Headlines

More than 23,000 defaulting mortgage holders are facing the prospect of legal action to repossess their homes and investment properties as banks step up efforts to confront the arrears backlog, the Irish Times reported. New figures from the Central Bank suggest that banks had proposed solutions for 93 per cent of arrears cases by the end of September, exceeding their year-end target to propose solutions in 85 per cent of cases. In almost half of those cases, however, the proposed solution involves loss of ownership.

Asia's financial regulators are dragging their feet on implementing measures to protect taxpayers from big bank failures, leaving governments on the hook for bail-outs and potentially forcing large global lenders to exit some markets, Reuters reported. After Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008, G20 countries along with Hong Kong, Singapore and Switzerland, pledged to introduce new rules by the end of 2015 that would allow large financial firms to be wound down without triggering a market meltdown.

Mario Draghi is about to get an idea of how far reality falls short of his intentions. A round of long-term loans by the European Central Bank to lenders this week won’t even cover the repayments they owe from a previous program, according to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts. The operation could show that stimulus measures the ECB president says are “intended” to add as much as 1 trillion euros ($1.23 trillion) to the financial system won’t suffice without large-scale buying of assets such as government bonds.

Iron ore miner Northland Resources SE has filed for bankruptcy with more than $650 million in debt following a failed attempt to refinance the business, the Oslo-listed company said in a statement on Monday. "The dramatic fall in iron ore prices this year made it impossible to raise the required financing, which was a prerequisite for continued operations," Northland board Chairman Olav Fjell said. In its third-quarter earnings report last month Northland said its total debts by the end of September stood at $657 million, while cash and cash equivalents were $10.5 million.

Eurozone finance ministers agreed to extend Greece’s bailout by two months Monday, giving Athens and the its international creditors extra time to decide on new budget cuts and pushing a decision on further support beyond presidential elections, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Perm-based Avialeasing investment company has lodged a bankruptcy petition against Russia’s leading regional carrier, UTair, which has failed to pay 3.5 million rubles ($67,000) for leasing Tu-154-M planes, the press service of the arbitration court said on Monday, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported. The airline’s current debt exceeds 3.5 million rubles, the court in Russia’s Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Region said citing Avialeasing. “That’s why Avialeasing has asked the court to declare UTair bankrupt.” The court is expected to announce the decision within five days, the press service said.

The Bank of England is willing to put aside its own forward guidance to determine how well the country’s eight largest lenders would fare in a crisis, Bloomberg News reported. Governor Mark Carney has said rate increases from the current record-low 0.5 percent are likely to be gradual and the peak in rates lower than in previous cycles. Yet in its stress test of the U.K.’s eight largest banks, the BOE assumes an increase to 4 percent by the end of 2015.

Greek lawmakers passed the country’s 2015 budget Sunday amid a deadlock with international creditors who haven't signed off on the financial plan and ongoing political uncertainty, The Wall Street Journal reported. The vote comes ahead of Monday’s meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels where they will gather to discuss what will happen when Greece’s 240 billion euro bailout program runs out at the end of the year. After a five day debate in Greece’s 300 seat parliament, 155 lawmakers voted in favor of the budget with 134 opposing it, while 11 lawmakers abstained.

Australia’s major banks should set aside more capital to ensure they can survive a repeat of the global financial crisis, a government-backed review recommended on Sunday, the International New York Times reported. Bank executives have been bracing for the Financial System Inquiry report for months, arguing that higher levels of capital are unnecessary and would come at a cost to the economy.

Japan’s recession was deeper than initially estimated as company investment unexpectedly shrank, a blow to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as he campaigns for re-election on his economic credentials, Bloomberg News reported. The economy shrank an annualized 1.9 percent in the July-to- September period from the previous quarter, weaker than the 1.6 percent contraction reported in preliminary data. The result was also below every forecast in a Bloomberg News survey that showed a median 0.5 percent decrease.