Headlines

Some of China's top banks have sharpened scrutiny of smaller peers' asset quality and have tightened standards for interbank lending, three sources said, in an effort to curb credit risk as a deepening property debt crisis ripples through the economy, Reuters reported. Two of China's biggest state-owned banks and a leading joint-stock bank have stepped up reviews of smaller lenders over the past couple of months to identify those with poor asset quality and have a high risk of default, the sources said.

A 16th-century building in Munich, a luxury Berlin office development and the headquarters of department store Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof are among assets held by Signa property companies forced into insolvency in the last week, Bloomberg News reported. Torsten Martini, an insolvency administrator at law firm Görg, is in talks with creditor banks of a Berlin site at Schönhauser Allee 9 to see if construction may be able to resume, according to a spokesperson.

The Local Court of Münster has opened regular insolvency proceedings for the assets of Gigaset AG. The communications technology provider published a corresponding announcement on its website on Tuesday evening, MarketScreener.com reported. Markus Wischemeyer was appointed insolvency administrator. Gigaset AG had filed for insolvency in September and is insolvent according to its own statements. The main reason for this was an unexpected and significant decline in revenue in the second half of 2023 and a business performance that was significantly below plan.

The number of unemployed people in Germany rose slightly in December, by much less than analysts had expected, labour office figures showed on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The Federal Labour Office said the number of people out ofwork increased by 5,000 in seasonally adjusted terms to 2.703 million. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected the total to rise by 20,000. "The labour market is still holding up well in terms of the extent of the burdens and uncertainties," said Andrea Nahles, chairwoman of the Federal Employment Agency.

Mexico kicked off 2024 emerging-market sovereign bond sales with the largest deal on record for the Latin American country, Bloomberg News reported. The nation raised $7.5 billion with the sale of benchmark global dollar notes due in five, 12 and 30 years, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak about it. While sentiment across global markets was negative, orders for the deal had reached $20 billion, the people said.

Nigeria’s central bank has released inaugural guidelines for banks opening cryptocurrency accounts, while retaining its ban on them holding or trading in virtual assets on their own behalf, Bloomberg News reported. The rules, published on the central bank’s website on Tuesday, flesh out the regulator’s decision last month to lift its prohibition on banks operating accounts for crypto service providers. “Current trends globally have shown that there is need to regulate the activities of virtual assets service providers which include cryptocurrencies and cryptoassets,” it said.

Argentina's inflation likely hovered around 30% in December, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni said on Wednesday, when asked by a reporter about studies showing monthly inflation reaching nearly that level, Reuters reported. "We still don't have the official data, but we understand that the figure was around the one you are referring to," Adorni told the reporter during a press conference. If confirmed, that would take annual inflation in the South American country to over 200% in 2023, the highest in more than three decades. The official figure will only be released on Jan.

Brazil posted a wider-than-expected current account deficit in November but the figure as a proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) continued to decrease, data from the central bank showed on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The current account deficit in Latin America's largest economy totaled $1.6 billion in November. Economists polled by Reuters expected a $400 million deficit. Brazil's $6.7 billion trade surplus in the month, larger than the $4.7 billion one reported a year ago, was not enough to offset an increase in the factor payment and service deficits, the central bank said.

U.K. long-end bonds are among the hardest hit by the downturn in global debt markets, as investors make room for a slate of gilt sales later this month, Bloomberg News reported. The yield on 30-year U.K. government notes has risen 14 basis points in the first two trading days of the year, more than U.S. and German equivalents. The bonds have also underperformed short-end ones, sending the yield premium over five-year notes to the highest in almost a year and a half. Investors are ditching long-end gilts ahead of the U.K.