Headlines

Brazil's central bank stated on Tuesday that current monetary policy requires "serenity and patience," indicating that worsening inflation expectations justified its decision to maintain a hawkish stance towards future steps, Reuters reported. In the minutes of the meeting held between March. 21-22, when the rate-setting committee known as Copom kept the benchmark rate at 13.75%, the central bank noted that the Finance Ministry's commitment to implementing fiscal measures and the reinstatement of fuel taxes have reduced the upside risk on short-term inflation.

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said on Tuesday that creditor hierarchy was a "cardinal principle" and in Britain additional tier one (AT1) bondholders would not be treated as they were in the emergency takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS, Reuters reported. "In any resolution we will always abide by the code of hierarchy because that's a cardinal principle," he told a committee of lawmakers.

Global financial regulators should take a closer look at credit default swaps after relatively small transactions in the market amplified last week’s banking turmoil, according to the European Central Bank’s top oversight official, Bloomberg News reported. The Financial Stability Board, which brings together authorities from around the world, could review “how these markets really work,” said Andrea Enria, who leads the ECB’s Supervisory Board.

The Turkish central bank has so tightened its grip over the foreign-exchange market in the runup to May’s presidential election that it’s become the matchmaker for most large transactions, according to several traders who spoke on condition of anonymity. Nearly every trade larger than a few million dollars is subject to its scrutiny and approval, they said, Bloomberg News reported. The traders describe a central bank that’s constantly on the phone with banks, that tracks and vets prices as soon as bids appear on trading platforms, and demands detailed reports on currency operations.

Ghana's government and international bondholders are pushing forward with formal debt talks after advisors to both sides signed non-disclosure agreements, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The West African country, which suspended payments on most of its external debt last year, has picked Lazard as its financial adviser, while a group of international private lenders are represented by Rothschild & Co. Ghana's dollar-denominated debt is more than $13 billion across maturities ranging from 2023 to 2061, according to Refinitiv data.

China spent $240 billion bailing out 22 developing countries between 2008 and 2021, with the amount soaring in recent years as more have struggled to repay loans spent building "Belt and Road" infrastructure, a study published on Tuesday showed, Reuters reported. Almost 80% of the lending was made between 2016 and 2021, mainly to middle-income countries including Argentina, Mongolia and Pakistan, according to the report by researchers from the World Bank, Harvard Kennedy School, AidData and the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

French unions are holding a 10th day of nationwide protests Tuesday to try to force President Emmanuel Macron to hit the brakes on his unpopular pension reform and open fresh talks, Bloomberg News reported. As concerns grow over mounting violence, labor organizations have blamed the government for creating an explosive situation. Marches last Thursday ended in chaos, with hardcore fringes clashing with riot police. Further scuffles have taken place in the days since.

Only 15 percent of the 267 insolvency cases admitted in company law tribunals during October-December 2022 reached resolution with overall recovery of just 27 per cent of claimed amount, the IBBI data showed, the Economic Times of India reported. As much as 45 per cent cases were concluded through liquidation, according to a Kotak Securities analysis of the latest data from the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI).

Sight deposits held by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) jumped last week, data showed on Monday, suggesting that both Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) and UBS (UBSG.S) may have taken big chunks of emergency liquidity to secure their merger, Reuters reported. Sight deposits - cash held by the SNB for commercial banks overnight - jumped to 567 billion Swiss francs ($619 billion) from 515 billion francs a week earlier.

The Swiss government was compelled to intervene to save Credit Suisse Group AG as the troubled bank wouldn’t have survived another day of trading amid a crisis of investor confidence, Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter said, Bloomberg News reported. “CS would not have survived Monday,” Keller-Sutter said in an interview with Zurich newspaper NZZ.