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Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi & Brothers Co. invited creditors including BNP Paribas SA (BNP) and Standard Chartered Plc to discuss claims on $5.9 billion of debt as it seeks to recover from the Middle East’s biggest default, Bloomberg News reported. The Saudi Arabian company, with interests ranging from construction to finance, will “outline proposals aimed at achieving a comprehensive settlement” with more than 70 creditors at a May 7 meeting in Dubai, according to a copy of an invitation sent to banks yesterday and seen by Bloomberg News.

The world’s largest banks still receive implicit public subsidies worth as much as $590bn because of their status as “too big to fail” and the assumption of a government bailout if they get into trouble, the International Monetary Fund warned on Monday, the Financial Times reported. The warning, to be included in the fund’s twice-yearly Global Financial Stability Report, highlights the failure of post-financial crisis reforms to solve the problem of too-big-to-fail despite a vigorous lobbying campaign by the largest banks claiming it is no longer an issue.

China’s biggest banks more than doubled the level of bad loans they wrote off last year, in a sign that financial strains are mounting as growth in the world’s second-largest economy slows, the Financial Times reported. The five biggest Chinese banks, which account for more than half of all loans in the country, removed Rmb59bn ($9.5bn) from their books in debts that could not be collected, according to their 2013 results. That was up 127 per cent from 2012, and the highest since the banks were rescued from insolvency, recapitalised and publicly listed over the past decade.

Rusal, the world's largest aluminium producer, could default on some of its multi-billion dollar debt if it fails to reach a new deal with creditors this week, it said after reporting its biggest annual loss since 2008, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. The company's earnings have been hammered by low aluminium prices, which in 2013 fell back to levels last seen in the aftermath of the financial crisis.

Two years before Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy, a half dozen employees at the Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange challenged CEO Mark Karpeles over whether client money was being used to cover costs, according to three people who participated in the discussion, Reuters reported. The question of how Mt. Gox handled other people's money - the issue raised by staff in the showdown with Karpeles in early 2012 - remains crucial to unraveling a multi-million dollar mystery under examination by authorities in Japan.

Italy's banks will not require any state funds as a result of the European Central Bank's stress tests this year on euro zone banks, the head of Italy's banking association ABI has told a German newspaper, Reuters reported. The ECB is putting the euro zone's 128 largest banks through a painstaking review of their loan books before becoming their supervisor in November, in a bid to force them to come clean on hidden losses and restore investors' trust in the sector.

Greece’s parliament has approved a structural reform package agreed with international lenders, opening the way for disbursement next month of a €8.3bn aid tranche from its €172bn second bailout by the EU and the International Monetary Fund, the Financial Times reported. Lawmakers backed the reform package by 152 votes for to 135 against with one abstention following a 14-hour session of highly-charged debate.

Argentina has been approached by financial institutions offering it loans at favorable rates, the economy ministry said on Sunday, marking a tentative reopening of international credit markets for the first time in over a decade, Reuters reported. The economy ministry issued a statement on Sunday, saying it had received offers of credit from abroad. It did not name the institutions. "In recent weeks ...

The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, known as BaFin, has long been criticized as lax on banks and cowed by politicians. But recently, BaFin has started making bankers squirm, The Wall Street Journal reported. The regulator has publicly browbeaten Deutsche Bank, saying it has failed to change an internal culture stressing profits over ethics. It has pressed Deutsche Bank to fire traders for misbehavior, vetoed the promotion of a senior executive, and has forced the bank to change its accounting for a big transaction, according to people familiar with the matter.

Sweden’s bank regulator said there’s no fixed rule on how to deal with capital shortfalls should they be found in euro-area subsidiaries of its lenders by the European Central Bank’s Asset Quality Review, Bloomberg News reported. “We would expect that the findings from the investigation would be shared continuously and then of course we would jointly decide what’s the most appropriate action,” Uldis Cerps, executive director of the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, said in an interview.