Headlines

The U.K.'s Financial Reporting Council, the regulator for accounting and auditing, said Monday it had started looking at how Lehman Brothers repo transactions were accounted for and audited in the U.K., Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. It said it was seeking extra information from Lehman's former auditor, Ernst & Young.

The Netherlands and Great Britain are ready to resume talks with Iceland on repayment of over $5 billion lost in the banking crisis, but are waiting for Iceland to propose terms, the Dutch finance ministry said, Reuters reported. "For new talks to be scheduled Iceland should first make a comprehensive proposal taking account of both sides' interests," a spokesman for the ministry said on Monday. He added that Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager and Icelandic Finance Minister Steingrimur Sigfusson spoke last week and agreed that the ball was now in Iceland's court.

European finance ministers laid the groundwork for a financial lifeline to debt-stricken Greece, breaking a taboo against aid to cash-strapped governments in order to avert a crisis for the euro, Bloomberg reported. Officials from the 16 countries using the currency worked out a strategy for emergency loans in case Greece’s plan for 4.8 billion euros ($6.6 billion) in tax increases and wage cuts fails to stave off fiscal disaster.

Taranaki-based Organic Dairy Limited, owned by New Zealand Organic Dairy Farmers Co-operative, has gone into receivership owing an estimated $15 million and costing about 30 jobs, The New Zealand Herald reported. Receivers were appointed on Friday and the Okato factory stopped operating on Saturday, the Taranaki Daily News reported. The directors asked their major creditor, the Bank of New Zealand, to appoint receivers.

Dubai World will present a “fair” plan to restructure about $26 billion of debt as it needs the creditors and contractors for the long-term, the chairman of the Dubai Supreme Fiscal Committee said, BusinessWeek reported. The restructuring proposal will be announced “very soon” and will be drawn up considering the long-term interests of the banks, contractors and Dubai, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum, said in an interview in Dubai today.

Russian business news provider RBC has postponed its buy-back from minority shareholders, saying its bank accounts have been frozen due to a protracted debt restructuring process, Reuters reported. "As soon as OAO RBC Information Systems finalizes its debt restructuring and the money is released from the blocked accounts, the company will perform its obligations to the shareholders in full," the company said in a statement late on Monday.

A lawyer for the New Brunswick government says the province will have to pay Scotiabank $50 million and then seek repayment as a creditor of the Atcon group of companies. John Logan told a court in Miramichi today that under the terms of a loan guarantee to Atcon, the government will pay the bank as early as this week, The Canadian Press reported. Earlier this month, Ernst and Young became a court-appointed monitor after seven Atcon companies were placed under creditor protection, while another five were placed in receivership.

Royal Bank of Scotland is planning a vast balance sheet restructuring in an attempt to boost its capital strength and its standing with bond investors, the Financial Times reported. The move could involve at least £10 billion (€11 billion) of the bank’s £28 billion of debt being bought back at a premium to current prices. Those briefed on the plan, which Mr Saun is expected to announce within the next fortnight, say the bank is drawn to the model unveiled last week by Dutch group Rabobank.

The French used regional elections Sunday to register their unhappiness and punish President Nicolas Sarkozy amid the rising unemployment and growing public debt left by last year's recession, The Wall Street Journal reported. The president, who is more than halfway through his five-year mandate, has said his priority for 2010 would be to overhaul France's debt-choked state-run pension system—a hot issue here that in the past has drawn massive protests and been the downfall of some governments. Although the regional ballot won't affect Mr.

Two key groups of lenders to Gala Coral have agreed the terms of a £2.6 billion restructuring that would cut the gambling group’s debts by a quarter, the Financial Times reported. Committees representing senior and mezzanine lenders have agreed the terms, the company said, and will be seeking the support of the majority of both classes. Gala has been close to agreeing a restructuring with creditors more than once since talks began last year, but this milestone has some people familiar with the process believing that it is closer than before to getting the deal done.