Headlines

China is lowering down payment requirements and discounting mortgages as declining housing sales put a drag on the economy, Bloomberg News reported. After four years of government restrictions to cool housing prices that had tripled since 2000, the central bank is reversing course, making it easier for homeowners to buy second properties. They are not likely to get back into the market, several analysts said, until prices become more affordable.

Kazakhstan's Alliance Bank, majority owned by the country's sovereign wealth fund, is close to completing a $1.2 billion debt restructuring and a merger with two other banks, its chief executive said on Wednesday. Timur Issatayev, who has been meeting creditors in London and New York, told Reuters he was confident of getting the go-ahead at creditor and shareholder meetings due in coming weeks. The proposals, put forward in August, are seen halving the nominal value of existing bond holdings to $300 million.

Slaughter and May, Clifford Chance (CC) and Hogan Lovells have won advisory roles on pubs giant Punch Taverns’ £2.3bn debt refinancing, LegalWeek reported. Punch, which began talks on its restructuring nearly two years ago, received the approval needed for its restructuring proposals from the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Lloyds Bank last week. The deal, which has reduced net debt by £600m to £1.5bn, included a debt-for-equity swap that has given bondholders 85% of the company’s equity.

Ireland’s government on Tuesday responded to the clamorous criticism of its business-friendly tax arrangements by closing a loophole used by multinational giants like Google, the International New York Times reported. The European Union and the Obama administration have been increasingly vocal about the tax-avoidance strategies of multinational companies and the countries that enable them. The European Commission is conducting a broad investigation into the relationships between multinationals and perceived tax havens like Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

Hotel-management chain Aqua Sol, owner and administrator of 15 hotels in Cyprus, Rhodes and Crete, along with its nine subsidiaries has been placed under receivership for its failure to comply with its contractual obligations with the Bank of Cyprus, it was announced on Tuesday, Cyprus Mail reported.

Barbados business leaders and economists say the Caribbean island should seek an accord with the International Monetary Fund as the government struggles to spur an economy with one of the world’s heaviest debt burdens, Bloomberg News reported. Efforts by the government to trim the public sector by firing 3,000 workers and reining in spending failed to spark growth in the first half of the year in a country with a debt load equal to 96 percent of gross domestic product. That prompted the Barbados Chamber of Commerce to say the government should consider talks with the IMF.

European Union finance ministers committed on Tuesday to lifting the veil on personal banking and financial information by 2017 — but they were forced to offer Austria an extra year in order to reach a deal, the International New York Times reported. The political accord is expected to be completed at another meeting before the end of the year. It would oblige a tax authority in any European Union country to share with another state’s authorities a much larger amount of bank account and personal financial information.

Troubled steelmaker Lucchini said on Tuesday it planned to ask India's JSW Steel to raise its offer of less than $100 million for the Italian company's core assets in Piombino on the Tuscan coast, Reuters reported. Lucchini, Italy's second-largest steel plant by capacity, was previously owned by Russia's Severstal, but it was declared insolvent in 2012 and placed under special administration. JSW so far has made the only binding offer.

The United Steelworkers union has reached a tentative contract agreement with U.S. Steel Canada Inc. that covers workers in Hamilton, marking the first time the steel company has not locked out workers at one of its two major Canadian mills, The Globe and Mail reported. Since the 2007 purchase by United States Steel Corp. of what was then Stelco Inc., the company locked out workers once after failing to reach an agreement covering its Hamilton workers, and twice at its Lake Erie operations in Nanticoke, Ont.

eeply subordinated debt issued by German Landesbanken lost as much as six points in the past week as investors factored in the possibility that debt issued by banks that fail Europe's coming stress tests will suffer painful haircuts, Reuters reported. HSH Nordbank, Munich Hypo and Nord/LB are just some of the banks investors are nervously watching as they prepare for the worst when the European Central Bank (ECB) releases the results of its bank health check later this month.