Headlines

The liquidation vehicle for Ireland's failed Anglo Irish Bank has filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States, it said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The Irish Bank Resolution Corporation's (IBRC) liquidators said they filed an application under Chapter 15 of the U.S. bankruptcy code in the district of Delaware on Monday. Chapter 15 grants a foreign company protection from creditors looking to seize its assets in the country. "These assets form part of the liquidation process currently underway," the liquidators said in a statement.

The Bank of England's new governor, Mark Carney, is taking his message that interest rates will remain near rock bottom over the next three years directly to businesspeople in the heart of Britain, The Wall Street Journal reported. Mr. Carney heads to the former industrial city of Nottingham in England's east Midlands on Wednesday for his first public speech since taking the helm of the central bank on July 1. The appearance before the city's chamber of commerce comes three weeks after his pledge to keep interest rates to a record low until U.K. unemployment falls to 7%.

Italy's cabinet passed a package of measures to trim public spending on Monday, undeterred by a row with Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right party that is threatening to bring down the prime minister's coalition and has rattled markets, Reuters reported. The measures included cutting funding for official cars by a fifth, reducing consultancies now valued at 1.2 billion euros per year, and a decree that will gradually convert about 150,000 temporary state administration contracts into permanent ones.

As Spaniards endure the worst economic crisis and deepest austerity measures in their country’s democratic history, start-up companies are proliferating, Bloomberg reported. Over the first seven months of the year, registrations of self-employed people increased by 21,992 while they fell by 6,826 over the same period a year earlier. The number of companies created increased by 8.2 percent in the first half as a 26 percent unemployment rate spurs entrepreneurship in a country where the government still accounts for one in six jobs.

For most of its past 30 years of growth averaging 10.5 per cent, China did not rely on credit. But it has become ever more reliant on debt since the global financial crisis, drawing on banks, bonds and an array of lightly regulated institutions to keep its economy roaring. This debt dependency has put China at a dangerous crossroads. If the government is serious about containing financial risks, growth may slow sharply as it weans the country off debt, burdening the global economy. Yet that prospect is less frightening than the alternative.

Argentina's government will reopen a 2005 debt swap for a second time after an adverse ruling in a New York court last week, The Wall Street Journal reported. The move, unveiled by President Cristina Kirchner Monday, comes as the government deals with the fallout from a U.S court decision last week that ordered Argentina to pay a group of so-called holdout bondholders 100% of the roughly $1.33 billion they are owed in principal and accrued interest. The Kirchner administration has refused to pay the holdouts, saying they don't deserve 100% of what they are owed under U.S. law.

Petroliam Nasional Bhd., Malaysia’s state oil company, said its purchase of share in a field owned by OGX Petroleo e Gas Participacoes SA will hinge on the Brazilian oil producer’s debt restructuring plan, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. The company, known as Petronas, has yet to complete the transaction after agreeing in May to pay $850 million for a 40 percent stake in two blocks of the Tubarao Martelo field off Brazil to Eike Batista’s OGX, Chief Executive Officer Shamsul Azhar Abbas said today. Petronas isn’t involved in OGX’s debt restructuring, he said.

The liquidation vehicle for Ireland's failed Anglo Irish Bank has filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States, it said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The Irish Bank Resolution Corporation's (IBRC) liquidators said they filed an application under Chapter 15 of the U.S. bankruptcy code in the district of Delaware on Monday. Chapter 15 grants a foreign company protection from creditors looking to seize its assets in the country. "These assets form part of the liquidation process currently underway," the liquidators said in a statement.

Greece may need a further €10bn in extra support from its eurozone partners but would not expect any loan to come with conditions attached, its finance minister told Proto Thema newspaper on Sunday, the Financial Times reported. Athens faces a funding gap of about €11bn in 2014-15 after its current bailout programme ends in the first half of next year and its eurozone partners have pledged additional support until it can tap markets again. “If Greece needs further support, it will be around 10 billion euros,” finance minister Yannis Stournaras told the paper.

The rail company whose oil tanker train blew up in a Quebec town last month, killing 47 people, will be allowed to continue operating through Oct. 1 after providing insurance documentation demanded by Canadian authorities, Reuters reported. The Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) said on Friday it would let Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway (MMA) and its Canadian subsidiary keep trains moving for now. Earlier this month it had ordered MMA to cease operations, saying the railway lacked adequate insurance.