Headlines

Policy makers in Italy, Portugal and Spain say their economies and financial systems are strong enough to survive a Greek departure from the eurozone, but they acknowledge that Grexit might set a precedent replete with risks for Europe’s 60-year-old integration project. Government officials and independent analysts in Lisbon, Madrid and Rome say a chaotic Greek abandonment of the euro, bringing widespread economic distress and social upheaval in its wake, would serve as a cautionary shock and probably weaken anti-euro political forces in countries exposed to possible contagion from Greece.

Nervous investors drove safe-haven German Bund yields close to record lows on Wednesday, amid concern over Greece’s ability to resolve its debt crisis, a day before it must repay a loan to the International Monetary Fund, the Irish Times reported. Although cash-strapped Greece successfully sold €1.138 billionof six-month Treasury bills on Wednesday, doubts remain over its ability to find enough funds to repay all its debts in the coming weeks. Athens must roll over another €1 billion on April 15th.

The Bank of Japan stuck with its monetary stimulus program on Wednesday, brushing off a lack of inflation two years after it vowed to pull the economy out of more than a decade of falling prices, the International New York Times reported. As its initial deadline for stoking inflation passed, the central bank maintained that consumer prices were temporarily depressed by cheaper oil, and would gradually rise as consumers and businesses spent more and the economy recovered further.

Ireland could offer itself as a home to some of Britain’s wealthiest residents if a Labour government was elected in the UK and followed through on threats to abolish a rule which allows some people to mitigate their UK tax liability, the Irish Times reported. Labour leader Ed Miliband has declared that, if elected in the forthcoming election, he would end the regime which allows those who are resident, but not domiciled in the UK, to avoid paying tax on their worldwide income.

Italy’s financial police have released sobering statistics about fraud and corruption in Italy’s public sector: Of the €4.6 billion ($5 billion) worth of public contracts checked last year, they found €1.5 billion in fraud and €2.6 billion wasted, The Wall Street Journal reported on an Associated Press story. The financial police released their annual report for 2014 on Wednesday, saying they had made police reports against 3,700 people for crimes against public administration.

Rizzo Bottiglieri de Carlini Armatori SpA, a marine freight transportation services provider, moved to shield its U.S. assets by filing a bankruptcy petition in Texas after seeking protection from creditors in Italy, Bloomberg News reported. The company filed under Chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, which would prevent creditors from taking action against the company’s U.S.-based assets while it reorganizes under Italian law. The company listed assets and debt of more than $500 million each in court documents filed Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston.

A onetime restaurant chain that became the first Chinese company to default on the principal on its local debt could be a test of Beijing’s willingness to give market forces a greater role in the economy, The Wall Street Journal reported. In a statement on the Shenzhen stock exchange website on Tuesday, Cloud Live Technology Group Co. said it was short 240.6 million yuan ($39.2 million) needed to pay back 400 million yuan in debt it sold three years ago.

A strange thing is happening as Greece struggles to avert bankruptcy: Its troubled banks are loading up on more debt. These short-term bonds, which have been issued by the country’s largest banks and carry the guarantee of the Greek government, are not being sold to foreign investors. They are being issued to the only entity that would dare buy them: themselves. In the last four months, some of Greece’s largest banks, including Piraeus, Alpha and Eurobank — have self-issued more than 13 billion euros’ worth, or $14.3 billion, of these government-guaranteed bonds.

The UK’s five largest banks cut bonus pools by more than £1 billion last year and most also reduced pay and staff numbers, according to Financial Times analysis, potentially blunting political attacks on banker excess ahead of the general election. The sweeping changes to remuneration are revealed in figures based on the annual financial statements of Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered.

Prosecutors are investigating allegations that Brazilian tax authorities solicited bribes from major companies in exchange for reducing their liabilities in corporate tax disputes, officials say, The Wall Street Journal reported. On Tuesday, the Finance Ministry said the alleged scheme wasn’t systematic but rather, involved “isolated acts” carried out by a small group of government tax officials. When prosecutors announced the investigation on March 26 they said that losses to the nation’s treasury totaled $6.1 billion over 15 years.