Headlines

An Irish government-commissioned mortgage arrears review group has called for a removal of the current €3 million secured debt limit for individuals to secure insolvency deals, under measures aimed at tackling more than 20,000 long-term arrears cases in the State, the Irish Times reported. A debtor with secured debts in excess of €3 million is not currently eligible to make a proposal for a personal insolvency arrangement (PIA), unless all secured creditors agree to disregard the cap.

U.S.-based Glas Trust is not part of a key panel overseeing the insolvency proceedings of Indian education-technology giant Byju's, and will need to substantiate the $1 billion claim of lenders it represents, according to documents and three sources, Reuters reported. Byju's was once a darling of global investors and valued at $22 billion in 2022, but is now facing insolvency due to its dispute with U.S. lenders. The company became popular by offering online training courses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Its insolvency officer, Pankaj Srivastava, told Glas in a Sept.

For years, mortgages in Japan have been nearly cost free. Homeowners are now bracing for that to change, the New York Times reported. Japan’s central bank had maintained benchmark interest rates near zero since the mid-1990s. As a result, many home buyers have gotten used to paying between 0.3 and 0.4 percent for floating-rate mortgages, or just over 1 percent for longer-term, fixed-rate ones.

Australia’s commodity-rich economy recorded its weakest growth momentum since the early 1990s in the second quarter, as consumers and businesses continued to feel the impact of high interest rates, with little expectation of a reprieve from the Reserve Bank of Australia in the near term, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The economy grew 0.2% in the second quarter from the first, with annual growth running at 1.0%, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday. The results were in line with market expectations.

Poland’s central bank left borrowing costs unchanged yet again, defying growing pressure to restart monetary easing, Bloomberg News reported. The Monetary Policy Council kept its benchmark at 5.75% — the level where it’s been since last October — in line with the forecasts of all 31 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The decision comes amid calls by government officials to reduce interest rates to help boost economic growth and as other eastern European central banks ease policy.

Germany plans to sell a significant part of its stake in Commerzbank AG as it seeks to draw a line under the lender’s bailout more than a decade ago, Bloomberg News reported. Berlin, which owns 16.5% of Commerzbank, will initially target a disposal of 3% to 5% in the Frankfurt-based firm. That could happen as early as this month, with more sales possible at a later date. The German government joins other European administrations including Italy, the Netherlands, the UK and Greece in selling down bank stakes they acquired through various bailouts during the financial crisis.

Deutsche Bank AG bolstered the size of a significant risk transfer by $1 billion after strong investor demand, Bloomberg News reported. SRTs, also known as synthetic risk transfers, allow banks to insure their loans against default by selling notes to investors such as pension, sovereign wealth and hedge funds. For banks, the benefit is that they are able to tie up less of their own capital to meet regulatory requirements. Some of the SRTs have been priced at a yield in the low double digits.

The Bank of Canada is likely to cut interest rates for a third consecutive meeting, as officials try to engineer a soft landing for the economy and inflation worries fade, Bloomberg News reported. Markets and economists widely expect policymakers led by Tiff Macklem to lower the benchmark overnight rate to 4.25% on Wednesday. The key question is whether officials will talk about the longer-range outlook, now that the US Federal Reserve is ready to move and forecasters are expecting a series of rate cuts stretching well into next year.

Kenya’s local borrowing costs are stuck near the highest in almost a decade as uncertainty over funding options mounts, Bloomberg News reported. Protests over tax hikes sought by the International Monetary Fund turned deadly in June and ultimately forced the government to backtrack. With the latest IMF aid tranche on hold for now, officials are opting instead to boost sales of shilling-denominated bonds, keeping yields on the local debt elevated. While a surprise interest-rate cut last month has lowered yields across the curve, borrowing costs remain close to the highest since December 2015.

Lebanon charged its embattled former central bank governor Wednesday with the embezzlement of $42 million, three judicial officials told The Associated Press. Riad Salameh was charged by the Financial Public Prosecution a day after he was detained following an interrogation by Lebanon's top public prosecutor over several alleged financial crimes. His case has been transferred to an investigating judge, the officials added, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.