Headlines

Out-of-pocket creditors have been in a forgiving mood since Covid-19 shuttered businesses in 2020, but that looks to be changing, Bloomberg News reported. A form of legal action in which creditors can apply to have companies shut down and their assets sold to pay debts has become increasingly common. Firms were protected from some forms of creditor action by legislation brought in during the pandemic, but those restrictions ended earlier this year.

Fifty-one local firms have filed for bankruptcy, according to a public notice released by the Rwanda Development Board in October, Taarifa reported. Majority of these companies are from Gasabo, Kicukiro, Nyarugenge and Musanze districts. As per the notice, any person or institution can deliver a notice of objection to the Registrar General at RDB to halt the closure in a period of 20 days.

The Czech Republic held borrowing costs at the highest level since 1999 as the central bank expects a looming recession to curb the worst inflation in three decades, Bloomberg News reported. Policy makers left the benchmark rate at 7%, keeping it stable for a third meeting after the bank’s new leadership halted a year of rapid monetary tightening. The bank also said it will maintain its intervention policy of preventing excessive koruna swings, which has helped the currency outperform regional peers this year.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government will propose a tax on corporate stock buybacks in an effort to encourage companies to invest in domestic operations and workers, Canadian Press reported, Bloomberg News reported. The story, which cited an unnamed government official, didn’t elaborate on the plan that will be part of Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s budget update on Thursday. A person familiar with the document told Bloomberg News the report was accurate, without providing additional details.

A mansion belonging to embattled China Evergrande Group's chairman in Hong Kong's prestigious The Peak residential enclave has been seized by lender China Construction Bank (Asia), records from the Land Registry show, Reuters reported. The bank appointed receivers to take over the 5,000 sq ft (465 sq m) mansion on Nov. 1, according to a filing.

Debt-laden property developer China Evergrande Group said on Tuesday its unit received a notice of enforcement for unrecoverable funds from Shengjing Bank Co Ltd, Reuters reported. The bank said it failed to recover funds totalling 32.595 billion yuan ($4.48 billion), which was provided to the unit from 2020 to 2021, according to Evergrande. In early September, state-owned companies of the Chinese northestern city of Shenyang bought Evergrande's shareholding in Shengjing Bank in an auction for 7.3 billion yuan.

A bankruptcy court in Mumbai has admitted listed infrastructure firm Valecha Engineering under the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) and has appointed Anurag Kumar Sinha as the interim resolution professional of the company, the Economic Times of India reported. The State Bank of India (SBI) had filed an application in the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) after the company failed to repay its dues exceeding Rs 347 crore.

The Bank of Canada has not ruled out another oversized interest rate hike to fight sky-high inflation, governor Tiff Macklem said on Tuesday, acknowledging Canadians feel "ripped off" by fast rising prices, Reuters reported. Macklem, answering questions in the Senate's banking, trade and economy committee, said that while the central bank is starting to see signs rate increases are slowing the economy, it is still in excess demand.

The Bank of Canada on Wednesday said it would take a flexible, risk-based approach in its nascent role as a digital payment regulator, aiming to ensure confidence in the safety and reliability of the fast-growing electronic payment segment, Reuters reported. The central bank became the regulator for payment service providers (PSPs) like card networks, digital wallets and money transfer services under Canadian law last year. It is now working with the federal government on setting out how that supervision will work.

Plans by central banks to launch digital currencies are not a threat to other cryptocurrencies as they would validate blockchain technology and build trust among sceptics, the CEO of the world's largest crypto exchange, Binance, said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Most major central banks, including the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank, are studying the potential launch of a digital version of their currencies, dubbed CBDC. "Is it (CBDC) a threat to Binance or other crypto-currencies? I don’t think so.