank of Cyprus, the only eurozone bank to forcibly bail in depositors during the financial crisis, has been fined €18m by the island’s competition regulator for abusing its dominant market position in the credit cards, the Financial Times reported. The bank, which was restructured as part of the €10bn international rescue of the Cypriot banking sector in 2013, said in a statement on Wednesday it would appeal the fine “through all available court processes”. The Cyprus Commission for the Protection of Competition announced the fine on May 22.

A “too big to fail” trade has backfired on the shores of the Caspian Sea. The International Bank of Azerbaijan is imposing haircuts on holders of $3.3 billion of foreign debt after suffering loan and currency losses, the International New York Times reported. Creditors who had counted on the government to keep propping up the state-owned lender have been taught a painful lesson. The falling price of oil has had harsh effects on Azerbaijan and its banks.

The European Central Bank has ruled out the possibility that Brexit could pose a major threat to the euro area economy, rejecting warnings from the Bank of England that a messy UK withdrawal could leave EU companies without vital services, the Financial Times reported. Vitor Constâncio, the ECB’s vice-president, said on Thursday that Brexit could “really not harm significantly the ongoing recovery in the euro area” and that financial firms were already adapting by relocating activities to Europe.

Creditors of Brazil's Oi SA filed a motion this week in U.S. bankruptcy court to pressure the telephone operator to consider a proposal which could give lenders control of the restructured company, a source close to the lenders said. The creditors believe that a U.S. filing made on Monday in the Southern District of New York will allow them the right to reject the company's reorganization plan in the United States if it is confirmed in Brazil without their input, the source said.