Headlines

Target Canada suppliers have a long list of questions they want the insolvent retailer to answer — 61 in all. The questions centre around the timing of the insolvency, declared Jan. 15, the Toronto Star reported. Target is in the process of liquidating all 133 stores across Canada. “When did Target Canada and Target Corporation first begin considering closing down its Canadian stores and seeking insolvency protection,” reads one of the questions. Ontario Superior Court justice Geoffrey Morawetz ruled on Feb. 19 that suppliers had until Mar.

Failed South African lender African Bank Investments Ltd (Abil) is lending at levels below what is required to set up a new "good bank" using its healthy assets, administrators said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The bank collapsed under a mountain of bad debt in August, forcing the government to appoint external administrators to oversee a restructuring that includes curving out a "good bank" using its healthy assets worth 26 billion rand ($2.2 billion).

The central bank pushed lending rates even higher Tuesday in an attempt to stabilize Ukraine’s beleaguered currency and hold its financial system together until promised international loans arrive later this month, The Wall Street Journal reported. The move comes as the government hurried to complete painful overhauls—including raising energy prices and cutting pensions—to meet the terms of a deal with the International Monetary Fund. The IMF will decide next week whether to approve a $17.5-billion bailout to prop up the conflict-torn country’s finances.

For most of her career, Mana Nakazora has taken a pre-dawn train to work regardless of whether she arrived home just hours earlier, Bloomberg News reported. Her colleagues describe BNP Paribas SA’s Tokyo head of investment research as a powerhouse, and she was Japan’s No. 1 bond picker from 2010 to 2012 and No. 2 for the last two years in Nikkei Veritas newspaper polls. Making it to the top in an industry whose corporate bond sales exceeded $70 billion last year can be tough.

As many as 14,000 staff in the investment banking arm of Royal Bank of Scotland face the axe in the coming years as the bailed-out bank retrenches from its expansion into the US and Asia, The Guardian reported. The scale of the cutbacks – which would represent four in five jobs in investment banking – emerged after last week’s remarks by Ross McEwan, the boss of the 81%-taxpayer bank, that substantial numbers of jobs would be lost.

In the face of growing criticism of the current personal insolvency laws, the government has acknowledged that the current regime needs to be “energised”, TheJournal.ie reported. The coalition will oppose Fianna Fáil’s Family Home Mortgage Settlement Arrangement Bill in the Dáil tonight. The draft law essentially removes the controversial bank veto on proposals to restructure a family home mortgage through the personal insolvency process.

A political clash between Spain and Greece deepened after a top Spanish official said Greece is negotiating a third bailout with the European Union, a claim denied by a representative of the eurozone’s finance ministers, The Wall Street Journal reported. Talks on a new bailout would be a severe embarrassment for the Greek government, which is still balking at the terms of the current one.

Troubled Chinese property developer Kaisa Group announced an onshore debt restructuring plan involving 48 billion yuan ($7.6 billion) in a move aimed at restoring the financial and operational stability of the company. The debt plan, which would not entail changes in the guarantees, securities or outstanding principal claims, involves a reduction in interest payments and tenor extensions, the Shenzhen-based developer said in a stock exchange notice. Further details about the key terms and implementation of the onshore restructuring plan would be announced later, it said.

Creditors of Austrian "bad bank" Heta Asset Resolution may face debt haircuts or the prospect of having the wind-down vehicle for defunct lender Hypo Alpe Adria eventually go bankrupt, the co-head of Austria's financial watchdog said, Reuters reported. The Financial Market Authority stepped in on Sunday to take control of Heta and imposed a debt repayment moratorium after the government refused to plug a looming capital hole exposed by an outside audit. The FMA now needs to work out a plan that treats all creditors equally.

Barclays chief executive Antony Jenkins is on Tuesday set to accept his first bonus since taking charge three years ago, in a sign that bankers are showing less restraint even though pay remains a political flashpoint, the Financial Times reported. Of the UK’s biggest banks only one chief executive — Ross McEwan of Royal Bank of Scotland — has declined to take an award for 2014. HSBC rejected calls for bonuses to be cut in response to the tax evasion scandal at its Swiss private bank, arguing this dated back to 2005-2007, before the current management team took over.