Headlines

Serbian state-owned bank Postanska Stedionica took over the assets and liabilities of collapsed lender Razvojna Banka Vojvodine (RVB) on Monday, Postanska said. RVB is the second Serbian bank to collapse since the Socialist-nationalist government took over in 2012, after issuing loans without insuring itself against default. Police detained three former RVB officials in March on suspicion of extending loans without adequate insurance.

The sudden tumble of Cyprus from sun-kissed prosperity into bleak penury must certainly have felt precipitate to many of its citizens – more like a scalping than a haircut, the Financial Times reported. But the collapse is not really the result of a random lurch or shift in axis. It is the end of a path traced in a long, complacent arc of ease and sleaze that hit a wall. It is almost 40 years since the east Mediterranean island was traumatised by partition.

The eurozone is facing a new crisis and another government could fall after Portugal's highest court rejected four out of nine austerity measures ordered by international lenders, including the European Union, as a condition for the country's 78 billion ($96bn) bailout, The Australian reported. The court's decision to throw out government cuts to state pensions and public-sector wages came less than two weeks after Cyprus, a eurozone member, came close to leaving the currency.

National Bank's plan to absorb Eurobank to form Greece's biggest banking group will be suspended until both are recapitalised, and a state bank support fund will decide if the they should merge, a Finance Ministry official said on Sunday, Reuters reported. National acquired 84.3 percent of Eurobank via a share swap in February with a view to absorbing it as part of broader consolidation in the banking industry to cope with fallout from Greece's debt crisis and deep recession.

Bank of Ireland approved €1 billion of new loans to small and medium-sized enterprises in the first quarter of 2013, an increase of 25 per cent in the number of loans approved in the first three months of 2012, the Irish Times reported. The bank yesterday said the increase reflected a pick-up in credit demand from viable Irish SMEs and the bank’s initiatives to grow business-banking operations.

China’s local governments may have more than 20 trillion yuan ($3.2 trillion) of debt, former Finance Minister Xiang Huaicheng said, almost double the figure given in a 2011 report by the National Audit Office, Bloomberg reported. The combined debt of China’s central governments and the nation’s provinces and cities may currently be more than 30 trillion yuan, Xiang, who served as finance minister from 1998 to 2003, said at the Boao Forum for Asia. Local governments had 10.7 trillion yuan of debt at the end of 2010, the auditor said in its report.

Spain's Pescanova, one of the world's largest fishing companies, is filing for insolvency after a month of boardroom battles ended in stalemate and put the future of the debt-laden group at risk. Negotiations with creditors are deadlocked and the group is at odds with its auditors amid an atmosphere of mistrust and management infighting, sources told Reuters. "It's a boat that's drifting, but it hasn't sunk," a banking source told Reuters.

Gyorgy Matolcsy, the governor of Hungary’s central bank , on Thursday revealed a package of measures potentially worth up to €4.6bn designed to stimulate growth in Hungary’s flagging economy, the Financial Times reported. Mr Matolcsy, who caused controversy as the architect of Hungary’s “unorthodox economic policy” when economy minister from 2010 until last month, said the plan, dubbed Funding for Growth, would provide cheaper credit to small and medium-sized businesses and reduce foreign exchange risks to creditors.

Brazil's central bank appointed a committee on Thursday to investigate the reasons behind last year's collapse of Banco BVA SA for an additional 120 days, giving potential buyers more time to consider acquiring the mid-sized lender, Reuters reported. The central bank seized the Rio de Janeiro-based bank on Oct. 19, citing deteriorating financing conditions and a breach of regulations. At the time, regulators gave the bank's administrators 90 days to find a buyer or face liquidation.

New Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda quickly and dramatically put his stamp on the long-beleaguered central bank, implanting a policy grand in substance and simple in presentation—a stark contrast with his predecessor, who favored incremental steps, emphasizing the complexity and the risks, The Wall Street Journal reported. Using placards with bright red print to explain the complex package of new policies, Mr. Kuroda boiled it all down to the number two: 2% inflation in two years by doubling the bank's purchase of bonds and doubling the monetary base.