Headlines

The credit union movement should be subjected to a four year restructuring process, the Commission on Credit Unions recommended in a report published Wednesday, the Irish Times reported. A new Restructuring Board should be established to facilitate the process but it would not be the board’s function to “shepherd” individual credit unions that were small or in difficulty, into “an arranged marriage” with other credit unions, commission chairman Prof Donal McKillop told a press conference.

Argentina’s billionaire Eskenazi family risks default on more than $2 billion of debt after the government seized control of oil company YPF SA and said dividends would probably be reinvested in the company, Bloomberg reported. The family’s Petersen Group, which has 25 percent of YPF, owes Spanish partner Repsol YPF SA 1.45 billion euros ($1.9 billion) after it bought a stake in YPF, the Madrid-based company said April 16. The Eskenazis counted on YPF dividend payments of as much as 90 percent of profit to repay Repsol and about $680 million of loans with banks including Citigroup Inc.

Companies are becoming choosier with their lenders, putting them through rigorous tests and analysing their financial health to pick out business partners, Reuters reported. They are reviewing their bank counterparties, partly in response to worries about the euro zone crisis and its effect on lenders, and because of stricter financial regulations. Gavin Jones, vice-president in the treasury of Netherlands-based Ahold, told the annual conference of the Association of Corporate Treasurers the retailer had examined the banks that it presently deals with.

Australia is ready to help beef up the International Monetary Fund's war chest but needs to see a firm commitment from Europe's leaders to tackle the crisis in their region, Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Wayne Swan said in an interview. "We have to ensure from a global perspective that the IMF has the resources that it requires to deal with any challenges in the future," Mr. Swan told Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal Wednesday ahead of the spring meetings of the fund and the World Bank this week in Washington D.C. Mr.

Julia Gillard has put the onus on the Reserve Bank to bring down interest rates to boost the economy, arguing that Labor has delivered on spending cuts and a budget surplus and there is now room for monetary policy to play a role, The Australian reported. The Prime Minister will tell a business audience in Perth Thursday that cutting interest rates to boost struggling sectors of the economy would be fully consistent with the Reserve Bank's obligations to "best contribute to economic prosperity and full employment".

Spain’s surging bad loans are spurring doubt on whether the government can persuade investors that it can clean up the country’s banks without further damaging public finances, Bloomberg reported. Non-performing loans as a proportion of total lending jumped to 7.91 percent in January, the highest level since 1994, from less than 1 percent in 2007, according to Bank of Spain data. The regulator is set to publish data for February today.

While French President Nicholas Sarkozy paints Socialist challenger Francois Hollande as a threat to the stable euro and France's fiscal discipline, such as it is, economic reality will set a similar course for whomever wins the presidency, Reuters reported in an analysis. The political rhetoric has aimed to magnify the gap between their economic programmes, but it broadly boils down to a timing difference; conservative Sarkozy has committed to balancing the budget in 2016, while Hollande, who leads polls by as much as 10 percentage points for the May 6 runoff, has set a 2017 deadline.

Three Sino-Forest Corp. executives were fired by the insolvent Chinese timber firm and the company’s co-founder and chief financial officer both resigned, in a prelude to formal allegations expected to be laid by the Ontario Securities Commission, The Globe and Mail reported. Allen Chan, the Hong Kong national who co-founded Sino-Forest two decades ago and helped build what was once the largest forestry company on the TSX, resigned as “founding chairman emeritus” and an employee, the company said in a statement. Mr.

The former Anglo Irish Bank may ask the Supreme Court later this week for a speedy hearing of its proposed appeal against a significant ruling permitting bankrupt businessman Seán Quinn’s family to make claims of illegal conduct by the bank in their action aimed at avoiding liability for €2.34 billion loans to companies in the Quinn Group, the Irish Times reported. The bank may also seek a stay on the family’s proceedings pending the outcome of any Supreme Court appeal.

Aquascutum, the venerable British fashion brand that has been worn by Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher, has been placed into administration, The Washington Post reported on an Associated Press story. Administrator Geoff Rowley of FRP Advisory said Tuesday he hopes to find a buyer. The decision to put the brand into administration follows a change of ownership at Jaeger, another longtime British brand that had been united with Aquascutum under the ownership of entrepreneur Harold Tillman.