Headlines

Chinese authorities have ramped up their attempts to restore investor confidence in the country’s tumbling stock markets, setting the stage for another turbulent week of trading on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges, the Financial Times reported. The China Securities Regulatory Commission said in a brief statement late on Sunday night that the central bank would “uphold market stability” by providing liquidity to China Securities Finance, a state entity that makes margin financing available to brokers.

Nobody knows how the endless dispute will play out between Athens and the European leaders who hold its purse strings. But in Kiev, another European capital in the grip of debt talks, one thing is certain: The Ukrainian government does not want to end up like Greece, squabbling with creditors for years, the International New York Times reported. So, with support from the International Monetary Fund, the Ukrainians are pressing hard to force foreign investors — including Franklin Templeton, a giant bond fund — to accept big losses in an initial bailout deal.

Ireland should go back to the negotiating table for a “significant” debt writedown after the crisis in Greece is resolved, a former International Monetary Fund chief economist has said. Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard professor, says although the Irish economy was recovering, the country would be “far better off” today if the Government had not taken over so much banking debt, the Irish Times reported. The influential economist says Ireland should be among a number of countries “that should receive a significant debt writedown”.

Holders of senior debt from Singapore's banks will have reason to breathe easy if the Monetary Authority of Singapore implements proposals to limit its statutory bail-in framework to subordinated debt, Reuters reported. The proposal, part of a set of proposed enhancements to the bank resolution regime, will turn Singapore into one of the most investor-friendly nations for senior bank debt, as opposed to the approach favoured in Europe and elsewhere.

A Bulgarian court of appeals ruled on Friday that the initial date of insolvency for Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank) was June 20 last year, increasing the chances of the bank's receivers to recover more of its assets, Reuters reported. The central bank closed Corpbank's operations and took control over the Balkan country's fourth-largest lender on June 20, 2014 after a bank run triggered the biggest banking crisis in the country since the 1990s. A court declared Corpbank bankrupt in April, setting the date of its insolvency at Nov. 6, when the central bank revoked the bank's licence.

Greece’s prime minister accused Europe’s leaders of attempting to “blackmail” Greek voters, just hours after apparently holding out an olive branch to the country’s creditors by accepting most of the terms of the economic reform plan they had tabled last weekend. Eurozone officials said they were baffled by the mixed messages coming from Greece, which this week missed a €1.5bn payment to the International Monetary Fund and has been forced to impose capital controls to avert a financial meltdown.

The freezing of Greece’s banking system is the most dramatic moment of the country’s five-year debt crisis—and perhaps its most pivotal. Since Monday, Greeks can get only €60 a day at cash machines and can’t transfer money abroad, The Wall Street Journal reported. How long the remaining cash lasts and how unsettled Greeks become will be big factors in Sunday’s referendum on creditors’ demands for more austerity in exchange for more bailout funds. The tighter the squeeze, the more Greeks might vote “yes” to reconcile with creditors, analysts say.

The bankrupt $3.5 billion Baha Mar mega resort in the Bahamas secured up to $30 billion in interim financing on Wednesday, but it was unclear when construction on the stalled project would resume, Reuters reported. The resort, bankrolled and built by the Chinese and described on its website as "the world's glamourous, new playground, is eight to 12 weeks from completion once construction resumes, a lawyer for the resort told a bankruptcy judge. U.S.

In his 50 years at the state farm here, Volodymyr Polutskiy says his work has dwindled from producing silk for Red Army parachutes to eking out a living chopping wood and growing wheat, The Wall Street Journal reported. Now, Ukraine’s government is trying to sell this farm and hundreds of other state-owned enterprises, hoping that private investment and management will revive the mostly unprofitable businesses and bring funds to its recession-hit budget.

Insolvent Laricina Energy Ltd. plans to close its Saleski pilot oilsands project by fall to save money, according to a report filed online by its court-appointed monitor, PricewaterhouseCoopers, The Calgary Herald reported. The report says Laricina has successfully shut down its 100-per-cent-owned Germain commercial demonstration project — as it announced it would in February — and is negotiating with 40 per cent partner Osum Oil Sands Corp. to close Saleski after the gathering of production data is complete in August or, at the latest, in September.