Headlines

In just a little over a decade, Nu Holdings Ltd. has gone from an obscure fintech startup in Sao Paulo to the most valuable bank in all of Latin America. It’s been a dizzying ascent, powered by a business model that Brazil’s uber-conservative banking titans never had much of a stomach for: lending to low-income families. Growth keeps coming at a breakneck pace — some 60% of all Brazilian adults now have Nubank’s app on their phone — and investors keep frantically bidding the stock higher, Bloomberg News reported.

A group of Ghana’s commercial creditors including BlackRock Inc. and Abrdn Plc backed the government’s offer to exchange about $13 billion of eurobonds for restructured notes, a crucial part of the West African nation’s debt rework, Bloomberg News reported. “The committee considers that the legal and financial terms of the exchange offer and consent solicitation are in line with the agreement in principle reached between the committee and Ghana in June,” the group said in a statement on Thursday. Investors will be able to swap their debt until Sept.

Country Garden Holdings Co.’s sales slump dragged on in August, exacerbating the Chinese developer’s liquidity woes as it battles a wind-up petition, Bloomberg News reported. Contracted sales for August declined 57% from a year earlier to 3.43 billion yuan ($483 million), following a 72% drop in July, according to an exchange filing on Thursday. The poor sales underscore the challenges facing the distressed real estate giant, which is counting on a turnaround in revenue to appease debt holders and fight off liquidation.

A Chinese central bank official raised the possibility of further relaxing the amount of reserves banks are required to hold but signaled that no aggressive monetary easing is in the pipeline amid growing calls for Beijing to consider bolder moves to revive sluggish growth, the Wall Street Journal reported. “The cut on the reserve requirement ratio at the beginning of this year is still showing its effect,” Zou Lan, head of the People’s Bank of China’s monetary policy department, said at a press briefing on Thursday.

The Bank of Canada cut interest rates by a quarter percentage point for a third consecutive meeting, and reiterated that it’s “reasonable” to expect more easing to come if inflation keeps decelerating, Bloomberg News reported. Policymakers led by Governor Tiff Macklem lowered the benchmark overnight rate to 4.25% on Wednesday. Officials’ communications were little changed since their July meeting, and highlight the central bank’s increased focus on downside risks to inflation as they cut rates. They now see “little evidence” of broad-based price pressures.

Malaysia’s central bank extended its policy-rate pause yet again, declining to join a growing group of peers starting their easing cycles as it keeps an eye on inflation, the Wall Street Journal reported. Bank Negara Malaysia on Thursday maintained its overnight policy rate at 3.00%, where it has been at since May last year. “At the current OPR level, the monetary policy stance remains supportive of the economy and is consistent with the current assessment of inflation and growth prospects,” Bank Negara Malaysia said.

Ukrainian officials are preparing for the International Monetary Fund this week to push it to devalue its currency faster, cut interest rates and strengthen its tax-raising efforts to fill the country’s budget gap, Bloomberg News reported. IMF staff visiting Kyiv are expected to pressure the war-torn country to pursue those steps to continue receiving financial support, as they undertake a scheduled review of a $15.6 billion loan program, Ukrainian officials with the knowledge of the topic said after preliminary discussions with the fund.

An Irish government-commissioned mortgage arrears review group has called for a removal of the current €3 million secured debt limit for individuals to secure insolvency deals, under measures aimed at tackling more than 20,000 long-term arrears cases in the State, the Irish Times reported. A debtor with secured debts in excess of €3 million is not currently eligible to make a proposal for a personal insolvency arrangement (PIA), unless all secured creditors agree to disregard the cap.

U.S.-based Glas Trust is not part of a key panel overseeing the insolvency proceedings of Indian education-technology giant Byju's, and will need to substantiate the $1 billion claim of lenders it represents, according to documents and three sources, Reuters reported. Byju's was once a darling of global investors and valued at $22 billion in 2022, but is now facing insolvency due to its dispute with U.S. lenders. The company became popular by offering online training courses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Its insolvency officer, Pankaj Srivastava, told Glas in a Sept.

For years, mortgages in Japan have been nearly cost free. Homeowners are now bracing for that to change, the New York Times reported. Japan’s central bank had maintained benchmark interest rates near zero since the mid-1990s. As a result, many home buyers have gotten used to paying between 0.3 and 0.4 percent for floating-rate mortgages, or just over 1 percent for longer-term, fixed-rate ones.