Headlines

In a related story, the International New York Times reported that, as it confronts its creditors over its huge debts and how best to recover from a still-crippling downturn, Greece’s left-wing government faces few problems that are more substantively and politically daunting than how to meet pension promises to retirees. In the latest round of negotiations, Greece’s creditors are demanding that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras make further cuts in pensions as a condition of continued assistance in helping Greece pay its enormous debts. Mr.

Proposed new obligations on multinationals to produce country-by-country reports on their financial affairs will have a “massive impact” on them, a leading member of the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation has said, the Irish Times reported. Pascal Saint-Amans, director of the Center for Tax Policy and Administration at the OECD, was reacting to what he said were “angry responses” to the organisation’s latest proposals on the topic.

After Iceland imposed capital controls during the global financial crisis, the move helped stabilize the country’s banking system, putting the economy on a path to recovery, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. As Iceland now unwinds those controls nearly seven years later, the government is trying to prevent a mass exodus of money and keep the country from backsliding. It is a pivotal moment for a country that came to symbolize the financial crisis, after its three main banks imploded in 2008.

South America’s largest economy faces a difficult balancing act to avoid a potentially disastrous spiral of economic contraction as it seeks to control inflation, the Financial Times reported. Brazil’s planning minister Nelson Barbosa warned that he expected only a very gradual recovery from this year’s recession, in contrast with previous downturns during the past decade when the country immediately bounced back with rapid growth.

No one can be sure how the Greek drama will end, not least because it is no longer clear who, if anyone, is in control, The Wall Street Journal reported. Both sides have been bombarded for months by well-meaning advice to show flexibility and compromise to avoid an economic calamity in Greece and a geopolitical disaster for the eurozone and the world. Instead, positions have hardened to the point where the scope for compromise now looks vanishingly small.

Portugal’s antitrust regulator has accused 15 banks of unfair competition practices over an 11-year period in which they allegedly shared information about loan products, the Irish Times reported on a Reuters story. The country’s competition authority said it had notified the banks, which it did not name, about accusations regarding the exchange of sensitive commercial information on loans, including about intended changes in spreads. Under Portugal’s competition law, companies found guilty of cartel practices can face fines of up to 10 per cent of their business volume.

Bulgaria's Deposit Insurance Fund has chosen forensic advisory firm AlixPartners to help trace and recover the assets of insolvent Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank), it said on Friday, Reuters reported. The collapse of Corpbank after a run on deposits last June triggered the biggest banking crisis in the Balkan country since the 1990s. A Bulgarian court declared the bank insolvent and opened bankruptcy proceedings after an international audit showed major failings in the way the country's fourth largest lender was run that prompted a writedown of two-thirds of its assets.

Oil company Rompetrol SA registered on May 28, at Bucharest Court, a request for insolvency. The company’s request is to be evaluated by judges from Bucharest Court on June 8, reports Mediafax, Business Review reported. According to the courts, the request for insolvency was submitted on the basis of Article 66, Law 85/2014 on insolvency prevention procedures and insolvency.

The headline currency story of this year is about the negotiations between Greece and the “institutions” over whether its currency remains internationally usable . Much less noticed are the negotiations between China, which is about a hundred times larger than Greece, and the legacy financial powers over the degree to which the renminbi becomes more internationally usable. While renminbi internationalisation is a process, not an event, an announcement is being orchestrated for September.

British bookmaker Betfred is understood to have expressed interest in bidding for Ladbrokes’ troubled Irish business, the Irish Times reported. Ladbrokes Ireland plans to close 60 of its 196 betting shops and cut 250 of its 850 jobs under a rescue plan being prepared by High Court-appointed examiner Ken Fennell of Deloitte. Irish competitor Boylesports has launched a competing bid for the chain that will see it invest an eight-figure sum in the business, and which it says will result in fewer closures and job losses.