Headlines

The federal bankruptcy court filing earlier this week by Sea Launch Co., the last remaining U.S.-based commercial satellite launch provider, could hand its European and Russian rivals new opportunities to gain control over the industry, The Wall Street Journal reported. The filing underscores the financial weakness of the commercial satellite launch business in the U.S. The partnership's woes are in stark contrast to the expanding, government-supported launch operations aggressively marketed by Russia and the European launch consortium Arianespace.

Bank of Queensland is the subject of an investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, The Australian reported. The regional bank that is based in Brisbane said it was made aware that it was under investigation yesterday. The news comes after the bank told the stock exchange yesterday there was no evidence it had acted dishonestly in relation to clients of collapsed investment group Storm Financial.

Italy has earmarked €300 million ($418 million) to help areas around Fiat's Pomigliano and Termini Imerese plants, where the company is cutting back or changing car output, a cabinet official said. The funds will be provided by the economic planning committee CIPE, Cabinet Undersecretary Gianfranco Micciche told reporters on Friday. Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne called on the government and unions to back its efforts to maintain jobs while cutting output in the country after a meeting on June 18 in Rome.

China's central bank renewed its call on Friday for the creation of a super-sovereign reserve currency to reduce the dollar's global domination, which it said had worsened the financial crisis, Reuters reported. In its annual financial stability report, the central bank did not mention the dollar by name but said it was a serious defect that one currency should tower over all others. "An international monetary system dominated by a single sovereign currency has intensified the concentration of risk and the spread of the crisis," the People's Bank of China said.

The U.N. trade chief said Thursday there is a "missing link" in the international financial system that is becoming more critical as the global economic crisis drags on: What happens when a country is bankrupt and can't pay its debts? Supachai Panitchpakdi told a U.N. financial summit he is trying to help 90 poor countries with vulnerable economies, many with debts beyond 100 percent of the value of their overall economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, The Associated Press reported.

Russia is looking at a bail-out of its banks that would go further than the emergency action taken by the US, amid growing fears that bad loans could paralyse the country’s economy. Igor Shuvalov, deputy prime minister, will consider taking stakes in troubled banks when a group of experts on the financial crisis meets on Friday to discuss ways to recapitalise Russia’s banking system, according to a draft proposal seen by the Financial Times.

In a sign of increased stress in Brazil's economy because of a global recession, the country's loan default rate reached an eight-year high in May despite a continued ongoing decline in average lending rates, Dow Jones reported. Brazil's central bank reported the overall average default rates, which take into account loans 90 days past due, rose to 5.5% in May from 5.2% in April. The May default rate was the highest since September 2000. The bank said the default rate for individual borrowers reached an all-time record during the month, rising to 8.6% from 8.2%.

Further fattening its offer to reclaim bankrupt mining company Asarco LLC, Grupo Mexico SAB de CV affiliate Americas Mining Corp. has filed another reorganization proposal for Asarco, under which it would make $3.1 billion available to pay back claims — including setting up an asbestos liability trust — and bring the company out of Chapter 11, Bankruptcy Law360 reported. The upped bid is one of three competing plans to reorganize bankrupt Asarco. Under the other plans, Asarco would either be sold to India-based Sterlite Industries Ltd.

South Korean companies operating at a joint industrial estate in North Korea have said they face bankruptcy in many cases because of icy cross-border relations, Agence France-Presse reported. In a joint statement they demanded that the South Korean government improve ties with the North so that the Kaesong estate can run normally. The factory bosses also demanded that the communist North withdraw "unilateral and unacceptable" wage and rent demands, ease restrictions on border crossings and guarantee the safety of South Koreans working there.

The Swiss National Bank is attempting to put a “line in the sand” with its first intervention in the foreign-exchange market in more than a decade after previous attempts to weaken the franc failed, Bloomberg reported. Currency traders said the Zurich-based central bank intervened twice yesterday, driving the franc down against more than 150 currencies tracked by Bloomberg. It fell the most in three months versus the dollar and euro. The franc extended declines today.