Headlines

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Japan's biggest bank by assets, said on Monday it plans to close about 50 branches and cut 1,000 jobs over the next three years as part of its ongoing effort to cut costs, The Wall Street Journal reported. The plan for its core banking unit Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, includes shutting down at least 200 automatic teller machines. Firing people in Japan is extremely difficult because of tough labor laws protecting staff and public pressure on companies to preserve social stability.

Bankers on Wall Street and in Europe have struck back against moves by US lawmakers to slap punitive taxes on bonuses paid to high earners at bailed-out institutions, the Financial Times reported. Senior executives on both sides of the Atlantic on Friday warned of an exodus of talent from some of the biggest names in US finance, saying the “anti-American” measures smacked of “a McCarthy witch-hunt” that would send the country “back to the stone age”. “There are three big industries where the US has global leadership: financial services, media and technology.

The current global financial crisis is different from all the others since the end of the second world war, George Soros argued in a Financial Times editorial. Among other measures, both Europe and the US in effect guaranteed that no other important financial institution would be allowed to fail. This necessary step had unintended adverse consequences: many other countries, from eastern Europe to Latin America, Africa and south-east Asia, could not offer similar guarantees. As a result, capital fled from the periphery to the centre.

AbitibiBowater Inc. and its key investors were in 11th-hour talks yesterday to save a critical debt restructuring plan threatened by several holdout U.S. banks. A spokesman declined to comment on the possibility that the banks might torpedo the plan. He said, however, that the Montreal-based company is pushing ahead on talks with all concerned parties aimed at securing approval for the sweeping restructuring. Two of the company's main shareholders, Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd.

Carmaker Renault on Friday announced a production boost at one of its French plants but distanced itself from a minister's comments that the move amounted to transfer of foreign auto jobs back to home soil, Reuters reported. As the world's leading carmakers battle to survive the worst sales crisis for decades in an industry now flirting with protectionism, French Industry Minister Luc Chatel characterised the temporary output increase as a first sign that aid measures for the country's auto sector were working.

The launch of an Irish '"bad bank" to quarantine toxic debts of the banks could require loan write-offs which match or are more severe than the banks’ worst-case scenarios under proposals being devised for the Government, Finfacts Ireland reported. Economist Dr Peter Bacon has advised the Irish Government to establish a bad debt company to offload the problem loans off the banks’ balance sheets to free up lending.

Spain's publicly traded banks have weathered the financial storm remarkably well thus far--but that's only half the story. Around 48% of Spain's lending business is in the hands of cajas de ahorro, unlisted savings banks largely controlled by the country's regional governments. Amid the collapse in the Spanish construction sector and an ensuing jump in delinquent loans, many of these are in trouble. The industry body that represents them is calling on the government to take urgent action or face "dramatic consequences." The Spanish government hasn't yet responded.

Sony Corp. said it will impose a salary freeze on its full-time workers in Japan for one year to cut costs as the electronics giant braces for a massive loss amid a deepening global downturn, The Wall Street Journal reported. The salary freeze will be effective from April, and Sony's managers with non-board posts will be also take a 35% to 40% cut in their annual bonuses for the fiscal year starting next month, a Sony spokeswoman said. "Our business environment is severe.

A company that was once Northwestern Ontario’s largest employer received another devastating fiscal blow, Thunder Bay’s Source reported. Buchanan Forest Products, which runs the wood harvesting operations for the Buchanan Group of Companies, has gone into receivership. Buchanan vice-president Hartley Multimaki said a major creditor, the TD bank, requested that Deloitte and Touche step up its role from company monitor to receiver to protect the bank's investment.

Bankruptcy petitions in Hong Kong rose to a more than five-year high in February as the recession in the city deepened, government data showed Friday. The government said 1,500 bankruptcy petitions from individuals and non-limited firms were filed during the month, up from 1,266 in January, Dow Jones Newswires reported. February's figure was the highest since October 2003, when 1,648 bankruptcy petitions were filed as Hong Kong was recovering from the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome crisis. The data come amid signs of further deterioration in local economic conditions.