Headlines

Brazil's central bank ordered on Wednesday the liquidation of Will Financeira SA, a unit of ​troubled lender Banco Master, in the latest drastic step involving ‌illiquid institutions tied to the conglomerate, Reuters reported. The move comes a day after Mastercard said that it ‌had suspended Will Bank cards from its network due to non-compliance with settlement schedules under its payments arrangement.

The operators of a suspected £200 million Ponzi scheme that put people’s “life savings” at risk have been bankrupted as part of U.K. efforts to track down investors’ money, The Times reported. Individuals behind 79th Group were adjudged bankrupt by Liverpool county court last week over debts linked to an alleged investment scam that owes money to thousands of people in the UK and overseas. The scheme’s operators, who The Times has chosen not to name for legal reasons, were pursued by certain investors.

Lawmakers in the European Parliament agreed to put off work on the European Union’s trade agreement with the U.S. as President Trump continues his push take over Greenland, the Wall Street Journal reported. “By threatening the territorial integrity and sovereignty of an EU member state and by using tariffs as a coercive instrument, the U.S. is undermining the stability and predictability of EU-U.S. trade relations,” Bernd Lange, chair of the parliament’s international trade committee, said in a statement Wednesday.

EU lawmakers voted on Wednesday to challenge the European Union's contentious free trade agreement with South America in the bloc's top court, a move ​that could delay the deal by two years and potentially derail it, Reuters reported. The European Union signed ‌its largest-ever trade pact with Mercosur members Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay on Saturday after 25 years of negotiations. It still requires ‌approval before it can take effect.

Risky hedge funds are propping up Britain’s government debt markets and creating fresh dangers to financial stability, Andrew Bailey has warned, The Telegraph reported. The Bank of England Governor said on Tuesday that traders now “dominated” the ownership of the UK’s £3tn market for bonds – known as gilts – increasing the risk of rapid sales if they seek quick profits. Mr Bailey told MPs on the Treasury select committee: “There has been a huge change in, frankly, the structure and nature of intermediation of Government bond markets in the past five [to] 10 years.

Inflation in the United Kingdom rose in December for the first time in five months, pushing further above the Bank of England's target, according to official figures released on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. The Office for National Statistics said the consumer prices index rose by an annual rate of 3.4% in December, up from 3.2% the month before. It said increases in taxes on tobacco products and trips abroad over Christmas contributed to the increase. The increase was slightly lower than anticipated, with most economists predicting a rise to 3.5%.

Property price inflation slowed to 6.6 per cent in the year to November, down from the 7.2 per cent recorded in October, new data from Ireland's Central Statistics Office shows, the Irish Times reported. Property prices in Dublin rose by 5 per cent, while prices outside the capital were up by 7.9 per cent compared with November 2024. The median price of a home purchased in the 12 months to November was €384,000. The highest median price was €677,000 in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, while the lowest was €190,000 in Donegal.

A health club in Derbyshire where a sauna fire broke out at the weekend has struck a deal with its creditors, including HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), BBC.com reported. Mark Clifford PT Ltd, which operates The Clifford Health Club and Spa in Long Eaton, has entered a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), which allows insolvent limited companies to continue trading if they agree to pay creditors over a fixed period. Documents show HMRC is owed more than £1m and British Gas owed £166,999.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung ​said on Wednesday if Washington introduced higher U.S. tariffs on semiconductor imports, it would likely boost U.S. prices, playing down concerns ‌about the proposed duty, Reuters reported. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said that South Korean and Taiwanese chipmakers may face tariffs of up to 100% unless they commit to increased production on American soil. Lee said that given South Korean and Taiwanese chipmakers' dominance of the market, a 100% U.S. import duty would likely sharply raise prices for chip products in the United States.

Britain’s financial watchdogs are not doing enough to stop AI from harming consumers or destabilising markets, a group of lawmakers said on Tuesday, urging regulators to move away from a "wait and see" approach as the technology is deployed widely, Reuters reported. The Financial Conduct Authority and the Bank of England should start running AI‑specific stress tests to help firms prepare for market shocks triggered by automated systems, the Treasury Committee said in a report on AI in financial services.