Headlines

For a bank, a loss of confidence is a fatal blow. After that occurred at several banks in the United States and Switzerland in the past few weeks, policymakers in the eurozone have been trying to shore up confidence in the region’s banking sector, the New York Times reported. At a conference in Frankfurt last week, representatives from the European Central Bank spoke confidently of the strength of the financial regulations and the intensity of the banking oversight in the 20-country bloc that uses the euro currency.

The head of Australia's prudential regulator said on Tuesday the country's banks were among the best placed in the world to handle a financial crisis, following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) that roiled international markets, Reuters reported.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni’s government is preparing a new package worth €4.9 billion ($5.3 billion) that extends support to low-income families while weaning others off aid, Bloomberg News reported. The money won’t require extra deficit spending by tapping a €21 billion reserve already set aside in the budget, as well as reaping the benefit of higher-than-expected economic growth, said the people, who declined to be named as discussions over the bill are ongoing.

The management team at Brazilian retailer Americanas SA told its external auditor and internal auditing committee as late as December 2022 that there were no supply-chain financing operations taking place at the firm, Bloomberg News reported. At the same time, executives gave the securities regulator CVM conflicting information, and a central bank system showed the account registering supply chain financing at the firm had ballooned to almost 17 billion reais ($3.2 billion).

The head of the International Monetary Fund called for greater vigilance over the global financial system during a speech in China on Sunday in which she also pointed to “green shoots” emerging in the world’s second-largest economy, CNN.com reported. “Risks to financial stability have increased,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said during remarks at the China Development Forum in Beijing. Georgieva lauded how policy-makers had acted swiftly in response to the banking crisis, citing the recent collaboration by major central banks to boost the flow of US dollars around the world.

Average potential global economic growth will slump to a three-decade low of 2.2% per year through 2030, ushering in a "lost decade" for the world's economy, unless policymakers adopt ambitious initiatives to boost labor supply, productivity and investment, the World Bank warned on Monday, Reuters reported. Failure to reverse the expected broad-based slowdown in potential gross domestic product (GDP) growth would have profound implications for the world’s ability to tackle climate change and reduce poverty, it said in a new report.

Cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun is attempting to revive the fortunes of digital-assets exchange Huobi by shifting its focus back to China—with the aid of a digital citizenship program from a tiny Caribbean island, the Wall Street Journal reported. Sun is pushing the Beijing-founded company to win customers in Hong Kong and China, despite a ban on crypto trading in the mainland that forced Huobi to stop accepting business from there.

China Evergrande Group, the giant property developer that defaulted on its U.S. dollar bonds more than a year ago, has struck a crucial deal with a group of bondholders, bringing its prolonged debt negotiations close to the finish line, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Guangzhou-based developer became the highest profile victim of the Chinese government’s deleveraging campaign more than two years ago, which fueled a sharp slowdown in the property sector and ultimately led to dozens of dollar bond defaults.

European Central Bank head Christine Lagarde told EU leaders euro zone banks were resilient because they have strong capital and liquidity positions, but that the ECB could provide liquidity if needed, EU officials said on Friday, Reuters reported. Lagarde was presenting her assessment of economic and financial developments to EU leaders as European banking stocks fell sharply, with Deutsche Bank and UBS knocked by worries that actions by regulators and central banks have not yet contained the worst problems.

Swiss financial regulator FINMA said it was considering whether to take disciplinary action against Credit Suisse managers after Switzerland's second largest bank had to be rescued last week by UBS, Reuters reported. FINMA President Marlene Amstad told Swiss newspaper NZZ am Sonntag it was "still open" whether new proceedings would be started, but the regulator's main focus was on "the transitional phase of integration" and "preserving financial stability".