Headlines

The creation of a single supervisor for European banks moved a step closer Tuesday when European lawmakers struck a deal with member states on the structure of the new agency, The Wall Street Journal reported. The deal leaves in place most of the main points agreed on by European Union finance ministers in December for how the supervisor should function. The setting up of a supervisor is aimed to tighten oversight of the euro zone's 6,000 banks and to prevent a repeat of the financial crises that have hit the likes of Spain, Greece and Cyprus. Non-euro-zone members can also sign up.

Spanish property firm Renta Corporacion said on Tuesday it would file for insolvency, the latest real estate company to struggle to make debt payments as a prolonged downturn hits business and prices, Reuters reported. Creditors for the company - with debt of 162 million euros ($210 million) - include Banco Popular, ING Real Estate Finance, Deutsche Bank, Caixabank, SAE, Banco Caixa Geral and Sareb, the holding set up by the government to handle soured property assets, the company said in a statement.

Lloyds Banking Group is considering the sale of about €650 million of Irish real estate loans as the lender extracts itself from Western Europe's biggest property crash, according to a person with knowledge of the planned transaction, the Irish Times reported. The UK's second-biggest government-aided bank will have to sell at a discount, the person said without being more specific. He declined to be identified because the sale plans haven't yet been finalised. Lloyds spokesman Ian Kitts, declined to comment.

Central European Distribution Corp , the maker of Russian Standard Vodka, said it has scrapped a bond exchange after a rival company owned by its chairman made its own offer for the same notes, Reuters reported. Roust Trading Ltd, owned by Russian billionaire and CEDC Chairman Roustam Tariko, has offered to buy the CEDC notes that it does not own for $25 million in cash and $30 million in secured notes issued by Roust. Tariko's company owns approximately $102.6 million of the $258 million of the 2013 notes, which matured on March 15 without a payment from CEDC.

Voluntary administrators have been called in by the Australian fund manager in charge of a giant mortgage fund frozen since 2009 with the savings of many New Zealand investors trapped in it, Stuff.co.nz reported. The directors of LM Investment Management appointed John Park and Ginette Muller of FTI Consulting as voluntary administrators, saying the move was forced on it as a result of a smear campaign against it. LM was set up by Kiwi ex-pat businessman Peter Drake but after growing rapidly it hit trouble following the Global Financial Crisis as many of its property loans defaulted.

Cyprus on Monday put off for another day a debate on a bank-deposit levy in the Parliament—a precondition to receiving a €10 billion ($13.07 billion) bailout—and said its banks would remain closed until Thursday, as the government sought more time to shore up support for the tax and raced to avert a collapse of its banking sector, The Wall Street Journal reported. Cyprus Parliament speaker Yiannakis Omirou said Monday that the debate and vote would be pushed back to Tuesday—now two days behind schedule—amid fears of a meltdown in the island's financial system.

Suntech, one of the world's biggest solar panel manufacturers, said Monday it has defaulted on a $541 million bond payment in the latest sign of the financial squeeze on the struggling global solar industry, the Associated Press reported. Suntech Power Holdings Ltd.'s announcement was a severe setback for a company lauded by China's Communist government as a leader of efforts to make the country a center of the renewable energy industry.

Matthew Elderfield has cut himself a big stick with which to beat the banks if they don’t hit their targets under the new proposals for dealing with mortgage arrears. The banks have been given the choice of either coming to sensible arrangements with people in arrears or writing down the value of their mortgages to the current market price of the properties, the Irish Times reported. The incentive to the banks is clear: if they do deals they can value the loans at more than the market price to reflect the additional amount they will recover.

Germany will save at least 15 billion euros over the coming decade thanks to its "safe haven" status among investors fleeing the euro zone debt crisis, which has driven down Berlin's borrowing costs, a leading German institute said on Monday, Reuters reported. Germany's rock-bottom interest rates, which are helping the government to cut its own debt and achieve a balanced budget, stand in sharp contrast to euro zone peers such as Greece and Portugal which remain locked outside global financial markets.

Lotte Tour Co., a South Korean tour operator, said Monday it has filed for court receivership as part of its efforts to get back on its feet following the default of a company in which Lotte has a stake, the Yonhap News Agency reported. Lotte Tour said in a regulatory filing that the Seoul Central District Court is scheduled to decide whether to approve its request, though it did not give any specific time frame. Court officials were not immediately reached for comment.