Canada’s banking watchdog warned that many homeowners who took out mortgages when rates were near zero during the pandemic will soon face a reckoning as those loans renew, Bloomberg News reported. The “payment shock” faced by some borrowers is among the most important risks currently in the financial system, according to the latest risk outlook from the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, released Wednesday. The regulator said that 76% of outstanding residential mortgages as of February will be coming up for renewal by the end of 2026.

Venezuela’s opposition is weighing a move that would slow the sale of oil assets under its control by having Citgo Petroleum Corp.’s holding company file for bankruptcy in the U.S., Bloomberg News reported. Opposition-appointed Petroleos de Venezuela executives are seeking to retain control of their most important overseas asset, which is up for auction, and are mulling using a U.S. chapter 11 filing to block finalization of its sale, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the tactic.

The trial of exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui began this week in New York, where he’s accused of swindling more than $1 billion from investors in a complex fraud scheme that netted him luxuries including a $26 million New Jersey mansion and a $37 million yacht, Bloomberg News reported. Opening arguments could start this week, once a jury is selected.

Mexico’s annual inflation accelerated slightly more than expected during the first two weeks of May, likely fueling bets that the hawkish central bank will be slow to lower its interest rate, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices rose 4.78% from a year prior, the national statistics institute reported on Thursday, a tad above the median forecast of 4.75% in a Bloomberg survey and also up from the 4.67% increase in the prior two-week period.

Canada’s annual rate of core inflation eased for a fourth straight month, bolstering a case for policymakers to begin an easing cycle in the coming months, but a slight increase in the monthly pace may keep a June rate cut from being a certainty, Bloomberg News reported. The Bank of Canada’s two core inflation measures slowed in April to an average yearly pace of 2.75%, down from 3.05% a month earlier, Statistics Canada reported Tuesday in Ottawa. That’s slightly slower than the 2.8% expected in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

Canadian business insolvencies have climbed to levels not seen since the financial crisis of 2008, driven by indebted companies struggling with interest rates and softened consumer demand. But even those official insolvency statistics don’t tell the full picture, according to a commentary in The Globe and Mail. Economists and professionals who work with small and medium-sized businesses warn that the actual number of businesses that fail is much higher, with other data suggesting the problem is growing.

Bidders in a U.S. court auction of shares that will decide the ownership of Venezuela-owned U.S. oil refiner Citgo Petroleum can be required to say if their binding offers cover claims by Venezuela bondholders in a separate court action, a U.S. District Court judge ruled on Friday, Reuters reported. The decision lets bidders seeking to place multi-billion dollar offers for a Citgo parent's shares to be asked if they plan to set aside cash or consider how they may accommodate Venezuela 2020 note holders seeking payment of $3 billion in principal debt.

A Belgian court ruled Thursday that all assets in the country belonging to American investment group 777 Partners can be seized, in the latest legal setback for the embattled company that owns Standard Liège and several other soccer clubs, the Associated Press reported. The decision by a court in Liege came after Standard's former owner Bruno Venanzi and shareholders of the company holding the club’s stadium requested the move, saying 777 had defaulted on a payment.

U.S. authorities charged two Chinese nationals in a cryptocurrency scam that laundered at least $73 million from defrauded victims, the Justice Department said on Friday, Reuters reported. U.S. officials arrested Yicheng Zhang in Los Angeles on Thursday, according to an indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court in California's central district later that day. Daren Li, a dual citizen of China and St. Kitts and Nevis, was arrested at the Atlanta airport in April. The U.S.

Aiden Pleterski, the self-proclaimed “Crypto King” who collected millions of dollars from investors, only to spend it on luxury goods, has been arrested on fraud charges in Canada, Bloomberg News reported. Pleterski, who lives in the Toronto suburb of Whitby, Ontario, was charged with fraud and laundering the proceeds of crime and held for a bail hearing, according to a statement Wednesday from the provincial securities regulator. Another man, Colin Murphy of Oshawa, Ontario, was charged with one count of fraud.