Headlines

Bulgaria's fourth-largest private bank, under a cloud of accusations it engaged in dodgy lending, halted payments on Friday after a run on its funds and sought insolvency protection, MenaFN.com reported on an Agence France-Presse story. Doubts about the soundness of Corporate Commercial Bank (CCB), majority-owned by a controversial businessman, were sparked this week after police raided its headquarters and questioned of 12 top managers.

Tragus, the owner of Café Rouge and Bella Italia has secured the backing of landlords to go ahead with a controversial restructuring that will slash its rental bill and put the company on more stable financial footing, The Telegraph reported. Between 80pc and 90pc of landlords and creditors supported the company voluntary arrangement (CVA) plans at a meeting yesterday on Friday.

Dutch banks have embarked on a public-relations offensive in an attempt to ease regulators' concerns about the risks of their large mortgage portfolios, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Dutch Banking Association, or NVB, on Thursday published a report in which it outlined that the risks aren't as high as feared. The offensive is aimed at the European Central Bank, which is expected to scrutinize the banks' home loans as part of a Europe-wide bank review and stress test that will be concluded in October.

The euro zone permanent bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), may issue bonds denominated in other currencies than the euro next year to attract new investors, the ESM's Managing Director Klaus Regling said on Thursday, Reuters reported. The 500 billion euro fund was created during the euro zone sovereign debt crisis as a backstop for governments cut off from markets. It can lend to distressed sovereigns in exchange for a programme of strict reforms. "We are looking at a possibility of raising funds in other markets in other currencies.

Ukraine's government held informal talks with private bondholders about the possibility of extending the maturities of its debt to help buy the country breathing room to repair its economy, a top banking industry group said Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported. Lubomir Mitov, a senior economist with the Institute of International Finance, said the discussions were an exploration to determine what type of bond restructuring might be possible if Ukraine's economic crisis worsened. "No decision has been taken, there are no numbers or framework," he said.

Eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem has played down the possibility that Ireland may be granted debt relief for Bank of Ireland and AIB by the European Stability Mechanism fund, pointing out that its €60 billion cap could limit its capacity for retrospective deployment, the Irish Times reported. “Technically speaking it would be possible. Politically it would be difficult,” Mr Dijsselbloem said following an agm of the ESM’s board of governors in Luxembourg.

Europe’s centre-left leaders, led by Italy’s Matteo Renzi, are pushing for a loosening of the EU’s tough budget rules as the price for their support of Jean-Claude Juncker to be the next European Commission president, a drive that risks reopening the debate over eurozone austerity ahead of a summit next week, the Financial Times reported. The move threatens to become particularly contentious in Germany, where the government’s deputy chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel, leader of the junior coalition partner Social Democrats, unexpectedly backed Mr Renzi’s drive this week.

The International Monetary Fund on Thursday said that if inflation continued to drag, the euro zone’s central bank could do more to invigorate the economy by buying government bonds and other financial assets, the International New York Times reported. Such a program would in effect emulate the Federal Reserve’s stimulus efforts. The I.M.F., in its annual report on the euro-currency union, also criticized its rules for managing national budgets as complicated and poorly enforced — even as some member nations continue to call for greater leeway.

The German economy may be thriving, but Germans aren't letting go of their financial angst. Their latest gripe: rising house prices, The Wall Street Journal reported. A healthy property market would be good news in many countries. But in Germany, where even the affluent often prefer to rent rather than buy their homes, property price increases of up to 10% a year in some cities are causing nationwide anguish as they feed into higher rents. "Lynch yuppies," reads graffiti on Berlin's fashionable Sophienstrasse, across from a scaffold-covered apartment building undergoing renovation.

Argentina has made a key concession in its long-running dispute with a group of so-called holdout creditors after agreeing to a meeting in New York next week to discuss debt repayments that could help the nation avert a looming default., the Financial Times reported. The holdouts, consistently described as “vultures” by government officials, are made up largely of a group of hedge funds that did not participate in the country’s two previous debt restructurings.