Headlines

European banks are as vulnerable to failing today as they were in the run-up to the 2008 global economic crash and subsequent recession, according to new research, the Irish Times reported. In the first study to compare sources of systemic risk in European banks, economists found banks in southern countries, including France, Spain and Italy, are highly vulnerable to failure. Banks in northern countries appear to be more resilient.

EnBW has been named preferred bidder for insolvent wind farm operator Prokon, Germany's third-biggest power utility said on Tuesday. EnBW has made a binding offer to acquire all assets of Prokon for a "mid-level three-digit million-euro" amount, the company said. The all-cash offer would value Prokon, which filed for insolvency in January last year, at more than 500 million euros ($561.6 million), one person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday. A creditor panel at Prokon will probably take a final decision on EnBW's bid in early July, the utility said.

Greece’s finance ministry ordered a €750m payment to the International Monetary Fund, ending days of uncertainty over whether Athens would use the instalment as a bargaining chip in ongoing talks with its creditors, the Financial Times reported. Ministry officials said they had sent a payment order to the government’s national accounts office to ensure it would arrive in the IMF’s coffers by Tuesday, when the loan repayment falls due. “The order to pay has been made,” said one finance ministry official.

A referendum on its international bailout program may be a good idea for Greece, Germany’s finance minister said Monday, underlining doubts among Greece’s creditors about the government’s ability to agree on divisive overhauls without endorsement by voters, The Wall Street Journal reported. Calling a referendum on the bailout—something that eurozone politicians have until now been loath to discuss—would be a risky move for both the government in Athens and the rest of the eurozone, adding further unpredictability to a tense situation.

Bulgarian prosecutors have launched an investigation into two central bank officials suspected of deliberate mismanagement as they took over the running of insolvent lender Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank) in November, Reuters reported. The investigation is the latest in a string that opened in the aftermath of Corpbank's collapse last June, which also include probes into the activities of top central bank officials, the bank's main shareholder and its auditors. Corpbank was felled by a run on deposits in circumstances that have never been fully explained.

Having delivered an interest-rate cut to help big state-owned companies and local governments cope with debilitating debt, China’s central bank is grappling with another thorny task: how to steer credit to the private businesses Beijing deems crucial to growth, The Wall Street Journal reported. The quarter-percentage-point reduction in benchmark lending and deposit rates on Sunday was primarily aimed at addressing debt-repayment problems that are increasingly weighing on the Chinese economy.

The Australian government announced a world-leading crackdown on Monday on alleged tax avoidance by 30 multinational companies that will likely force them to restructure their businesses before next year, the Irish Times reported. “These companies are diverting profits earned in Australia away from Australia to no-tax or low-tax jurisdictions,” treasurer Joe Hockey told reporters in Canberra. He declined to identify the targets, but said “it’s pretty evident which companies are involved”.

Most of the €7.4m proceeds of sale of businessman Sir Anthony O’Reilly’s home in Co Kildare have gone towards paying off his €22.6m debt to AIB, the Commercial Court has heard, the Irish Times reported. The bank now wants to ask him in court about other means he has of paying off the remainder. The bulk of the proceeds of the sale of Castlemartin has gone towards reducing the businessman’s personal debt to AIB to around €14.3 million, the court heard.

The state government of Western Australia has broken widely held conventions with the introduction of legislation to seize and distribute A$1.7bn (US$1.3bn) owed to the remaining creditors of the Bell Group of companies, Reuters reported. A government authority has been appointed to prevent further litigation over the liquidation of Bell Group in 1991, a legal case that has dragged on for two decades.

Greek leaders have fought fiercely in recent months with politicians from other European countries over relief on Greece’s vast debt load, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. Yet the power to decide the fate of Greece lies not just in the hands of these national governments, but also with unelected officials at two powerful institutions: the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Each is a creditor to Greece, and each is expecting the country to repay it billions of dollars of debt in the coming weeks. The influence of the E.C.B.