Headlines

China cut interest rates for the third time in six months amid a worse-than-expected economic slowdown, as authorities scramble to ease the heavy debt burdens of companies and governments. The People’s Bank of China said Sunday it would shave a quarter of a percentage point off benchmark lending and deposit rates, effective Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported. The move comes as senior Chinese officials are growing more fearful that the mountain of debt from the rapid expansion of credit over the past few years is weighing on efforts to pick up the world’s second-largest economy.

Anbang Insurance Group of China is in talks to buy the large real-estate arm of the failed German lender Hypo Real Estate AG, in a potential billion-euro deal that would expand a global shopping spree by the Beijing-based firm, according to people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported. State-owned bank Hypo Real Estate, based in Munich, has said it is working to sell its real-estate lending division, Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG, known as PBB, through either an initial public offering or an outright sale.

Australia’s struggling conservative government faces a high-stakes test this week as it prepares to unveil its second budget, The Wall Street Journal reported. Announcing too much austerity on May 12—as the government did last year—could turn off voters ahead of an election that must be called next year. Too little would make a mockery of Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s pledge two years ago, before the last election, to end quickly a string of deficits under the previous Labor government.

The family of businessman Sean Quinn say they are “innocent parties” to €2.34 billion loan transactions involving Quinn group companies and therefore should be allowed amend their claim for their pending action denying liability for those loans, the Irish Times reported. The family want to amend their claim in light of a recent Supreme Court decision on a key preliminuary issue in their case.

There have been so many “make-or-break” moments for Athens since Greece’s debt crisis first shook markets five years ago,that it is difficult to know when things might really break, the Financial Times reported. But this much is clear: unless Greece and its international creditors agree a deal soon to close out the country’s €172bn bailout, and then quickly agree another rescue, Athens is likely to run out of money and default on its debts. That would push it perilously close to crashing out of the eurozone.

Hungary's government is open to discussions of a new law on personal bankruptcy if the junior governing Christian Democrats propose it to Parliament, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Chief of Staff Janos Lazar told a press conference on Thursday, Reuters reported. Lazar added the new legislation, if passed, could affect 100,000-150,000 private borrowers who have run into trouble in the central European country.

U.S. Steel was able to extend its creditor protection deadline to the fall, although previous court filings suggest the restructuring will go beyond the new September deadline, CBC.ca reported. This is the third extension of U.S. Steel Canada's (USSC) bankruptcy protection for its operations north of the border in Hamilton and Nanticoke. The uncontested extension was signed by Superior Court Justice Herman Wilton-Siegel Thursday.

Anbang Insurance Group of China is in talks to buy the large real-estate arm of the failed German lender Hypo Real Estate AG, in a potential billion-euro deal that would expand a global shopping spree by the Beijing-based firm, according to people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported. State-owned bank Hypo Real Estate, based in Munich, has said it is working to sell its real-estate lending division, Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG, known as PBB, through either an initial public offering or an outright sale.

NZF Group, the former financial services company, has entered voluntary administration after its second reverse listing proposal fell through, Scoop.co.nz reported. Last month the Auckland-based finance company said it would look to find a way to return funds to its noteholders "in a timely and cost effective manner" after plans for its listed shell to be used by Inventory Technologies in a reverse listing fell through. NZF is now appointing administrators to "expedite a timely distribution of funds to the holders of NZF capital notes," it said in a statement.

New laws later this year are set to stop banks from being able to stop mortgage holders from entering an insolvency arrangement, the Irish Examiner reported. The Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, has given the clearest hint yet that a new authority will be set up to remove the veto from banks. The move follows complaints from opposition TDs that banks have been using their veto to stop mortgage customers from entering an insolvency process to escape some of their debts. Noonan told the Dáil that the Government now accepts the system needs reform, and that it will be changed soon.