Headlines

The delinquency rate of South Korean credit card firms rose in the fourth of last year from three months earlier amid the ongoing economic slumping, the Korea Times reported on Thursday. The default ratio of Samsung Card and four other card firms reached 3.43 percent at the end of last year, up 0.15 percentage point from three months earlier, data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) showed.

A proposed Buy American provision in Washington’s forthcoming economic stimulus bill would breach the principles of the World Trade Organisation, Japan’s prime minister asserted on Wednesday in an escalation of international opposition to the US plans, the Financial Times reported. Taro Aso’s condemnation in the Japanese Diet highlights widespread concerns among US trading partners about the proposed requirement for US companies to use domestic steel and manufacturing products in infrastructure projects funded by the stimulus bill.

Panasonic Corp. joined a growing list of Japanese electronics firms to forecast a huge loss for the current fiscal year and said it plans to cut about 5% of its work force to combat a sharp slowdown in demand and ease the burden of a strong yen, The Wall Street Journal reported. The announcement by Panasonic, considered one of the standout performers within Japan's electronics industry, indicates just how grim the outlook is for the country's flagship manufacturing industries.

Icelandic retailer Baugur, which holds stakes in House of Fraser, French Connection and Debenhams, said today that it has applied for bankruptcy protection, RTÉ reported. The decision came after the Icelandic retailer said last week it would close its Reykjavik office and cut staff in Britain. In December, the heads of Baugur were also charged with tax evasion amounting to €1.9 million from 1998 to 2003.

In a working report to the Shanghai local people's congress last month, Mayor Han Zheng said the city will "enhance the construction of Lujiazui financial city" as part of its plan to build itself into a world financial center like New York and London, the Xinhua news agency reported. The plan says that by 2010, Lujiazui will become a key cluster of financial institutions, funds and talents, and will serve as China's pilot area for financial innovation and standard-setting.

The number of registered unemployed people in Spain swelled by nearly 200,000 in January, the fastest monthly increase in more than a decade, as companies struggling with declining sales and liquidity problems laid off workers or declared bankruptcy, the International Herald Tribune reported. The Labor Ministry said Tuesday that the number of people out of work rose to 3.33 million, a 6.4 percent increase over December and a jump of 47 percent since January 2008.

A troubled Lancashire theme park and hotel has been put into receivership, the BBC reported. Camelot has struggled to compete with attractions such as Blackpool Pleasure Beach in recent years. Receivers say they are optimistic about finding a buyer for the hotel, but the park looks unlikely to reopen in April following its winter break. Owner Prime Resorts made 18 hotel staff redundant last month. A further 29 jobs are being axed in the receivership. Managers have made no secret of the theme park's problems and have been pursuing plans to close it and build new village on the site.

Famed German model railway maker Maerklin filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors on Wednesday after it failed to secure new credit from banks, the International Herald Tribune reported. Maerklin Holding GmbH made the bankruptcy filing at a court in Goeppingen, the company's southwestern German home town. The company said that its everyday business would continue unaffected. Maerklin began 150 years ago as a small factory making tin toys and has evolved into an iconic name in the model railway market.

The U.K. government will consider the possibility of splitting off banks' toxic assets into separate "bad banks" if its latest package of measures to shore up their finances doesn't work, U.K. Treasury chief Alistair Darling said. In a sign of the government's growing concern about heavy losses at some of the country's biggest banks, Mr. Darling told a parliamentary committee Tuesday that "in some cases it could be easier to do a good-bad bank split" to put banks in a better position to begin lending again.

Fiat SpA is racing to meet a Feb. 17 deadline to comb through the operations of Chrysler LLC before going forward with a joint venture by the car makers, Fiat's chief executive said in an interview Monday with The Wall Street Journal. Under terms of the emergency loans Chrysler received from the U.S. government, it must present a plan by that date showing how it intends to be viable. The Fiat pact is a key part of the effort. Sergio Marchionne said Fiat is still studying the vehicle-production operations of Chrysler and then will turn to its due-diligence analysis of its finances.