Headlines

Vince Cable has issued a stark warning to Britain's leading boardrooms that they need to crack down on bonuses to restore public trust and avert the threat of fresh legislation to limit executive pay, The Guardian reported. The business secretary fired off a warning to the 100 biggest UK-listed companies about the damage big pay deals can have on their image, before Barclays' annual meeting on Thursday, where protests about the bank's £2.4bn bonus pot are expected to be registered by disgruntled shareholders.

Cuba and the Paris Club of wealthy creditor nations are working to resume talks over billions of dollars of official debt in a new sign the communist government is interested in rejoining the global economy, Reuters reported. A Paris Club delegation quietly travelled to Havana late last year to meet with Cuban bank officials, who were prepared with various proposals and appeared eager to strike a deal, according to Western diplomats.

China’s bad-loan ratio rose “significantly” in the first quarter, increasing risks for the nation’s banking industry, according to the nation’s largest manager of soured debt, Bloomberg News reported. The business environment this year has been “grim and complicated” as lenders face pressures on asset quality, liquidity and lending margins, China Huarong Asset Management Co. Chairman Lai Xiaomin said during an internal meeting on April 15, according to a statement today on the website of the Beijing-based company.

Unemployment remains a key factor behind insolvency in Hungary. In about 3 out of 4 cases, low or nonexistent income is the reason why people in Hungary run up debt, debt collector company Intrum Justitia noted in a survey on insolvency, Portfolio.hu reported. While umeployment still rates high among the triggers that eventually lead to bad debt, the figure is now lower than in the 2013 survey, Intrum Justitia found.

Creditors – including HM Revenue & Customs – could lose more than £150m a year if the government applies the Jackson reforms to insolvency cases, a new report claims. Research commissioned by R3, a trade body for insolvency professionals, found litigation currently brings in £300m a year from insolvent businesses. Of this, up to £70m relates to money owed to HMRC, with the rest owed to businesses, The Law Society Gazette reported.

American investment firms have found numerous opportunities to capitalize on the turmoil in Europe’s banking sector by buying distressed assets. But one major private equity firm, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, is taking a novel approach, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported.

The German government’s plan to lower the retirement age has come under fire for the message it sends to cash-strapped peripheral eurozone states, the Financial Times reported. Speaking to national paper Die Welt, Günther Oettinger, German EU commissioner, said that Germany’s plans to allow longer-serving employees to retire at the age of 63 sent the “wrong signal” at a time when countries like Greece, Spain and Portugal are struggling to introduce tough labour market reforms. “We expect Greeks to work longer for less pay,” said Mr Oettinger.

After a year in office, Nicolás Maduro has made little headway in correcting the economic distortions bequeathed by his Comandante. Since Hugo Chávez died in March last year, Venezuelans have suffered rapidly deteriorating economic conditions, from a yawning budget deficit to galloping inflation and widespread shortages of goods, from milk to toilet paper, the Financial Times reported. But the people have pushed back.

Russian companies, facing $115 billion of debt due over the next 12 months, will have the funds even as bond markets shut because of the Ukraine crisis, according to Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings. Firms will have about $100 billion in cash and earnings at their disposal during the next 18 months, Moody’s said in an analysis of 47 businesses April 11. Almost all 55 companies examined by Fitch are “well placed” to withstand a closed refinancing market for the rest of 2014, it said in a note on April 16.

Mexican homebuilder Geo said on Monday that it entered bankruptcy protection after a judge accepted its filing for restructuring, Reuters reported. The company, which said last month that it gained the support of the majority of its creditors in a so-called pre-packaged bankruptcy plan, will seek to replace most of its about $1 billion in debt with stock. Read more.