Headlines

The International Monetary Fund is likely to suspend loan payments to Ukraine, a move that would further push the government toward Moscow for aid and exacerbate a feud between top leaders in Kiev, The Wall Street Journal reported. Ukraine is failing to meet the terms of its loan deal with the IMF, and likely won't get the next installment this month, according to a person close to talks between the fund and the government in Kiev. Ukraine Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's government's 2009 budget is forecast to show a deficit of 3% of gross domestic product.

The number of Canadian consumers and businesses going bankrupt soared nearly 47 percent in December, the Associated Press reported. The Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy said Monday 8,299 individuals and businesses went bankrupt in December, up from 5,659 for December, 2007, a jump of 46.7 percent. The latest numbers are a staggering sign of how quickly the Canadian economy has slowed. The financial crisis and the global sell-off of commodities have hit the country hard since the summer.

Mid-tier shipping company Samsun Logix filed for court receivership on Friday, the main creditor Kookmin Bank announced Monday, the first of its kind to throw in the towel since the global financial crisis hit in September. As the amount of shipping decreased due to the recession, Samsun Logix struggled to collect money from customers, Digital Chosun Ilbo reported. A shipping industry insider expressed fears of a domino effect as due to the sub-chartering common in the domestic shipping industry, the collapse of one firm will affect all other companies in the chain.

Ukraine's central bank has placed Bank Kiev, the country's 39th bank in terms of assets, into receivership, offering it protection from creditors, Reuters reported. "Bank Kiev has been placed in receivership, a moratorium (on withdrawals) has been introduced, as is the practice," a central bank official said on Monday. According to central bank data, Bank Kiev's assets stood at 4.9 billion hryvnias ($633 million) as of Jan. 1, its capital totalled 590 million. Individual deposits stood at 2.2 billion hryvnias and corporate deposits at 650 million.

UBS, the Swiss banking giant that sought help from the nation's central bank last year, said Tuesday that it lost 8.1 billion Swiss francs, or $6.9 billion, in the fourth quarter as it continued to write down the value of some debt assets and wealth management clients withdrew funds, the International Herald Tribune reported. The loss, which was bigger than some analysts expected, compares with a loss of 13 billion francs in the fourth quarter of 2007 and a profit in the third quarter of last year.

Nortel Networks Corp is working on a "detailed plan" to further cut its global workforce as it restructures under bankruptcy protection, and it will seek to avoid holding an annual shareholder meeting because it says it would be distracting and expensive, Ernst & Young Inc, the monitor overseeing Nortel's bankruptcy protection, said in a court report posted on its website.

IT Holding SpA, owner of the Gianfranco Ferre fashion label, said Ittierre SpA, its main production and licensing unit, will file for bankruptcy protection after failing to find adequate funding, Bloomberg reported. The bankruptcy order may be extended to the whole company, the Milan-based clothing maker said today in a statement to the Italian exchange. Under the terms of IT Holding’s €185 million ($240 million) senior notes due in 2012, bondholders can call for immediate repayment if a subsidiary goes into administration.

Businesses believe that the credit crunch is going to get even worse over the next three months, according to a survey of companies’ borrowing published on Monday, the Financial Times reported. Almost as many UK businesses foresee a deterioration in their ability to obtain new loans as said they had suffered a drop in their ability to get new finance over the past three months, when financial markets suffered an unprecedented freeze after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

Italian dairy company Parmalat SpA Friday said it has clinched four new deals with banks to settle legal claims related to its 2003 bankruptcy, worth a total of €105 million, Dow Jones reported. Under the terms of a legal settlement reached with Deutsche Bank, the bank will pay Parmalat a total of €76.5 million in return for it abandoning any existing or future claim. In another deal with Banca Popolare dell'Emilia Romagna, Parmalat will get €12.5 million to settle all pending disputes.

Belgium is scrambling to secure the planned sale of troubled banking group Fortis NV to BNP Paribas SA just days ahead of a shareholder vote after the largest shareholder, a Chinese insurer, said Sunday that it will vote to block the deal. The decision by China's Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. is a blow to the Belgian government's plans and the latest sign of growing activism by Chinese investors who took stakes in Western banks last year that have since turned sour, The Wall Street Journal reported.