Headlines

Canada’s banking watchdog warned that many homeowners who took out mortgages when rates were near zero during the pandemic will soon face a reckoning as those loans renew, Bloomberg News reported. The “payment shock” faced by some borrowers is among the most important risks currently in the financial system, according to the latest risk outlook from the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, released Wednesday. The regulator said that 76% of outstanding residential mortgages as of February will be coming up for renewal by the end of 2026.

Venezuela’s opposition is weighing a move that would slow the sale of oil assets under its control by having Citgo Petroleum Corp.’s holding company file for bankruptcy in the U.S., Bloomberg News reported. Opposition-appointed Petroleos de Venezuela executives are seeking to retain control of their most important overseas asset, which is up for auction, and are mulling using a U.S. chapter 11 filing to block finalization of its sale, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the tactic.

The trial of exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui began this week in New York, where he’s accused of swindling more than $1 billion from investors in a complex fraud scheme that netted him luxuries including a $26 million New Jersey mansion and a $37 million yacht, Bloomberg News reported. Opening arguments could start this week, once a jury is selected.

Turkey’s central bank kept interest rates unchanged on Thursday and introduced new measures to tackle excess liquidity and curb lending in foreign currencies, Bloomberg News reported. The Monetary Policy Committee led by Governor Fatih Karahan left the benchmark at 50% for a second consecutive month, in line with all forecasts. The MPC maintained its hawkish bias, repeating that its policy will remain tight “until a significant and sustained decline in the underlying trend of monthly inflation,” according to a statement. The lira erased earlier losses and traded little changed as of 5:22 p.m.

South Korea has no plan to lift the short-selling ban until a system is developed to detect illegal trading activities, according to a senior official at the presidential office, Bloomberg News reported. The presidential office’s stance is to not resume short selling until there is a platform to root out naked short sales, the person said. Separately, the Financial Services Commission, the nation’s financial regulator, said no decision has been made regarding the ban.

China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle said on Wednesday its unit had received a letter from the country's local administrative bodies demanding repayment of 1.9 billion yuan ($262.42 million) given as subsidies and incentives, Bloomberg News reported. The local bodies sent a letter of demand for Evergrande Automotive Holdings to terminate a series of investment cooperation agreements made between the parties since April 29, 2019, the electric vehicle (EV) unit of China Evergrande said in a statement.

Mexico’s annual inflation accelerated slightly more than expected during the first two weeks of May, likely fueling bets that the hawkish central bank will be slow to lower its interest rate, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices rose 4.78% from a year prior, the national statistics institute reported on Thursday, a tad above the median forecast of 4.75% in a Bloomberg survey and also up from the 4.67% increase in the prior two-week period.

A director of Indian tech firm Think & Learn Pvt faces financial penalties for defying a US judge’s order to find out where the troubled company stashed $533 million that jilted lenders say should go to them, Bloomberg News reported. Riju Ravindran, the brother of company founder Byju Raveendran, not only failed to make a serious effort to find out what happened to the cash, but deceived the court, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge John Dorsey said during a hearing yesterday in Wilmington, Del. “I conclude Mr. Ravindran’s testimony is not truthful,” Dorsey said.

Several cities across China have lowered down payment and mortgage loan interest rates, in response to the latest wave of stimulus measures to boost lackluster property demand, state media reported, Reuters reported. The down payment for first-time homebuyers in Hefei city and Wuhan city have been lowered from 20% to 15% - the lowest ratio allowed that the central bank announced last week, Shanghai Securities News reported on Wednesday. The ratio for second-time homebuyers was cut from 30% to 25%, the report said.

Oaktree Capital Management took ownership of Italy’s Inter Milan, one of the most storied football clubs in Europe, after its Chinese owner defaulted on a loan, Bloomberg News reported. The US fund has taken control of the club as of Wednesday after conglomerate Suning Holding Group Co. failed to repay €395 million ($428 million), Oaktree said in an emailed statement. The collateral backing the debt was a majority stake in the football club, Bloomberg News reported.