Headlines

One day, it might be possible to spend most of a G20 summit discussing the long-run economic reform that the forum was originally set up to promote. This week’s meeting in Cannes will not be that summit, the Financial Times reported. The gathering is set to be dominated by events in Greece, a country that is not even a member of the G20. Not for the first time, attempts by the host country to use the grouping to achieve structural changes – which in any case were progressing slowly this year – have been knocked sideways by the exigencies of immediate events in the global economy.

Efforts to curb inflation in China are having some painful side-effects. A squeeze on bank lending has prompted some businesses short of cash to stop paying wages to blue-collar workers, The Economist reported. Even the much-vaunted state sector is feeling the pinch. Work has all but ground to a halt on thousands of kilometres of railway track, and many of the network’s 6m construction workers have been complaining about not being paid for weeks or sometimes months.

National Irish Bank (NIB) has reported a €632 million impairment charge for the first nine months, up from a €504 million charge for the year-earlier period on the back of unexpectedly high loan losses, the Irish Times reported. NIB’s Danish parent bank Danske said pre-tax loss widened to €600 million in the period from a €468 million loss a year ago. The bank said its operating profits fell by 11 per cent to €32 million from €36 million. NIB's chief executive Andrew Healy said the bank hopes "to see a downward trajectory" on its impairment charges related to the property crash.

A major creditor is panning Aviawest’s proposal to restructure its finances, saying the high-profile British Columbia resort owner’s properties are “hopelessly insolvent” and the company should be forced into receivership, The Globe and Mail reported. The British Columbia Investment Management Corp. is owed about $20-million from the resort owner as a secured creditor, but estimates the company has little-to-no prospect of generating enough money under any restructuring plan to begin servicing its many debts.

Itau Unibanco Holding, Brazil's largest private-sector bank, reported its best quarterly earnings for this year as trading-related gains jumped and interest income grew faster than expenses. Gains stemming from the purchase and sale of securities and wider loan spreads offset rising defaults at Itau Unibanco. The bank earned 3.81 billion reais ($2.16 billion) in the third quarter, above the average estimate of 3.62 billion reais from nine analysts polled by Reuters last week.

European stocks sank Monday as investors lost faith in the proposals set out by European leaders last week to solve the region's sovereign-debt crisis, and at the same time the euro slumped after currency intervention from the Bank of Japan caught investors off guard, The Wall Street Journal reported. Banks were particularly hit as investors became wary of the euro zone's rescue package with the lack of detail weighing heavily on sentiment.

The turnaround plan presented Monday for troubled Swedish carmaker Saab Automobile AB is far from complete, said Martin Larsson, the company's executive director of new business development and, according to speculation in Swedish media, the company's next chief executive. The Swedish district court in Vanersborg on Monday gave the company the go-ahead to continue its reorganization under creditor protection, after Chinese companies Pang Da Automobile Trade Co. and Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co.

Failed Japanese lender Takefuji said on Monday its debt holders approved a court-led rehabilitation plan, overcoming opposition from a group of overseas creditors who had sought liquidation of the company in hopes of achieving higher repayment rates, Reuters reported. Approval had been expected for the restructuring plan proposed by Takefuji, which filed for bankruptcy in September 2010, although the conflict with foreign creditors had attracted attention in Japan where such disagreements are rare.

A bid Monday by Nathans Finance's former auditor could put an end to a $66 million claim brought by the failed finance company's receiver, The New Zealand Herald reported. Nathans Finance collapsed in August 2007, owing 7000 investors around $174 million. PricewaterhouseCoopers receiver Colin McCloy has made a bid to recover investor losses from the directors and from the company's auditor, Staples Rodway.

Mexican mining and railroad company Grupo Mexico SA said it has dropped a plan to merge its U.S. unit Asarco with Southern Copper Corp., the subsidiary that runs its Mexican and Peruvian mining operations, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. In its third-quarter earnings report, released Sunday, Grupo Mexico said Americas Mining Corporation, the holding company of its mining division, will explore strategic alternatives which could include securities offerings in capital markets.