Headlines

According to the Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA), 344 people who entered personal insolvency in December 2025 were also involved in a business, up from 249 a year earlier – a 38% year-on-year increase, BrokerNews.com.au reported. That December figure has climbed steadily over four years, from 163 in 2022 to 232 in 2023, 249 in 2024 and now 344, pointing to a structural shift rather than a single-month anomaly.

Canadians are borrowing money across more accounts and at later stages of financial stress as debt balances hit record highs, a new bankruptcy study has found, the Globe and Mail reported. The average insolvent debtor owed $67,496 in unsecured debt, including credit card loans and payday loans, in 2025, Monday’s report from Ontario bankruptcy trustee firm Hoyes, Michalos & Associates Inc. found. It’s the highest average level the firm has recorded since it began tracking that debt 15 years ago.

An Irish High Court ruling on arbitration in construction payments disputes puts builders at increased risk of insolvency unless the Oireachtas changes the law, experts warn, the Irish Times reported. Lawyers say that the court’s ruling in a recent case dealing with the Construction Contracts Act, 2013, could allow clients to stall payments to builders. That could hit cash flows where there are disputes, forcing companies into insolvency, particularly if the economy slows, they predict.

U.S. tariffs are weighing on euro zone growth and inflation but the most affected sectors are also sensitive to interest rates, so cutting borrowing costs could offset the downward price pressures, a European Central Bank blog post said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The U.S. imposed tariffs on most trading partners last year and ECB officials have been studying their likely impact, often coming to opposing conclusions since trade barriers affect the economy on multiple levels.

A loan deal is turning into a problem for German investor Lars Windhorst: The investment company Istar Capital is accusing him in a lawsuit of failing to pay several million euros. To avoid payments, he allegedly even founded new companies and falsified payment receipts. This is according to court documents that Istar filed in the Southern District of New York at the end of last week , and which t-online has obtained. The documents seen by t-online so far contain no evidence to support Windhorst's claim that the lawsuit will soon be resolved.

Germany's standing as an automotive industrial hub risks being hollowed out as investments and jobs drift abroad, an industry association warned on Tuesday, calling on Berlin and Brussels to focus on measures that spur growth, Reuters reported. "Germany is experiencing a huge crisis as a business location," VDA President Hildegard Mueller said.

Wananchi Group, the operator of Zuku internet and pay-television services, is facing a statutory insolvency demand of KSh.46.9 million from CP Cables, drawing attention to the financial pressures behind the fibre broadband market, KenyanWallStreet.com reported. The amount involved is modest by telecommunications standards, but the legal mechanism carries weight. Non-compliance with a statutory demand is treated as evidence that a company is unable to meet its obligations as they fall due, shifting what might otherwise be a commercial dispute into the insolvency arena.

The U.S. is moving to reduce its so-called reciprocal tariff on goods from Bangladesh and offering a new exemption for textile products, the White House said Monday, in the latest adjustment for the South Asian country, Bloomberg News reported. President Donald Trump will lower the country’s overall reciprocal tariff to 19%, after previously slashing the rate from 37% to 20% last year. But the deal also includes a mechanism that allows certain textile merchandise to receive a full exemption from the levies, providing a break to Bangladesh’s apparel industry.

The government has said it will spend £5bn to pay off 90% of the debts English councils have built up through supporting children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to the end of the financial year, BBC.com reported. It comes days after the Local Government Association (LGA) warned that eight in 10 English councils would face bankruptcy, if they had to honour SEND deficits built up in recent years. The LGA, which represents councils in England, welcomed the plans, saying it "removes the immediate threat of insolvency for many councils".

With a deal having now been ratified between Laurentian University and its faculty after a strike lasting nearly three weeks, LU says it has yet to be determined when the semester will resume, although it’s looking like Reading Week will be cancelled, Sudbury.com reported. Despite the Laurentian University Faculty Association (LUFA) presenting the university’s offer to its members without a recommendation for rejection or acceptance, they voted 74 per cent in favour at a Feb. 8 meeting. The university’s board of governors also ratified the deal at a meeting on Feb.