Headlines

Credit Suisse shares slumped by as much as 30% on Wednesday after its largest shareholder said it could not provide further support, prompting the Swiss bank's CEO to make new assurances on its financial strength, Reuters reported. Saudi National Bank, which holds 9.88% of Credit Suisse, said it would not buy more shares on regulatory grounds. Shares in Credit Suisse, which is battling to recover from a string of scandals that have undermined the confidence of investors and clients, were down about 17% in early afternoon trading, after shedding as much as 30% to a new record low.

A Brazilian Senate committee on Tuesday extended formal invitations to central bank chief Roberto Campos Neto and five former executives from beleaguered retailer Americanas SA, asking them to provide details on a pair of sagas that have gripped the country in the opening months of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s presidency, Bloomberg News reported. The Senate’s economic affairs committee wants Campos Neto to explain his position on Brazil’s benchmark interest rate, as Lula and his economic team continue to push for lower borrowing costs in an effort to boost economic growth.

Latin America’s largest airline is planning a return to US capital markets after cutting nearly $4 billion of debt during a years-long restructuring, Bloomberg News reported. Latam Airlines Group SA will seek to re-list its American depositary receipts on the New York Stock Exchange this year after they were suspended during the bankruptcy, Chief Financial Officer Ramiro Alfonsín said in a video interview. It also expects to return to international bond markets next year, he said.

China will steadily reduce the number of high-risk institutions to help fend off systemic financial risks，its central bank said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Reforms of problematic small and mid-sized financial institutions have made key progress and illegal financial activities have been curbed, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said in a statement after its annual meeting on financial stability. The central bank will continue to follow the guidance of "overall planning and coordination, differentiated policies and precise bomb disposal", it said.

China's economic activity picked up in the first two months of 2023 as consumption and infrastructure investment drove recovery from pandemic disruption, despite challenges of weak global demand and a persistent downturn in the property sector, Reuters reported. China's abandonment of COVID-19 controls late in 2022 has reinvigorated an $18 trillion economy that has suffered one of its lowest growth rates in nearly half a century, with analysts expecting momentum to improve further in coming months.

Ukraine won a significant boost in its attempt to set aside a $3 billion defaulted bond after the UK Supreme Court ruled that judges need to consider the backdrop of Russia’s campaign of threatening behavior in the run-up to the annexation of Crimea, Bloomberg News reported. Britain’s top court declared that a judge should pore over Russian attempts to strong-arm Ukraine into issuing the bond, giving the green light to a full-blown London trial.

Argentina’s annual inflation surpassed 100% last month, one of the world’s fastest rates, putting extra pressure on an economy that’s expected to fall into recession ahead of presidential elections this year, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices rose 102.5% in February from a year prior, the highest since late 1991 when the economy was cooling off from 3,000% hyperinflation. Prices rose 6.6% on the month, more than all estimates in a Bloomberg survey of analysts that had a 6% median forecast, according to government data published Tuesday.

Brazil's Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said on Wednesday his proposal for a new fiscal framework was now "at the presidential palace," but did not provide further details, Reuters reported. His remarks to reporters in Brasilia came after CNN Brasil reported he had delivered the framework to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a key step for the proposal to go forward as Haddad previously said Lula would have the final word on it.

Lebanon’s Central Bank chief was again charged with corruption on Wednesday, this time after failing to show up for questioning before a European legal team visiting Beirut in a money-laundering probe linked to the governor, officials said, the Associated Press reported. According to the judicial officials, Gov. Riad Salameh, his brother Raja Salameh and an associate, Marianne Hoayek, were charged with corruption and ordered detained. Their assets were also frozen. The case is separate from other legal proceedings against Salameh underway in Lebanon.

The Justice Department is investigating last year’s collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin, adding the risk of U.S. criminal charges to the pressure on its creator, South Korean crypto entrepreneur Do Kwon, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Southern District of New York have questioned former team members of Mr. Kwon’s company, Terraform Labs Pte. Ltd., in recent weeks and sought to interview others, the people said.