Headlines

Spanish authorities have searched Santander's headquarters in Madrid as part of a probe into alleged money laundering and tax evasion triggered by leaks from HSBC's Swiss private bank, Economia reported. Spanish police were seeking documents related to a number of accounts during the visit on Friday, a High Court spokesperson confirmed. Reuters said the Spanish High Court is investigating 40 cases of suspected tax evasion. It follows the leak of sensitive documents exposing HSBC’s Swiss private bank by Hervé Falciani.

For Mauricio Macri, there may be a silver lining to the Panama Papers scandal that has dogged Argentina’s new president since he was accused of ties with offshore shell companies earlier this year, the Financial Times reported. Mr Macri is hoping that his plan for a massive tax amnesty will be helped by increasingly tough conditions globally for tax dodgers, as he attempts to restore normality to what is one of the world’s most financially volatile countries.

Finland's Talvivaara Mining Company said on Friday it may face bankruptcy following the Finnish government's decision to pull back from a deal relating to a troubled nickel mine in northern Finland. Talvivaara is the former owner of the mine which leaked waste water in 2012 and faced serious production problems, prompting the government to take control of it last year in a bid to protect local jobs and the environment.

U.K. regulators are making inquiries into Credit Suisse Group AG’s and Russian bank VTB Group’s handling of hundreds of millions of dollars of debt the banks arranged for the purchase of boats and military equipment for state-backed companies in Mozambique, people familiar with the matter said, The Wall Street Journal reported. Meanwhile, the southern African country has brought in a prominent debt-restructuring specialist to advise on whether it should keep making payments on some related loans, other people familiar with the matter said.

Europe’s faltering bid to introduce a financial transaction tax has suffered a further blow as officials acknowledged little headway had been made in the past six months despite finance ministers in December setting a June deadline for a deal, the Irish Times reported. Work on the tax, known as an FTT, has been teetering on the brink since Estonia late last year pulled out of the club of 11 countries – which do not include Ireland – that had committed to apply it.

Swiss voters on Sunday overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to guarantee an income to Switzerland’s residents, whether or not they are employed, an idea that has also been raised in other countries amid an intensifying debate over wealth disparities and dwindling employment opportunities, the International New York Times reported.

The National Asset Management Agency (Nama) has taken control of a subsidiary of building group BAM on foot of a debt dating back to a 2007 land deal, the Irish Times reported. Nama recently appointed Jim Hamilton and David O’Connor of accountants BDO as receivers to JPDC, a subsidiary of BAM, the Dutch-owned group that is one of the biggest players in Irish construction. JPDC is a property holding company that sold a site in Carrigtowhill, Co Cork in 2007 to construction company John F Supple, whose debts Nama took over in 2010 and which was finally wound up two years later.

British department stores group BHS is to be wound down after administrators failed to find a buyer for the 88-year-old chain, threatening over 10,000 jobs and creating huge vacant sites in town centres struggling to cope with changing shopping habits, Reuters reported. The failure to find a buyer will likely increase the focus on previous owner, billionaire Philip Green, who sold the chain to a group of little-known investors led by a previous bankrupt called Dominic Chappell for one pound in March 2015.

The European Central Bank has dealt a blow to Greece’s attempts to rehabilitate its ailing financial system, saying it would wait at least three more weeks before allowing Greek banks access to its ultra-cheap loans, the Financial Times reported. The delay came at Thursday’s ECB meeting in Vienna where policymakers left interest rates on hold even though they marginally raised forecasts for eurozone growth and inflation. The cautious stance defied market expectations of a more robust upgrade in economic projections.

Just as many Britons feel emotionally apart and even alien from Europe, so they see the European Union as an opaque, bewildering abstraction, a mysterious bureaucratic behemoth that hoovers up their money and independence while giving little (or nothing) in return, the International New York Times reported. British understanding of its workings and purpose has not been helped by the over-the-top arguments being thrown around in the debate over the referendum, set for June 23.