Headlines

National has attacked Labour’s tax plan, saying it would leave a huge hole in New Zealand taxpayers’ finances over the next 15 years and add $18.5 billion dollars to net Crown debt, The National Business Review reported. Labour recently announced its plan to introduce a Capital Gains Tax and hike the top tax rate to 39% while taking GST off fresh fruit and vegetables and making the first $5000 of income tax-free.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Europe's reluctant paymaster, doused expectations of any comprehensive solution to Greece's debt crisis at an emergency euro zone summit on Thursday, Reuters reported. "Further steps will be necessary and not just one spectacular event which solves everything," Merkel told reporters on Tuesday. Widespread hopes for a single solution to make the Greek crisis disappear were unrealistic, she said, as officials wrestled with complex options for involving private bondholders in a second rescue of the debt-stricken euro zone state.

Tokio Marine Europe Insurance Ltd, a part of the Tokio Marine Group, said it filed a petition for protection from creditors under Chapter 15 in U.S. bankruptcy court in Manhattan, London South East reported on a Reuters story. The company, which underwrites commercial property, casualty and marine insurance, in a court filing on Monday listed assets of more than $100 million and liabilities of more than $100 million.

Germany has long sat at the center of the European economy, but Europe is no longer as central to Germany as it used to be, the International Herald Tribune reported. With large parts of Europe still in an economic rut and struggling to cope with a debt crisis, Germany is increasingly deploying its money and energy outside the euro zone to fuel its robust growth.

Spanish banks' bad loans, a major source of concern to the financial markets, surged to the highest level for 16 years in May, the Bank of Spain said Monday. RTÉ News reported. Bank loans considered to carry a risk of non-recovery amounted to €117.59 billion, or almost 6.5% of total assets, in May - the highest ratio since June 1995, the central bank said in a report. That compared to a bad loan ratio of 6.36% in April.

European banks may have to raise as much as €80 billion of additional capital as the stress tests failed to allay investor concern about a Greek default and governments’ ability to bail out their lenders, the Irish Times reported. The eight banks that failed out of the 90 tested last week had only a combined capital shortfall of €2.5 billion, the European Banking Authority said. As many as 20 banks need to bolster capital, JPMorgan Cazenove analysts led by Kian Abouhossein wrote in a report after the results were published.

A receiver has been appointed to one of Ireland's largest domestic retailers putting thousands of jobs into question and paving the way for a possible sale, the country's state broadcaster reported on Monday. Supermarket operator Superquinn, which employs around 2,800 people in 23 stores around the country, was put into receivership by a consortium of banks after building up debts of over 400 million euros ($561 million), Reuters reported on an RTÉ story.

A court has delayed a hearing that will decide whether Blockbuster Canada can legally use the brand name as it goes through receivership, The Canadian Press reported. The hearing had been scheduled for Wednesday, but has been bumped to July 26 in a New York City court. The new owner of Blockbuster USA, which did not buy Blockbuster Canada, says it does not want the Canadian retailer to use the name. The receiver in charge of selling Blockbuster Canada has argued that stripping the chain of that right would "devastate" business.

Finnish group Elcoteq , a key supplier to cellphone maker Nokia , said it was applying for insolvency proceedings after lenders blocked its bank accounts and refused a debt standstill, Reuters reported. Elcoteq said on Monday Danske Bank decided to accelerate its outstanding revolving credit facility, forcing it to apply for controlled management in Luxembourg to continue operations. The company, which assembles cellphones and set-top boxes, said in June it would not be able to repay the remaining amount of a revolving credit facility.

Eight European banks, including five from Spain, failed crucial EU stress tests, the bloc's financial regulator said on Friday, with lenders facing rising pressures from the eurozone debt crisis, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported on an Agence France-Presse story. Two Greek banks and one Austrian bank also failed to meet the European Banking Authority's new capital requirements, the regulator said in a statement after testing 91 banks.