Headlines

When Argentina defaulted on its debt in 2002, the economy was collapsing and a bloody popular revolt had helped topple two presidents in a week. Now, the country could default again, but it would be over a matter of principle rather than necessity, Reuters reported. After a decade of sleepy litigation, investors got a jolt late last year when U.S. courts ruled in favor of "holdout" creditors who had rejected Argentine debt exchanges in 2005 and 2010 and sued to be repaid in full on their defaulted bonds. A U.S.

Five years after rescuing one of the world's biggest banks, the British government still hasn't figured out what to do with it—a sign of the country's struggle to put its banking woes behind it, The Wall Street Journal reported. Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC received a bailout of £45 billion, or about $70 billion, in 2008. Today, it remains 81%-owned by U.K. taxpayers, and a return to private hands is unlikely soon, according to government officials. Under pressure from the Bank of England, officials at the U.K.

India’s Tata Steel has announced a $1.6bn writedown on its struggling European division, underlining the chronic difficulties facing steelmakers across the continent, the Financial Times reported. In a notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange, the steel division of the broader Tata conglomerate blamed weak European macroeconomic conditions for the decision, the largest writedown by an Indian company.

The Israeli government was debating the final points of a two-year austerity budget early Tuesday that would cut spending and raise taxes, outraging many Israelis who voted in a new government this year after promises of economic relief, the International Herald Tribune reported. Even before the new government’s first budget was approved, 12,000 Israelis took to the streets Saturday night in a show of anger reminiscent of the vast social protests that rocked the nation in the summer of 2011.

Euro-zone policy makers have been in rare harmony over the significance of their plan to build a much lauded banking union in their effort to strengthen Europe’s financial system and prevent future bank troubles from burdening government finances and taxpayers, The Wall Street Journal MoneyBeat blog reported. Most of them also appear united in their support of accelerating plans to bring banks under common supervision and for regulations for winding down failed banks.

Tax evasion lies at the heart of the Greek financial collapse, which has resulted in international bailout loans exceeding 205 billion euros, or $266 billion, the size of Greece’s depressed economy. In fact, Greece’s international creditors have made revamping its notoriously lax tax system a primary condition for any additional bailout financing, the International Herald Tribune reported.

Vietnam's central bank will cut three policy rates from Monday, as easing inflation gives the government room to lower companies' borrowing costs and get more money flowing through the economy, The Wall Street Journal reported. The 100 basis point cuts in the refinancing, rediscount and overnight rates on dong-denominated loans will make it cheaper for banks to borrow from the central bank, which should help increase credit growth.

Germany’s finance minister has warned that a single EU bailout agency and rescue fund for ailing banks is legally untenable until the bloc’s treaties have been overhauled, the Financial Times reported. In today’s Financial Times, Wolfgang Schäuble calls for a “two-step approach” that would leave bank rescues in the hands of “a network of” national authorities until treaty changes can take place.

Orpington Structured Finance I has gross assets of €1.7 billion, which would make it one of the most valuable firms in Ireland. Except it has no employees. It has no buildings or machinery. Nor does it pay any tax. It is one of hundreds of so-called financial-vehicle corporations, which are companies set up to house or trade in securitised investments, in other words to package and resell loans.

Professional debt negotiators will be allowed to set their own rates and charge upfront fees from struggling debtors going through the State's new insolvency process, The Independent reported. According to confidential draft regulations to be published later this month, personal insolvency practitioners (PIPs) can charge initial consultation or assessment fees and the actual rates will be left to the practitioners themselves. The Insolvency Service of Ireland says the rates will be dictated by the "market" and it won't be issuing guidelines on how much PIPs should charge.