Headlines

U.K. Business Secretary Vince Cable Thursday ruled out a government rescue plan for struggling care home operator Southern Cross Healthcare Group PLC, despite unions urging intervention to protect the company's 31,000 elderly residents, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Speaking in the House of Commons, Cable promised that any resident who lost their place in a Southern Cross home would be re-housed. The business secretary also pledged to increase scrutiny of private companies providing public services.

Credit card companies’ aggressive push for asset growth through loan services is feared to pose a threat to the nation’s already-high household debt, The Korea Times reported in a commentary. Given that a significant portion of the fast-rising amount of loans may go sour, the financial authorities fear that they will add to already-mounting household debts. According to the Bank of Korea (BOK), the problem can no longer be ignored as household debt surpassed 800 trillion won for the first time in the first quarter. It rose 6 trillion won from the previous quarter.

More than half of the 882 smaller companies that responded to an ISME survey on access to credit from banks said they had been turned down, RTÉ News reported. The quarterly Bank Watch Survey reveals that 54% of small and medium sized businesses were turned down in the last three months. That compares to 48% refused credit in the prior three months. ISME said that 72% of its members feel banks are once again making it more difficult to access finance despite pronouncements to the contrary.

Highly indebted Greece needs a "soft, voluntary restructuring" of its debt, said Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the group of countries using the euro as a common currency, in a radio interview Saturday, The Wall Street Journal reported. Backing proposals by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, Mr. Juncker told Inforadio Berlin Brandenburg that private lenders need to participate in a fresh aid program for Greece, but only on a voluntary basis. Also, any such move has to be made in a way that credit ratings agencies don't interpret as a credit default, he said.

Britain’s big banks are on schedule to beat lending targets set in a government peace deal this year, it has emerged, undermining mounting criticism from senior politicians that loan volumes are too low, the Financial Times reported. A government minister last week revealed details of the targets for actual lending set in the Project Merlin accord, struck between banks and the government in February. The secret numbers – dubbed “stretch targets” – are about 10 per cent below the official “capacity targets” published in the Merlin announcement.

US car giant General Motors appears to be ready to sell its subsiary Opel once again, amid continuing losses at the German firm, SPIEGEL reported. When GM abandoned an effort to sell the firm, the decision caused deep-seated tensions between the American company and the government in Berlin. In 2009, United States car manufacturer General Motors put its German subsidiary Opel up for sale, because GM itself was faced with bankruptcy.

A comprehensive source of information on new lending and demand for credit was called for yesterday to ensure businesses were not dissuaded from applying for bank credit, the Irish Times reported. John Moran, head of bank restructuring with the Department of Finance, said such a source would be “key to showing the reality” of both the demand for and supply of credit. At the annual Experian business lunch Mr Moran said the Government needed to “push ahead” with developing a strategy to put in place a more effective credit information system in Ireland.

A “perfect storm” of fiscal woe in the U.S., a slowdown in China, European debt restructuring and stagnation in Japan may converge on the global economy, New York University professor Nouriel Roubini said, Bloomberg reported. There’s a one-in-three chance the factors will combine to stunt growth from 2013, Roubini said in a June 11 interview in Singapore. Other possible outcomes are “anemic but okay” global growth or an “optimistic” scenario in which the expansion improves. “There are already elements of fragility,” he said.

Embattled care home operator Southern Cross said there had been no decision to close any of its homes after a newspaper reported that it planned to cede control of 132 premises as part of a financial overhaul, Reuters reported. "No decision has been taken to close any of our homes," Southern Cross Chairman Christopher Fisher said in a statement on Friday. "Our primary concern in this matter remains the welfare of the residents living in our homes.

European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet rejected any direct ECB participation in a second bailout for Greece, escalating a clash with governments as they rush to craft a solution involving investors, Bloomberg reported. As politicians try to find a plan by June 24 that would share the cost of a new rescue with bondholders, Trichet yesterday ruled out the Frankfurt-based ECB setting an example with its own assets.