Headlines

Stock exchanges and asset managers have squared off ahead of European Union negotiations this week over how much information investors should be given to find the best deals on Europe's fragmented stock markets, Reuters reported. The European Parliament and EU states begin negotiations on Tuesday on finalising reform of the bloc's securities rules, known as MiFID, aimed at making its capital market more efficient now that if faces competition from a post-Brexit London.

Major central banks may be deep into their drive to raise interest rates in hopes of killing inflation, but the endgame remains far from clear as price increases prove harder to slow than expected, and analysts caution that financial markets could still break along the way, Reuters reported. The U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England are all still raising rates, and policymakers are open about the massive uncertainty surrounding their projections and the risk they may have to do more than expected.

Argentina and the International Monetary Fund are going back to the drawing board on the country’s $44 billion program as a record drought is expected to push the country into recession, an Economy Ministry official said, Bloomberg News reported. All options are on the table in the fifth review of the IMF’s biggest program, including discussions on disbursements, said the official, who asked not to be named discussing private talks. An IMF spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment during weekend hours.

South Korea’s financial authorities will drastically reform the country’s 10-year-old system to better manage and supervise savings banks as the failures of U.S. Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse Group AG have heightened uncertainties in the global financial market and concerns over non-performing real estate project financing loans in the country, according to sources from the financial circle on Sunday, Pulse reported.

Brazil analysts lowered their 2023 interest rate forecasts for the first time in a year and a half as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva puts the finishing touches on a proposal aimed to control the growth of public debt, Bloomberg News reported. The benchmark Selic will fall to 12.5% this December, down from the prior estimate of 12.75%, according to a central bank survey of economists published Monday. It was the first reduction for 2023 since October, 2021. Estimates for borrowing costs at the end of next year remained unchanged at 10%.

The Malaysian government is re-evaluating a $3.9 billion settlement deal reached between the previous administration and U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs over the 1MDB financial scandal, state news agency Bernama reported on Monday, Reuters reported. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Monday a government taskforce looking into 1MDB issues was scrutinising the 2020 deal with Goldman, adding that it was a matter of recovering public funds, Bernama reported.

European Union lawmakers want to give regulators new powers to govern the development of technologies like those behind ChatGPT, the biggest push so far in the West to curb one of the hottest areas in artificial intelligence, the Wall Street Journal reported. The breakneck pace of AI development in recent months requires a new set of rules tailored to powerful, general-purpose AI tools, a group of influential EU lawmakers say in an open letter they plan to publish Monday.

A committee of Sri Lanka's international private creditors sent its first debt rework proposal to the country's authorities regarding over $12 billion in bonds outstanding, Reuters reported. It is the first bondholder proposal after the island-nation of 22 million people defaulted on its debt a year ago. It is a first formal step to engage with the country's authorities. Details of the proposal were not immediately available. Representatives for the government did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson representing the creditor committee declined to comment.

China can phase out currency intervention by gradually reducing the amount and frequency of its forays into the market, the country's central bank governor said on Saturday, underscoring Beijing's resolve to keep up efforts to boost the yuan's global presence, Reuters reported. People's Bank of China Governor Yi Gang also said the central bank will seek to guide monetary policy so that real interest rates move slightly below the potential growth rate. "We have been trying to maintain the exchange rate stable for some time.

The NCLT has granted Future Retail Ltd (FRL) an extension of 90 days for concluding the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) of the company, the Economic Times of India reported. Allowing FRL's plea the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has extended the deadline to July 15, 2023, for concluding the CIRP of FRL. "... NCLT on April 13, 2023, heard the application and granted the said exclusion of 90 days from CIRP of FRL and consequent extension for completion of CIRP till July 15, 2023," said a regulatory filing from the company.