Headlines

Greece’s beleaguered banking system has taken a fresh hit from the country’s shaky bailout talks this year, registering its worst deposit outflows since the height of its debt crisis in the summer of 2015, the Financial Times reported. Latest figures from the European Central Bank showed households and businesses pulled €1.1bn from the country’s lenders last month, moderating from the €1.7bn withdrawn at the start of the year but marking the worst two-monthly outflow since the country was bought to the brink of a eurozone exit nearly two years ago.

European governments and related organisations have ramped up their sales of new debt this year, in the latest sign of bond markets bracing for rises in interest rates and an increase in political risks, the Financial Times reported. Overall borrowing from eurozone sovereigns, local authorities, agencies and supranationals such as the European Investment Bank is currently at €210bn — the highest year-to-date amount since 2012, Dealogic data show, and the second-highest level on record at this stage of the year.

Global banks have warned they could move thousands of jobs out of Britain to prepare for the expected disruption caused by the country's exit from the European Union, endangering London's status as a major financial centre, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Leading financial firms warned for months before last June's Brexit referendum that they would have to move some jobs if the "Leave" side won, and have been working on plans for how they would do so for the past six months.

Shares in Toshiba Corp rose on Monday morning after a report that U.S. unit Westinghouse Electric Co could file for bankruptcy protection as early as Tuesday and is seeking support from South Korea's Korea Electric Power Corp, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Toshiba's shares were last up 0.5 percent at 224 yen after earlier rising as high as 232 yen, against the backdrop of a broader market downturn. Read more.

European banking regulators Monday touted their achievements in pulling eurozone banks back from the brink, though they said more should be done to improve the sector’s profitability, repeating a call for more bank mergers. The eurozone economy is moving to slow, steady growth—giving the region’s banks a shot in the arm—after a prolonged contraction following the 2011 euro crisis, The Wall Street Journal reported. Read more. (Subscription required.)

The two biggest bondholder groups in Brazilian telephone operator Oi SA said on Friday they "strongly oppose" the terms of a new debt restructuring plan the company intends to present in bankruptcy court, Reuters reported. Claiming the proposed terms "were not previously negotiated with either of the Oi bondholder groups," the creditors said in a joint statement that Oi has "failed to engage" with them, nine months after filing for bankruptcy protection. Read more.

One of the arguments employed by EU politicians to oblige UK-based financial companies to shift activity across the Channel after Brexit is that a necessary price of access is “onshore” regulation, the Financial Times reported. It is mainly a question of “who’s queen?”, namely which authority has the legal right to supervise the contents of the City’s vast financial punchbowl. Brussels might have swallowed the UK’s jurisdiction over the part that’s sourced in Europe when Britain was inside the trading bloc, runs the logic. Put the country outside it and the dispensation can’t remain.

Toshiba’s biggest creditors are split over its future strategy as pressure mounts for a swift Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing by Westinghouse, the troubled Japanese conglomerate’s US nuclear subsidiary, the Financial Times reported. People briefed on the situation said talks between Toshiba, its main lenders and other stakeholders are focused on whether it is possible or even desirable for Westinghouse to be placed under bankruptcy protection before the end of the Japanese group’s financial year on March 31.

Croatia's government is drawing up a law to protect the economy if a major company runs into trouble, Deputy Prime Minister Martina Dalic said on Friday. She said the law could be used for debt-laden food business Agrokor, a major employer whose creditors include Russia's Sberbank. She denied the legislation was being drawn up because of Agrokor's problems, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

CEO Jung said he expected Daewoo to receive considerable calls from shipowners for "builder's default", cancelling existing orders, if the company goes into court receivership - the regulator's alternate plan for the troubled firm in case the bailout does not go through, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.