Headlines

Brazil's central bank said on Tuesday it will liquidate the assets of Banco Morada, which it said was insolvent and had violated legal norms, Reuters reported. The central bank, which in April said it would scrutinize the books of the Rio de Janeiro-based bank due to irregularities, said the controlling shareholders had not presented a viable recovery plan. Banco Morada has only one branch, and its total deposits as of December 2010 represented only 0.01 percent of Brazilian financial system assets and 0.03 percent of deposits, the central bank said in a statement.

Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), formerly known as Anglo Irish Bank, will repay the $1 billion (€718 million) due to senior unguaranteed bondholders next week using emergency loans from the Central Bank, the proceeds of the sale of its US loans and loans maturing at the bank, the Irish Times reported. The bank no longer holds customer deposits to fund the repayment so will have to rely on further drawings under the Central Bank’s exceptional liquidity assistance (ELA) facility to repay the debt.

Bridgecorp renewed investment offers to the public despite directors being aware the finance company had been missing interest payments to securities holders, the Crown argued this morning, The New Zealand Herald reported. The High Court this morning also heard Bridgecorp staff were told to lie to investors calling up asking where their payments were.

NAMA has revealed it would be prepared to sell a small number of assets below what it paid for them -- in a "tactical" attempt to get the property market moving, Independent.ie reported. However, the agency said reports that it would accept discounts of 10pc were "factually incorrect". The agency was responding to a suggestion on a NAMA-related blog that it was prepared to live with a 10pc drop on the prices it paid banks for the assets. The comments about a 10pc markdown were attributed to a senior NAMA executive, John Mulcahy.

European negotiators have asked Greek debt holders to accept a 60 per cent cut in the face value of their bonds, a hardline stance that far exceeds losses agreed in a deal between private investors and eurozone authorities three months ago, the Financial Times reported. The stance, delivered to a consortium of international banks at the weekend by Vittorio Grilli, Italian treasury chief and lead eurozone negotiator, is a victory for German-led northern creditor countries who have been pushing for Greek bondholders to accept far more of the burden for a second bail-out.

The warning signals for Europe's economy are flashing red, but the uncomfortable truth for policymakers is that a restoration of solid growth is hostage to a lasting solution to the euro zone's debt crisis, Reuters reported in an analysis. After another weekend of summiteering in Brussels, the European Union seems no closer to breaking out of a vicious cycle of growth-dampening austerity leading to deeper deficit holes that in turn trigger demands for fresh belt-tightening.

Troubled Swedish car maker Saab Automobile AB edged closer to bankruptcy after it said it had terminated rescue funding agreements with Chinese auto makers Youngman Lotus Automobile Co. and Pang Da Automobile Trade Co., though the three companies remained in talks, The Wall Street Journal reported. Saab is restructuring its operations under creditor protection and is trying to avoid being closed, after the administrator of the restructuring process on Friday moved to have the company thrown out of receivership and declared insolvent.

Two Congressmen from opposite sides of the aisle are calling on the Mexican government to take action in Vitro S.A.B.'s restructuring, which they say could set a "dangerous precedent" that will hurt investors in the Mexican glass company and future cross-border investment, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Rep. Jared Polis (D., Colo.) and Rep. Patrick Meehan (R., Pa.) sent a letter last week to the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C., warning about the danger of allowing Vitro's pending restructuring to proceed.

Most of the money held in trust for two customers at a separate firm run by investment manager Harry Cassidy was used to meet property debts of his failed investment firm, Custom House Capital, the Irish Times reported. According to the report by two Central Bank inspectors, Mr Cassidy, the chief executive of CHC, said he managed “€7 million or €8 million” in client trusts through a firm called ARF Management.

Parliament rejected a call for a referendum on leaving the European Union on Monday, but a large-scale revolt against Prime Minister David Cameron hurt his authority and cast doubt on the country's long-term commitment to Europe, Reuters reported. Around 80 members of Cameron's Conservative Party -- more than a quarter of the total -- defied their leader by voting for the motion, the biggest revolt against a Conservative prime minister on a European issue. "We understand that many people who voted for it felt very strongly -- and we respect that.