Headlines

Many Blockbuster Canada stores are expected to close in the coming weeks and the rest will soon be put up for sale, the group overseeing the struggling chain’s receivership proceedings said Tuesday, the Toronto Sun reported. Grant Thornton Ltd., was appointed Blockbuster Canada Co.’s receiver earlier this month by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. Some stores will be consolidated, but the majority of Blockbuster’s some 400 Canadian outlets will continue to operate as usual while Grant Thornton seeks potential buyers.
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Fissures among Europe’s currency partners are becoming even deeper and more widespread than was previously evident, raising new doubts about whether the group can resolve the regional debt crisis that has simmered for more than a year, the International Herald Tribune reported. The markets seem to reflect the growing discord within the 17-member euro zone currency union, barely a year after European governments came together with a 750 billion euro ($1 trillion) safety net for debtor-nation members.
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As banks across Europe clean up their balance sheets, it is causing a feeding frenzy among hedge funds and private-equity firms hungry for their troubled assets, The Wall Street Journal reported. Many marquee funds are flocking around the dozens of European lenders that recently have ratcheted up efforts to get rid of soured loans and other assets, a legacy of profligate lending and investing before the financial crisis.
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Small and medium-sized Brazilian lenders will have to merge with rivals to strengthen their capital base and revamp their fundraising structure, central bank director Anthero Meirelles said in a newspaper interview published on Monday, Reuters reported. Smaller financial institutions must "adapt their strategies" to face a more competitive landscape in the industry, Meirelles, the central bank's industry watchdog, told Valor Economico.
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Banks Lend €8 Billion To SMEs

AIB and Bank of Ireland have lent €8 billion to small and medium business in the last year, €2 billion more than government targets, according to the latest quarterly report from the Credit Review Office, the Irish Times reported. The two main Irish banks – which are responsible for about 60 per cent of the lending market – had been required to lend €3 billion each to SMEs this year, as a condition of the State’s support for the banks.
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Timbercorp Trio Face The Music

Failed agribusiness Timbercorp's former directors must today face a class-action suit filed against them in 2009 by more than 2000 investors in the Supreme Court, the Financial Standard reported. The investors have made allegations of conflicts of interest, breaches of directors' duties, misleading conduct and other violations of the Corporations Act following the collapse of the company which went into voluntary administration in 2009 with a net debt of more than $900 million.
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The foreign chief executive of embattled Tokyo Star Bank is likely to be asked to step down, people familiar with the discussions said on Monday, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Robert M. Berardy, a rare foreign CEO at the helm of Japanese bank, will likely be asked to leave after creditors gain control of the bank from its current owner--private equity fund Advantage Partners LLC--according to the people. Masaru Irie, one of directors of the bank and its chief administrative officer, will likely be promoted to the bank's president, the people said.
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The International Monetary Fund has issued its strongest hint yet that other European countries and EU institutions should share the costs of Ireland’s banking crisis, the Irish Times reported. During a telephone conference Saturday, Ajai Chopra – the most senior fund official dealing with the Ireland brief – said Ireland’s problems were “a shared European problem that requires a shared European solution”. He said more European funding needed to be made available for bailed-out countries if the euro area crisis is to be contained.
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Kenyan workers lost buying power last year despite being awarded pay increments after a two-year freeze caused by the combination of the 2008 post-election violence and global economic recession, official data released last week shows, Business Daily Africa reported. Though nominal wages were up by an average of 3.5 per cent, prices of goods and services rose at a higher rate of 4.1 per cent, leaving workers with negative real wages, according to Economic Survey 2011.
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When Jan Hommen was approached to run ING Groep NV, the timing couldn't have been worse. The Dutchman was just planning to move to the U.S. and spend more time with his children and grandchildren. And, having little experience in banking and insurance, he was far from the obvious choice to guide the Dutch bancassurer through the biggest crisis in its history, The Wall Street Journal reported. "I have to admit that it was a bit disconcerting," he says. "My first thought was: Do I have what it takes to pull this off?" More than two years later, his doubts have faded.
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