Headlines

Cyprus on Monday put off for another day a debate on a bank-deposit levy in the Parliament—a precondition to receiving a €10 billion ($13.07 billion) bailout—and said its banks would remain closed until Thursday, as the government sought more time to shore up support for the tax and raced to avert a collapse of its banking sector, The Wall Street Journal reported. Cyprus Parliament speaker Yiannakis Omirou said Monday that the debate and vote would be pushed back to Tuesday—now two days behind schedule—amid fears of a meltdown in the island's financial system.

Suntech, one of the world's biggest solar panel manufacturers, said Monday it has defaulted on a $541 million bond payment in the latest sign of the financial squeeze on the struggling global solar industry, the Associated Press reported. Suntech Power Holdings Ltd.'s announcement was a severe setback for a company lauded by China's Communist government as a leader of efforts to make the country a center of the renewable energy industry.

Matthew Elderfield has cut himself a big stick with which to beat the banks if they don’t hit their targets under the new proposals for dealing with mortgage arrears. The banks have been given the choice of either coming to sensible arrangements with people in arrears or writing down the value of their mortgages to the current market price of the properties, the Irish Times reported. The incentive to the banks is clear: if they do deals they can value the loans at more than the market price to reflect the additional amount they will recover.

Germany will save at least 15 billion euros over the coming decade thanks to its "safe haven" status among investors fleeing the euro zone debt crisis, which has driven down Berlin's borrowing costs, a leading German institute said on Monday, Reuters reported. Germany's rock-bottom interest rates, which are helping the government to cut its own debt and achieve a balanced budget, stand in sharp contrast to euro zone peers such as Greece and Portugal which remain locked outside global financial markets.

Lotte Tour Co., a South Korean tour operator, said Monday it has filed for court receivership as part of its efforts to get back on its feet following the default of a company in which Lotte has a stake, the Yonhap News Agency reported. Lotte Tour said in a regulatory filing that the Seoul Central District Court is scheduled to decide whether to approve its request, though it did not give any specific time frame. Court officials were not immediately reached for comment.

China is poised to launch its most serious economic reform drive since the 1990s after a series of top appointments at the weekend put the architects of Zhu Rongji's clash with state owned enterprises in charge of key economic agencies. Vice Premier Ma Kai, Finance Minister Lou Jiwei and central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan were all Zhu lieutenants at the State Commission for Restructuring the Economy, which drew up the blueprint to sever the army's ties with business and make millions jobless as state-owned enterprises (SOEs) were reformed.

Europe’s surprising decision early Saturday to force bank depositors in Cyprus to share in the cost of the latest euro zone bailout set off increasing outrage and turmoil in Cyprus on Sunday and fueled fears that the trouble will spread to countries like Spain and Italy, the International Herald Tribune reported. Facing eroding support, the new president, Nicos Anastasiades, asked Parliament to postpone until Monday an emergency vote on a measure to approve the bailout terms, amid doubt that it would pass.

Europe’s fund managers are facing a ban on bonuses that exceed salary as the European parliament pushes for the extension of its severe pay clampdown on bankers to the wider financial sector. In a political development that shows how the bankers’ bonus cap could snowball through the world of finance, the parliament’s main parties support inserting the curbs into a year-old reform proposal for Ucits funds – a popular investment product that can be sold across EU borders – which have net assets of €6.4tn.

Suntech Power Holdings Co. said it didn't make a required payment on $541 million of bonds that matured Friday. It wasn't clear what the Chinese solar-panel company's plans were for repaying investors, The Wall Street Journal reported. A Suntech spokesman declined to comment. Suntech said last Monday that it had reached a "forbearance agreement" with about 60% of its foreign bondholders, who agreed to push back the date for repayment to May 15, allowing more time to negotiate a new repayment deal.

A plan to devolve potentially billions of pounds of public spending to local authorities and businesses in Britain to boost a stagnant economy won a green light from the government on Monday, Reuters reported. The Treasury said the coalition government had approved almost all the recommendations in a blueprint drawn up by Michael Heseltine, a former Conservative deputy prime minister. The scheme will see public money for projects such as housing and transport, now controlled by various government departments, pooled into a single pot from 2015.