Headlines

British prosecutors filed criminal charges against three former bank traders for alleged fraud, opening a new front in a global investigation into alleged rigging of benchmark interest rates, with more charges in the pipeline, The Wall Street Journal reported. The U.K.'s Serious Fraud Office said Monday that it charged three former Barclays PLC traders with conspiracy to defraud for their alleged roles rigging the London interbank offered rate, or Libor.

OSX Brasil SA, the bankrupt shipbuilding company controlled by former billionaire Eike Batista, is in talks with Cerberus Capital Management LP and a number of unnamed investors for a potential debtor-in-possession financing deal, Reuters reported. Currently no agreement has been struck between OSX and potential sources of the loan, commonly known as DIP financing, the Rio de Janeiro-based company said in a securities filing on Monday. OSX's focus at this point is what to do with three floating production storage and offloading vessels it owns, according to the filing.

A former director of Irish Nationwide Building Society has told the Minister for Finance it is “preposterous” that the two special liquidators of State-owned IBRC, both partners in accountancy firm KPMG, are suing him but not their own firm for alleged negligence. KPMG has been the society’s auditors for some 20 years, the Irish Times reported. KPMG accountants Kieran Wallace and Eamonn Richardson, who are suing the Minister over billions of euros of losses at the society, “have clearly decided to relieve their own firm of any responsibility”.

When Antonis Kantas, a deputy in the Defense Ministry here, spoke up against the purchase of expensive German-made tanks in 2001, a representative of the tank’s manufacturer stopped by his office to leave a satchel on his sofa. It contained 600,000 euros, about $814,000. Other arms manufacturers eager to make deals came by, too, some guiding him through the ins and outs of international banking and then paying him off with deposits to his overseas accounts. At the time, Mr. Kantas, a wiry former military officer, did not actually have the authority to decide much of anything on his own.

Romanian insolvency administrator Casa de Insolventa Transilvania (CITR) recorded a turnover of EUR 7.6 million in 2013, up 16 percent compared to the previous year, and has distributed over EUR 62 million to the creditors, reads a statement of the company, Romania-Insider.com reported. Last year, CITR added 109 new procedures to its portfolio and 49 procedures were concluded. In early-2014, CITR’s portfolio includes some 370 procedures, according to the company.

Nearly three-quarters of mortgages in long-term arrears have not yet been restructured, according to new figures from the Department of Finance, the Irish Times reported. The data shows 59,226 or 74 per cent of mortgages in arrears of 90 days or more have not yet been restructured. The figures are based on data from the country’s six main banks - AIB, Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB, ACC, KBC Ireland and Ulster Bank.

British public bodies such as the environment agency, the armed forces, police and government departments would have to shed almost half their staff if the government went ahead with planned spending cuts that leave education and health care largely unscathed, a respected think tank said Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Investors have been warned by Fitch that losses from the next leveraged finance default cycle may be significantly in excess of previous cycles, the Financial Times reported. The agency said this reflected weakening new-issue rating mix in bond and loan markets as leverage levels rise and covenants become increasingly lax, notably in the US but also in Europe. “Knowledge of insolvency regimes will be critical to cross-border investors when determining recovery and pricing in relative creditor rights,” said Sharon Bonelli, Fitch’s managing director in US corporates.

Ukraine's sovereign bonds have remained relatively resilient to default fears emanating from rising political tensions, but a collapse in the value of the local currency could hurt the corporate and banking sector, Reuters reported. The political standoff between President Yanukovich and the opposition adds to an already precarious economic picture.

When José Ignacio Goirigolzarri came out of retirement to take the helm of Spain's biggest distressed lender, more than his own reputation as a first-rate banker was at stake. So was the reputation of Spain's financial system, whose woes had undermined faith in Europe's common currency, The Wall Street Journal reported. After nearly two years as executive chairman of Bankia SA, Mr. Goirigolzarri is making measurable progress in overhauling the bank that in 2012 registered the biggest loss in Spanish corporate history.