Headlines

European Union officials on Wednesday proposed new rules to try to discourage tax-avoidance deals with multinational corporations, which critics say give some countries unfair business advantages, the International New York Times reported. Some of the bloc’s smaller countries, like Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, have offered the deals to attract the likes of Apple, Starbucks and Amazon. The companies, in turn, have saved huge sums on their corporate tax bills. But European Union authorities have been trying to curb that practice.

Chinese banks have extended $16 billion in credit lines to shore up one of the country’s largest and most heavily indebted home builders, as pressure mounts on developers short of cash in a slumping property market, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. The move by a group of mainly state-run banks to bolster the builder, Evergrande Real Estate Group, which is controlled by the colorful billionaire Hui Ka Yan, is the latest sign of tumult in China’s sprawling housing sector.

A Spanish court on Tuesday said it was suspending insolvency proceedings at Banco Madrid while it waited for guidance from the country's bank restructuring fund FROB on whether it wanted to wind down or restructure the lender, Reuters reported. FROB is the state vehicle which bailed out several banks during a financial crisis two years ago. The court said in a written ruling that FROB had 14 days to clarify its plans and whether it would rescue the bank.

The nasty battle between Argentina and a group of New York hedge funds has claimed another victim: Citigroup. The bank said on Tuesday that it would shut its custody business in Argentina after a federal judge in New York last week rejected its request to lift an order that prevented the bank from making interest payments to investors holding $2.3 billion in Argentine notes, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported.

The five bills that make up the insolvency framework will not be heading to the plenum on Thursday as more time is needed to process them but an effort will be made to get them there before Easter, lawmakers said on Tuesday, Cyprus Mail reported. The decision was taken unanimously by the House Finance and Interior Committees. “At least as far as DIKO is concerned, an effort will be made to complete the examination of all the bills, all five, before Easter,” DIKO and House Finance Committee chairman Nicolas Papadopoulos said. The bills were now expected to reach the plenum on April 2.

Insurers, asset managers and clearing houses should be subjected to the rigours of annual stress testing just as banks are, a Bank of England official has said, the Financial Times reported. The UK already stress tests its banks by scrutinising their balance sheets to see if they can withstand a major economic blow, such as a plummet in house prices. But financial stability could be improved by extending their use to other sectors, Alex Brazier, the newest member of the BoE’s Financial Policy Committee, told a parliamentary select committee on Tuesday.

Former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm has made an emergency request to a US court seeking more time to file legal papers arguing why it should overturn a ruling blocking a write-off of his debts, the Irish Times reported. Mr Drumm asked for the deadline to submit his appeal brief, due this week, to the Massachusetts District Court to be put back to April 13th arguing that he should be given the time because he has hired a new lawyer. The former banker also wants permission from the court to increase the page limit for the brief to 40 pages, or 19,000 words.

Banco de Madrid, a small Spanish bank, filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday after a United States government report last week accused its parent company in Andorra of laundering money on behalf of organized crime groups in China and Russia, as well as for government officials in Venezuela, the International New York Times reported. The bankruptcy filing was aimed at stopping the flight of deposits from the bank after the accusations against its parent, Banca Privada d’Andorra, known as BPA.

Oleo e Gas Participações SA, a Brazilian oil company under bankruptcy protection, on Monday said it suspended payments for an oil-production vessel to bankrupt ship-leasing company OSX Brasil SA for six months, Reuters reported. Oleo e Gas, formerly known as OGX Petroleo e Gas Participações SA, said in a statement that it made the decision after being unable to come to an agreement on Friday over future payments to OSX for the OSX-3 floating production, storage and offloading ship (FPSO) in a hearing before a bankruptcy judge in Rio de Janeiro.

Athens has “annoyed” and “frustrated” its eurozone partners with combative negotiating tactics, said Belgium’s finance minister, who warned Greece that the single currency could safely ride out its exit, the Financial Times reported. Johan Van Overtveldt, an economist who took charge of the finance ministry in the eurozone’s sixth-largest economy in October, said the currency bloc had sufficient safeguards in place to endure a Greek departure, adding he believed other ministers shared this view.