Headlines

Hangzhou’s local government is piloting a “social credit” system the Communist Party has said it wants to roll out nationwide by 2020, a digital reboot of the methods of social control the regime uses to avert threats to its legitimacy, The Wall Street Journal reported. More than three dozen local governments across China are beginning to compile digital records of social and financial behavior to rate creditworthiness. A person can incur black marks for infractions such as fare cheating, jaywalking and violating family-planning rules.

Britain's biggest energy suppliers have submitted bids to take over 160,000 customers left behind by bankrupt energy provider GB Energy, which collapsed on Saturday after being caught out by rising market prices, Reuters reported. All of Britain's Big Six energy suppliers, EDF Energy , Innogy's Npower, E.ON, Scottish Power, SSE and Centrica's British Gas, have submitted bids in a tender run by regulator Ofgem to supply GB Energy's customers, sources familiar with the matter said. Npower confirmed it had submitted a bid. Centrica, EDF Energy, SSE, E.ON and Scottish Power declined to comment.

The special liquidators of Irish Bank Resolution Corporation have secured court orders approving a process to repay an estimated €100 million in overcharged interest by the former Anglo Irish Bank. The orders were sought arising from a High Court finding of 2011 that the bank had overcharged John Morrissey, Palmerston Road, Ranelagh, €143,676 in interest on an overall sum of some €31.6 million allegedly owed to it, the Irish Times reported.

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena may have got the green light for an ambitious recapitalisation, but the bank is yet to convince investors to buy into the complex plan needed to keep the troubled lender afloat, Reuters reported. Shareholders in Italy's third largest lender last week approved a 5bn recapitalisation aimed at keeping the bank from being wound down. BMPS is set to launch on Monday a debt-to-equity conversion offer that seeks to reduce the size of a proposed share sale.

Commodities trader Glencore Plc presented the highest bid in an auction for the sale of a distressed Brazilian sugar mill and is well positioned to take control of the plant, a source with direct knowledge of the process said on Monday. The Swiss commodities powerhouse offered around 350 million reais ($103 million) for the unit, topping bids by five companies that took part in the auction for the Guararapes mill currently controlled by local firm Unialco, which has filed for bankruptcy and is under court protection against creditors.

The German pilots union VC has announced further strikes at Lufthansa for Tuesday and Wednesday after fresh talks at the end of a four-day walkout failed to settle their long-running pay dispute, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. "Unfortunately the high-level talks that took place today at short notice failed to produce a result," VC board member Joerg Handwerg said in a statement on Sunday.

Up to eight of Italy’s troubled banks risk failing if prime minister Matteo Renzi loses a constitutional referendum next weekend and ensuing market turbulence deters investors from recapitalising them, officials and senior bankers say, the Irish Times reported. Mr Renzi, who says he will quit if he loses the referendum, had championed a market solution to solve the problems of Italy’s €4 trillion banking system and avoid a vote-losing “resolution” of Italian banks under new EU rules.

Brazil is to join the Paris Club of wealthy sovereign creditors, becoming the first large developing economy to enter the group for two decades, as deteriorating global credit conditions spur governments to improve co-ordinated debt relief efforts, the Financial Times reported. Officials say the sharp rise in emerging market borrowing since the financial crisis has encouraged the group of lenders to expand its membership amid the re-emerging threat of debt crises in poorer nations. The last big emerging market to join was Russia in 1997.

Administrators for failed Icelandic bank Kaupthing are looking to sell off British high street retailers including Coast, Oasis and Warehouse which employ thousands of people, four sources familiar with the matter said. The bank was nationalised during Iceland's 2008-2011 financial crisis, with its domestic operations spun into a new bank known as Arion Banki, while all non-Icelandic assets remained with the now defunct Kaupthing. Kaupthing acquired the brands in 2009 from Mosaic Fashions, which went into administration after shareholder Baugur collapsed in the wake of the crisis.

A High Court judge has directed Gayle Dunne, wife of property developer Seán Dunne, must hand over certain documents related to alleged transfers by her husband to her of assets valued at about €100 million. The documents include Ms Dunne’s tax returns from 2005-2014, insofar as they relate to those assets. Chris Lehane, the official administering Mr Dunne’s Irish bankruptcy, sought the documents for his proceedings against Ms Dunne, disputing two alleged asset transfer agreements between Mr Dunne and his wife in 2005 and 2008.