Headlines

The Danish government is planning a new range of measures to support the country's banking sector, Minister of Economic and Business Affairs Brian Mikkelsen told reporters Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported. No decisions have yet been made, but political parties plan to soon meet again and will hopefully reach an agreement on the matter, Mr. Mikkelsen said. The measures will support consolidation and secure funding for troubled banks. A number of small banks face severe problems with funding, and large credit exposure to the ailing agriculture and real estate sectors, he said.

Greece's gross domestic product contracted by an annual rate of 6.9% in the second quarter of the year, compared with a negative rate of 8.1% in the first three months of the year, the country's statistics service said Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported. These figures aren't seasonally adjusted, the Hellenic Statistics Authority, or ELSTAT, said in a statement, which means they aren't directly comparable with previous figures released for the first quarter. Quarterly data weren't provided.

George Soros, the US speculator turned billionaire philanthropist, has suggested both Greece and Portugal quit the European Union and the euro-zone because of their massive debts, Agence France-Presse reported. "One has so mishandled the Greek problem that the best way forward at present might be an orderly exit" with Greece leaving both the EU and the euro common currency, he said in an interview published Sunday by the German magazine Spiegel. He suggested the same might go for Portugal. "The EU and the euro would survive it," he added.

Building group Bowen’s British business owed almost €10 million to subcontractors before court-appointed administrators took control of the company, its latest figures show, the Irish Times reported. State assets agency Nama and the Bank of Ireland appointed Paul McCann of Grant Thornton as receiver to the key Bowen group companies last month on foot of a number of secured debts.

The government on Friday said it would take three months to finalise the financial restructuring plan of cash-strapped national carrier Air India. "The exercise of finalising the financial restructuring plan and restructuring of loans would take about three months," civil aviation minister Vayalar Ravi told the Lok Sabha in a written reply, the Hindustan Times reported. Ravi's reply comes just a few days ahead of a crucial meeting of a ministerial panel headed by finance inister Pranab Mukherjee.

China signaled that it intends to take a more active role in trying to calm chaotic global and domestic markets, pumping cash into its banking system and allowing its tightly controlled currency to climb higher for a fourth straight day, The Wall Street Journal reported. There was a widespread belief among domestic investors that the country's state pension fund had started heavily buying shares. That perception reversed a sharp fall in the Shanghai stock market and helped it to close higher in a tumultuous trading session. As the U.S.

France, Italy, Spain and Belgium have banned all short selling of financial stocks for 15 days in response to sharp share price falls this week, but they failed to convince other regulators to go along with a European Union-wide prohibition, the Financial Times reported. The bans on the controversial practice where investors aim to profit from price falls will take effect on Friday morning. But other main markets, including the US and the UK, have said they have no plans to follow suit.

Prime Minister David Cameron blamed the worst riots in Britain for decades on street gang members and opportunistic looters and denied government austerity measures or poverty caused the violence in London and other major cities, Reuters reported. Cameron told an emergency session of parliament that police tactics had failed at the start of the rioting. Courts worked through the night to deal with hundreds of mostly young people arrested during the mayhem. "The fightback has well and truly begun," said the Conservative leader, in power for 15 months.

As U.S. and European sovereign-debt concerns menace some of the world's biggest financial institutions, their Japanese counterparts are seen as less vulnerable given their small exposure, The Wall Street Journal reported. But other potential problems are growing, and could eventually end in a cascade, some industry observers say. "Japanese banks' exposure to European sovereign debts is small, so even in a pessimistic scenario, the risk of losses is limited," said Akira Takai, an analyst at Daiwa Securities Capital Markets, in a recent report.

UK bank Lloyds has teamed up with Dublin company Green Property to help manage Irish commercial properties which have been put into receivership by the bank, the Irish Times reported. Green will offer property management services to receivers on assets in the €13 billion commercial property book at what was formerly Bank of Scotland (Ireland). It is estimated that properties supporting up to €1 billion of commercial loans in Lloyds’ Irish subsidiary could fall under Green’s management if receivers choose to avail of the company’s services.