Headlines

UBS AG was fined 29.7 million pounds ($47.6 million) by the U.K. and told by the Swiss that it may have to increase capital levels for operational risks as regulators levied penalties after Kweku Adoboli’s $2.3 billion trading loss, Bloomberg News reported today. The Financial Services Authority in the U.K. issued the fine today, saying that the loss revealed serious weaknesses in management systems and internal controls. Finma, the Swiss regulator, said that it instructed UBS to appoint an independent third party to report on the progress and completion of a program to fix these failings.

The majority of creditors of Independencia, an insolvent Brazilian meatpacker, approved a restructuring plan of the company's debt today, removing one of the last remaining obstacles for the firm to be taken over by its larger rival JBS, Reuters reported today. JBS started out as a family butcher in Brazil and became the world's largest beef producer by assuming control of smaller firms, a strategy it has recently resumed. Read more.

Former subordinated bondholders in Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks are seeking recompense for being forced to take just one cent for every EUR1,000 of such bonds they held, Reuters reported today. This follows hedge fund Assenagon's successful suit in the English High Court against Anglo Irish Bank in July for executing similar coercive actions.

After scratching out a faster recovery than the U.S. and most developed nations, Canada is facing its strongest economic headwinds in years, including falling commodity prices and ballooning personal debt, the Wall Street Journal reported today. While the recession laid global peers low, Canada's strong bank balance sheets funded continued consumer spending during the recovery. Years of that easy credit in turn helped give rise to a housing boom that has underpinned an economy already benefiting from another surge—in commodity prices.

The Australian government was granted permission by a court on Friday to prepare legal action against coal baron Nathan Tinkler as creditors close in on the former billionaire, Reuters reported on Saturday. The New South Wales Supreme Court gave the Deputy Commissioner of Taxation leave to prepare a case against Tinkler's holding company, the latest of a series of legal actions over unpaid bills and commercial disputes.

Indian officials pledged to cut the widest budget deficit among the world’s largest emerging markets and curb public debt, as a report this week may show the economy grew at close to the slowest pace in three years, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The government is "optimistic" it will rein in the shortfall for the year through March 31 to 5.3 percent of gross domestic product from the previous year's 5.8 percent, and has no plan "at the moment" to increase its record borrowing program, Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said in Pune, India, on Nov. 24.

Retailer Controladora Comercial Mexicana SAB said yesterday that it secured a syndicated bank loan for 2.5 billion pesos ($192 million) to pay off the remainder of the debt it restructured in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, Dow Jones Newswires reported. Comercial Mexicana said in a filing with the Mexican stock exchange that the syndicated loan was led by Citi unit Banamex and JPMorgan and included the participation of three other banks.

European leaders failed to reach agreement today on the European Union's budget, with wealthier countries saying that there was not enough restraint in the proposed seven-year spending plan, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Talks collapsed on the second day of the 27-nation summit. Belgium's foreign minister, Didier Reynders, tweeted that leaders are expected to meet again in January in an effort to seal a deal on the 2014 to 2020 budget.

The developer of the tallest skyscraper in London's financial district faces a legal challenge that could force it out of business after a dispute with the tower's builder, Reuters reported yesterday. Contractor Brookfield Multiplex launched a legal claim for about 16 million pounds ($25 million) against the owners of the 63-storey Pinnacle skyscraper this summer for payments relating to a 593 million pound construction contract.

The front-runner to become Japan's next prime minister said that he would consider loosening some of the nation's fiscal-discipline policies, in defiance of warnings by credit raters to curb borrowing by the heavily indebted government, suggesting instead more spending to help jump-start growth, the Wall Street Journal reported today. "First, we will concentrate our policy tools to curb deflation," opposition leader Shinzo Abe said yesterday.