Headlines

The International Monetary Fund’s chief said China is shifting its thinking about participating in debt restructuring after being confronted by countries unable to pay what they owe, signaling hope the world’s second-largest economy will help provide relief for distressed nations, Bloomberg News reported. China — now the biggest lender to developing economies — has joined traditional western creditors from the Paris Club in recognizing the need to create a better mechanism for debt overhauls, Kristalina Georgieva said.

Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission is processing applications for digital exchanges on a trial basis in a bid to widen market participation in Africa’s most populous country where the central bank restricts trading in cryptocurrencies, Bloomberg News reported. The SEC is considering permitting tokenized coin offerings on licensed digital exchanges that are backed by assets including equity, debt, property but “not crypto,” Abdulkadir Abbas, head of securities and investment services at the Abuja-based commission said in an interview in Lagos.

The government's plan to overhaul the judicial system is harming investor confidence and pushing high-tech firms to relocate abroad, Israel's state-backed agency that supports high-tech companies said on Monday, Reuters reported. A survey by the Israel Innovation Authority found 80% of startups established so far this year were opened outside Israel and that companies also intend to register their future intellectual property overseas - which would result in a severe blow to Israel's tax coffers.

Canadian Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry François-Philippe Champagne yesterday launched a consultation seeking feedback from universities, experts, lenders and other stakeholders on how to better protect the public interest functions of public post-secondary educational institutions when they become insolvent, according to a press release. "What happened at Laurentian University has raised concerns as to whether our current insolvency laws are fit for purpose to help publicly funded post-secondary institutions resolve financial distress," Champagne said.

Inflation expectations in Britain eased in April, bank Citi said on Monday, offering some relief to the Bank of England which is expected to announce a 12th straight interest rate hike next week with investors betting on further increases after that, Reuters reported. Citi said its monthly survey conducted by market research company YouGov showed public expectations for inflation in 12 months' time eased to 5.2% in April from 5.4% in March and expectations for five to 10 years ahead fell to 3.6% from 3.7%.

The Bank of Japan indicated it has more confidence in much-awaited wage increases for this fiscal year, a shift that is likely to keep fueling market speculation over policy adjustments this year, Bloomberg News reported. “It is highly likely that the growth rate of scheduled cash earnings will increase clearly this year,” the central bank said in its full quarterly economic report released Monday.

Embattled property developer China Evergrande Group said on Thursday it would extend the deadline for receiving an incentive for its debt restructuring proposal to May 18 as the company disclosed levels of support from offshore debt-holders for its proposal, Reuters reported. Evergrande said that 77% holders of class-A debts and 30% holders of class-C debts have submitted their respective support for the restructuring proposal, among others.

The number of companies declared insolvent in England and Wales in the first three months of 2023 was up 18% on a year earlier and remained close to the 13-year high recorded in the final quarter of 2022, government data showed on Friday, Reuters reported. Some 5,747 companies in England and Wales were declared insolvent in the first quarter of this year compared with 5,969 in the final quarter of 2022, which was the highest number since mid 2009, the seasonally adjusted figures showed.

Belgian cryptocurrency lending platform Bit4You has suspended its operations after one of its service providers, CoinLoan, was declared insolvent by a court in Estonia, CoinDesk.com reported. Bit4You learned of CoinLoan's insolvency on April 24, and that it no longer has necessary registration as a digital asset custodian, the lender said in a blog post on Wednesday. There has yet to be any indication that the funds held with CoinLoan will not be recovered, Bit4You added.