Headlines

Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s May 14 arrest on charges of sexual assault left a void atop the International Monetary Fund, busting the one thing that had gone consistently right in the handling of the euro-area debt crisis: cooperation between European leaders and the Washington-based IMF. The fund’s contribution to Greece’s next loan was no longer a sure thing, said two European officials with direct knowledge of the talks who declined to be identified because the deliberations were private, Bloomberg reported.

European Council President Herman Van Rompuy has called an emergency meeting of top officials dealing with the euro zone debt crisis for Monday morning, reflecting concern that the crisis could spread to Italy, the region's third largest economy. European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet will attend the meeting along with Jean-Claude Juncker, chairman of the region's finance ministers, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Olli Rehn, the economic and monetary affairs commissioner, three official sources told Reuters.

Discussions between bankers and government officials about Greece have undergone a fundamental shift in recent days, turning toward reducing the country's mountainous debt burden instead of just staving off a near-term financial crisis, people close to the talks say, The Wall Street Journal reported. Talks began two weeks ago with French bank proposals to encourage investors to contribute to a new bailout by reinvesting the proceeds of Greek government bonds maturing over the next three years.

Building group McInerney Holdings has written to its shareholders saying that it is time to liquidate the company, RTÉ News reported. The board has set the date for an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders for July 29. It says McInerney Holdings now has 'no meaningful assets of worth and no bank facilities' and as a result there is no realistic alternative to a liquidation. Eight months ago, the group de-listed from the stock exchange, having already gone into examinership.

After Iceland's vicious recession, the central bank has managed to stabilise the currency with capital controls, cap inflation and has gotten interest rates down to 4.25% from a peak of 18%, The Wall Street Journal reported. Now, after dipping its toes once again into international capital markets, Mar Gudmundsson, the head of Sedlabanki, the nation's central bank, said in an interview that recent events demonstrate the island nation can function under its own power again.

Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., and their bidding allies are due in court next week to close on a $4.5 billion win in the auction of Nortel Networks Corp.'s portfolio of technology patents, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Judges in the U.S. and Canada must sign off on the deal, the largest ever sale of intellectual property, and a transaction that will reverberate through courts around the world as the winners wield their Nortel prizes in infringement cases.

Europe’s banks are growing increasingly angry over the stress tests being run by European regulators, complaining that the process has been excessively rigid, with damaging changes to the exercise rushed through at the last minute, the Financial Times reported. The tests, the results of which are due to be announced next week, have been in preparation since March, but banks are furious that less than a month ago they were forced to rerun the stress scenarios along far tougher lines than had been originally suggested.

The European Central Bank took steps to protect Portugal's banking system after Moody's Investors Service cut the country's debt to junk status, The Wall Street Journal reported. The ECB said it would indefinitely suspend existing rules that require at least one investment-grade rating by a major rating agency in order to accept government bonds as collateral for ECB loans. Although Portugal still meets those requirements even after the Moody's downgrade, the suspension removes any uncertainty even if other agencies follow suit in coming weeks.

The directors of failed Nathans Finance have been found guilty of lying to investors in a prospectus, investment statement and two advertisements - when Nathans sought $100 million from investors 2006, The National Business Review reported. But the three directors - Mervyn Ian Doolan, Kenneth Roger Moses and Donald Menzies Young - were found not guilty on a charge arising out of a letter to potential investors dated July 12, 2007, on the basis the letter did not meet the statutory definition of "advertisement".

European governments' plan for private-sector creditors to help Greece's next bailout without triggering a default were thrown into doubt Wednesday, as senior German officials resurrected a once-rejected proposal that would cost investors more, The Wall Street Journal reported. The German proposal—calling for investors to be encouraged to swap Greek government bonds for new bonds—had been ditched a month ago after strong opposition from the European Central Bank and governments including France, because it would lead to Greece being called in default by rating agencies.