A Canadian landlord is sounding out potential buyers for a downtown Toronto office tower, testing a market that’s been largely frozen since interest rates started shooting up nearly two years ago, Bloomberg News reported. Dream Office Real Estate Investment Trust has hired CBRE Group Inc. and Toronto-Dominion Bank to market 438 University Ave., according to marketing documents. The company also remains open to offers for another building at 655 Bay St., which was put up for sale more than a year ago.

Brazilian airline Gol said on Thursday it is filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States, with a $950 million financial commitment from its controlling shareholder Abra Group, Reuters reported. Abra also controls Colombian carrier Avianca, though the two airlines operate separately. The move makes Gol the latest Latin American carrier to seek bankruptcy protection after a pandemic-related crisis, following the path of its sister company Avianca, Mexico's Aeromexico and Chile-based LATAM Airlines.

An oil trader sued the United Arab Emirates for $2.8 billion over allegations the state directed a smear campaign that pushed his company into bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. The complaint, based on more than 8,000 hacked documents, shines a spotlight on the shadowy world of private intelligence agencies for hire. Oil trader Hazim Nada alleges that his company Lord Energy SA was targeted by a campaign of misinformation orchestrated by Swiss firm Alp Services SA, and ultimately directed by the UAE and its president, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed.

The Bank of Canada (BoC) held its key overnight rate at 5% on Wednesday and said that while underlying inflation was still a concern, the bank's focus is shifting to when to cut borrowing costs rather than whether to hike again, Reuters reported. The BoC governing council has held rates steady at four consecutive policy meetings after last hiking in July. Annual inflation in December accelerated to 3.4%, still higher than the central bank's 2% target but below a June 2022 peak of 8.1%.

Four of Canada's biggest pension funds managing nearly C$1 trillion ($742 billion) in assets have begun a major expansion into private credit, moving into an area previously dominated by banks, Reuters reported. Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Investments, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP), Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (Omers) and OPTrust told Reuters they intend to increase their exposure to private credit - typically tailored loans to companies underwritten by non-banks.

Terraform Labs, the company behind the stablecoin TerraUSD, which collapsed and roiled cryptocurrency markets in 2022, filed for chapter 11 protection, according to court papers filed on Sunday, Reuters reported. Singapore-based Terraform Labs, in a filing with the bankruptcy court in Delaware, listed assets and liabilities in the range of $100-$500 million. Terraform Labs said it would meet all financial obligations to employees and vendors during the Chapter 11 case without requiring additional financing. It also plans to continue Web3 offerings expansion.

The world’s largest sovereign-wealth fund is going after the now-defunct Silicon Valley Bank, its management and the Wall Street advisers that aided its rise, the Wall Street Journal reported. Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages Norway’s $1.5 trillion wealth fund, and other former SVB shareholders attacked the failed bank in a legal filing late Tuesday. The filing accused SVB and its executives of concealing the lender’s ailing health from public view, while also ignoring warnings about risks from rising interest rates.

Canada's banking regulator is to step up its focus on money laundering issues and will work with the country's financial intelligence agency to tackle such incidents, the regulator's head said on Friday, Reuters reported. "The intensity of money laundering risk is under-appreciated ... what you can expect from us is more focus on that issue," Peter Routledge, superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) said at TD Securities annual conference.

Unifin Financiera SAB de CV has submitted a restructuring deal before a Mexican bankruptcy court that will turn control over to creditors and infuse the lender with government financing, Bloomberg News reported. A judge in Mexico City is weighing the plan, which the company filed last week after winning support from a majority of creditors. A Unifin representative confirmed the submission of the plan to the court. Unifin earned their backing after sweetening the offer for unsecured debt holders — including those with $2.4 billion of foreign bonds.

More people and businesses in Nova Scotia filed for insolvency over the last year than in any other 12-month period since 2020, another signal of growing financial stress after bankruptcies steeply declined during the COVID-19 pandemic, CBC News reported. The figures come as tens of thousands of businesses across the country, including many in Nova Scotia, face a Thursday deadline to pay back the bulk of their pandemic-era Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) loans.