Canada's financial regulator is urging lenders to tackle risks from mortgage extensions at the "earliest opportunity" as many borrowers try to navigate higher mortgage costs after the Bank of Canada's surprise rate hike last week, Reuters reported. The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions' (OSFI) urgency underscores the concern about the risk accumulating in Canadian lenders' books as the central bank has resumed interest rate hike after a four-month pause.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the indicted founder of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, wants a U.S. judge to throw out criminal charges brought against him following his extradition from the Bahamas, Reuters reported. In papers filed late Monday in Manhattan federal court, lawyers for the former billionaire said they asked Bahamas' Supreme Court to bar the country's government from authorizing U.S. prosecutors to move forward on the five charges, until their client has a chance to be heard. The lawyers said that a sixth charge, for violating U.S.

Days after welcoming Secretary of State Antony Blinken as part of efforts to reset relations with the US, Saudi Arabia turned its attention to boosting ties with one of Washington’s main competitors: China, Bloomberg News reported. For the past two days, the Saudi capital has played host to the largest ever Chinese-Arab business gathering. Under the chandeliers and vaulted ceilings of Riyadh’s grandest conference hall, Saudi officials spoke of integrating China into the Arab region and Chinese executives said they stood ready to “de-Americanize” the world’s top oil exporter.

Mexico's annual inflation rate slowed in May for a fourth consecutive month to 5.84%, data from statistics agency INEGI showed on Thursday, beating forecasts and continuing a downward trend spurred by a long cycle of rate hikes, Reuters reported. Headline inflation came in below a forecast of 5.90% and is now at its lowest since August 2021. Consumer prices fell 0.22% in May from April, according to non-seasonally adjusted figures, against an expected drop of 0.16%. Nonetheless analysts say future drops in inflation may now be trickier, prompting a delay in rate cuts.

A judge has approved a plan to sell an insolvent St. Lawrence fluorspar mine, mill and marine terminal to a new owner, with a formal share purchase agreement to be formalized as early as Friday, the CBC reported. The purchaser plans to restart the operation, though a timeline has not been revealed. Those owed money by Canada Fluorspar Inc., however, can expect "substantial" losses, or zero repayment on liabilities that total more than $140 million, according to Justice Alexander (Sandy) MacDonald of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador.

The Bank of Canada on Wednesday hiked its overnight rate to a 22-year high of 4.75%, and markets and analysts immediately forecast yet another increase next month to ratchet down an overheating economy and stubbornly high inflation, Reuters reported. The central bank had been on hold since January to assess the impact of previous hikes after raising borrowing costs eight times since March 2022 to a 15-year high of 4.50% - the fastest tightening cycle in the bank's history.

A public-private partnership in El Salvador will pump $1 billion into creating one of the world's largest bitcoin mining farms, the group called Volcano Energy announced on Monday, Reuters reported. The project will start with an initial $250 million, backed by "key Bitcoin industry leaders" in collaboration with renewable energy developers, Volcano Energy said in a statement. El Salvador's state "Bitcoin Office" retweeted the news on its Twitter. The presidential office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In mid-May, cryptocurrency exchange Binance got some bad news in a far-flung corner of its sprawling universe. Binance’s payments partner in Australia had abruptly cut it off, meaning local customers couldn’t deposit Aussie dollars on the platform via bank transfer. The hit to business was immediate, with Binance halting all Aussie trading pairs about two weeks later, along with bank withdrawals of the local currency, Bloomberg News reported.

Canada’s economy hasn’t buckled under the weight of higher borrowing costs. On the contrary: strong growth has more economists predicting the central bank will resume raising interest rates soon, Bloomberg News reported. Thirteen of 17 economists surveyed by Bloomberg say the Canadian economy is proving less sensitive to higher rates than previously believed. Almost half now say the Bank of Canada will raise its benchmark overnight rate, currently 4.5%, between now and September. In the March survey, analysts unanimously said Governor Tiff Macklem’s next move would be a cut.

The cancer-treatment specialist GenesisCare has filed for bankruptcy protection, after struggling under a debt load enlarged by a $1.5 billion takeover, the Wall Street Journal reported. Australia-based GenesisCare said today that it would split its U.S. business from operations in Australia, Spain and the U.K. as part of the U.S. chapter 11 reorganization. GenesisCare didn't say how much debt would be affected by the filing. GenesisCare is backed by the U.S. private-equity giant KKR.