Headlines

An upstart leftist party gathered tens of thousands of followers Saturday for one of Spain’s largest antiausterity rallies in years, throwing down a populist challenge to a government already facing a secessionist movement in wealthy Catalonia, The Wall Street Journal reported. The marchers wound through central Madrid to the Puerta del Sol plaza in support of Podemos, a year-old party that aims to replicate the recent electoral victory of kindred leftists in Greece. They filled the plaza, which can hold an estimated 45,000 people, and spilled into adjacent streets.

The Department of Finance has informed the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee that Irish banks will not now pay into a domestic special resolution fund set up in 2011 to provide bailouts to credit institutions that run into financial difficulties, the Irish Times reported. Only credit unions will contribute to the fund, which was started with a €250 million payment from the State in December 2011, according to correspondence posted on the PAC’s website.

Embattled Chinese property developer Kaisa Group, which sold some of its Shanghai assets at the weekend, said on Monday its chief executive officer has resigned, Reuters reported. The company said in a stock exchange notice that Jin Zhigang had quit "to devote more time to his personal career development" and would continue as executive director. It added that there had been no disagreement with the board.

A court in Brazil's São Paulo state seized on Friday 8.9 percent of the shares that construction group OAS SA has in infrastructure company Investimentos e Participações em Infraestrutura SA, alleging that the debt-ridden group is in imminent risk of insolvency. Judge Roberto Corcioli Filho of the state of São Paulo Justice Court told Reuters that he ordered the seizure at the behest of Pentágono SA DTVM, which as a trustee represents the interests of holders of 160 million reais ($60 million) in OAS local debt notes.

Greek bank stocks rebounded as the government moved to contain the fallout from pledges made by its ministers, seeking to downplay the prospect of an imminent clash with creditors. Within 48 hours of the appointment of an anti-bailout cabinet under prime minister Alex Tsipras, stocks in Athens fell to lows not seen since the peak of the debt crisis, with banks, in which Greek taxpayers are the biggest shareholders, losing about $11 billion of their value, the Irish Times reported.

Venezuelans have put up with shortages and long lines for years. But as the price of oil, the country’s main export, has plunged, the situation has grown so dire that the government has sent troops to patrol huge lines snaking for blocks. Some states have barred people from waiting outside stores overnight, and government officials are posted near entrances, ready to arrest shoppers who cheat the rationing system, the International New York Times reported.

Reforms to break up Europe’s big banks are on course to be weakened by pressure from France and Britain for maximum national leeway, the Financial Times reported. The European Commission has faced a wall of opposition from some EU member states and the banking industry since it made proposals last year to force some banks to hive off risky trading activities. Resistance is coalescing around options to defang the regulation.

Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko spooked bond markets on Thursday by speaking of a possible restructuring of $4 billion of Belarussian foreign debt falling due this year, then softened his comments to refer only to refinancing, Reuters reported. During a marathon news conference the veteran Belarussian leader made the bombshell comment that Belarus might hold talks to restructure its debts if it was struggling to repay them. That triggered a fall of 27 cents to the dollar in the value of Belarussian sovereign bonds.

Bonds of troubled China property developer Kaisa Group jumped by as much as four points after rival Sunac China Holdings, which has been named in media reports as a potential buyer of its assets, announced a trading suspension, Reuters reported. Kaisa is struggling after a string of senior executives left unexpectedly, authorities blocked sales at some of its projects in Shenzhen late last year and it missed a coupon payment on one of its bonds. Since these troubles began last month, Kaisa's bonds have lost as much as two-thirds of their value.

Former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm has asked a US court for more time to outline his reasons why it should overturn a bankruptcy judge’s ruling blocking a write-off of his debts, the Irish Times reported. Mr Drumm lodged papers in the US District Court in Massachusetts saying that a February 9th deadline was too soon to file an opening brief outlining why he is seeking to overturn the ruling by bankruptcy judge Frank Bailey denying him a discharge.