Headlines

A wide-ranging currency agreement between China and Japan is expected to give the Chinese yuan a more powerful role in international trade, the Wall Street Journal reported today. China, among other nations, has objected to the primacy of the dollar in international trade, and has suggested other ways to run the international monetary system, including giving a bigger role to the International Monetary Fund and a wider role for the yuan.

The Supreme Court of Canada said that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's proposal to create a national securities regulator is unconstitutional, arguing that the federal government overstepped its authority into provincial jurisdiction, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. The nine members of the country’s highest court said in its unanimous opinion that the federal government’s proposal "overreaches genuine national concerns." Canada is the only industrialized country in the world without a national securities regulator.

Legal authorities unwinding the brokerage operations of MF Global Holdings Ltd. in the U.S. and U.K. could be heading for a legal clash over $600 million to $700 million in customer money that both sides consider to be their responsibility, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. James Giddens, the U.S. trustee unwinding MF Global's domestic brokerage unit, on Friday disputed the stance of KPMG, which is unwinding MF Global's London-based arm, over the legal classification of the money.

Russia's central bank on Friday unexpectedly cut its key refinancing rate for the first time in a year and a half, citing the uncertain outlook for the global economy, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Still, the Bank of Russia simultaneously raised its deposit rate, and economists said that the rate reshuffle represents no more than a slight easing of monetary policy amid concerns about meeting 2012 inflation targets.

As the euro-zone debt crisis intensified in recent months, at least two global banks took steps to install back-up technology systems that could handle trades in old European currencies like drachmas, escudos and lire, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. That, the banks quickly found, is not so easy in a financial world that is trying to both exhibit confidence in the ailing euro and—just in case—plan for its possible demise.

U.K. retailer La Senza has said that it intends to enter administration, according to BBC News on Friday. The lingerie chain blamed "trading conditions" and "the overall macro environment" for its decision. An administrator will now be chosen within 10 days, in accordance with the U.K. Insolvency Act. The retailer, which has some 2,600 U.K. staff at 146 stores and 18 concessions, said that it continued to trade as normal, and there have been no unplanned redundancies or store closures.

Italy's Senate voted overwhelmingly to give final approval yesterday to a $40 billion austerity and growth package aimed at eliminating Italy’s budget deficit by 2013 and stimulating the economy as part of a broader plan to stabilize the euro, the New York Times reported today.

Greece's creditors are resisting pressure from the International Monetary Fund to accept bigger losses on holdings of the indebted nation's government bonds, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Lenders want the 70 billion euros ($91 billion) of new bonds the government will issue in return for existing securities to carry a coupon of about 5 percent. The IMF is pushing for creditors to accept a smaller coupon in order to reduce Greece's debt-to-gross domestic product ratio to 120 percent by 2020, a key element of the Oct. 27 agreement by European Union leaders.

Hundreds of euro-zone lenders took out €489.19 billion ($640 billion) in low-interest loans from the European Central Bank on Wednesday, as the currency area extended a massive financial lifeline to its struggling banking industry, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Under the three-year loan offer on Wednesday, banks could borrow as much as they wanted at the low rate as long as they had the necessary collateral. Another batch of three-year loans will be available Feb. 29.

Solar Millennium, which has its U.S. headquarters in downtown Oakland,, Calif., filed for insolvency in a German court, the Oakland Tribune reported today. In May, Solar Millennium said it was awarded a $2.1 billion loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy. The money would have been used to underpin the company's construction of a solar energy complex in the California desert community of Blythe, using its solar trough technology. However, Solar Millennium on Aug. 18 abandoned its focus on the cutting-edge technology that was the basis for the loan guarantee.