Headlines

European finance chiefs pushed off talks to seal a Greek bailout deal until the weekend after ending another meeting without agreement, leaving only days to keep Athens from defaulting on a loan payment early next week, The Wall Street Journal reported. The ministers from Greece and the other 18 eurozone countries cut short a crisis meeting in Brussels on Thursday to give negotiators from the Greek government and its creditors more time to bridge differences on budget cuts and other terms necessary to unlock more aid for Athens. Time is running out to resolve the standoff.

In the negotiations with international creditors over bailout aid in which pension reform has been a key sticking point, Athens is insisting on higher contributions from workers and businesses rather than cuts to benefits or more rapid increases in the retirement age, the Financial Times reported. Meanwhile, Britain’s Conservative government is pressing ahead with £12bn of new welfare cuts, but has pledged to preserve free bus passes and generous pension increases for those lucky enough to have already left work.

We should be used to them by now, but the figures relating to the Irish banking and economic crash still have the power to shock. At the Oireachtas Banking Inquiry, Central Bank of Ireland governor Patrick Honohan said the overall net cost to the economy of the banking bust was “well in excess of €100 billion and still growing”, the Irish Times reported in a commentary. What might the State have saved if an alternative to the blanket bank guarantee had been chosen?

The costs imposed by the financial crises that hit western economies in 2007 have been enormous. UK gross domestic product is nearly a fifth smaller than if long-term pre-crisis growth trends had continued, the Financial Times reported in a commentary. The costs also include huge rises in public debt. In the UK the increase, as a direct and indirect result of the crisis, will be close to 50 per cent of GDP. This is the fourth most costly fiscal event of the past 225 years, after the wars with post-revolutionary France and the first and second world wars.

Banca Marche, which was put under special administration in 2013, said on Thursday it had repaid 1.8 billion euros ($2.01 billion) it owed to Credito Fondiario, Reuters reported. The unlisted lender said some of its senior bonds and other securities that were guaranteeing the loan obtained by Credito Fondiario have been sold on the market. The sale has allowed Banca Marche to repay the loan to Credito Fondiario and also to pocket some money, the lender said without giving details.

China is to scrap bank lending caps in a bid to boost its slowing economy with an injection of credit – further liberalising the once tightly controlled sector, the Financial Times reported. On Wednesday, China’s State Council issued a draft proposal to relax the country’s long-held maximum loan-to-deposit ratio of 75 per cent. This follows April’s launch of a long-awaited deposit insurance system – a crucial step towards deregulating domestic interest rates, and promoting market-based capital allocation.

Retirement funds and life assurers are in danger of being unable to keep their promises to pensioners and policyholders because of rock-bottom interest rates, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has warned, the Financial Times reported. Ultraloose monetary policy poses “serious problems to the solvency” of pension schemes and insurers as they struggle to produce enough income to fund their obligations, the group of rich nations said on Wednesday.

International creditors demanded politically sensitive changes to Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras’ tax and reform proposals on Wednesday, adding fresh uncertainty to talks aimed at unlocking aid to avert a debt default next week, the Irish Times reported. Mr Tsipras spent all afternoon in a meeting with the heads of the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and euro zone finance ministers, but officials said there was no breakthrough.

Businesses avoid paying $200 billion annually in taxes by channeling their overseas’ investments through offshore financial hubs, a United Nations agency said Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported. The estimate by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development is one of the first attempts by an international governmental organization to put a figure on tax avoidance by companies that record their profits in countries with low tax rates, regardless of where those profits are actually earned.

In its latest proposal to creditors, Greece calls for new corporate taxes and other revenue-raising measures. A deal would help unlock fresh aid for the strapped country, just days before it faces a crucial debt payment, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. Although the Greek proposal drew initial support from European officials, some of the details are prompting pushback. Creditors want further pension cuts and additional changes to the value-added tax system, including better collection efforts.