Canadians are piling into mortgages at more than double the historical pace as the housing market appears to moderate after a pandemic boom, Bloomberg News reported. The total value of residential mortgages rose by 1.2% to C$1.73 trillion ($1.4 trillion) in June, according to data released Thursday by Statistics Canada. That’s the fastest monthly increase in loans borrowed for real-estate purchases since 2007. The spike in mortgages is evidence of Canadians’ demand for more living space during the Covid-19 pandemic, which sent sales and prices to record highs.

Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Thursday he’ll seek central bank approval to use $12 billion in International Monetary Fund reserves to pay down debt, as he presses ahead with austerity, Bloomberg News reported. Lopez Obrador thanked bank Governor Alejandro Diaz de Leon for being open to the idea of using the windfall, which is being transferred to the monetary authority from the IMF, to prepay liabilities. He declined to comment on Diaz de Leon’s prior remarks that the government must purchase the reserves from the bank.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen should intervene at the International Monetary Fund to prevent Taliban-led Afghanistan from being able to use almost $500 million in reserves, Republican House members said, Bloomberg News reported. The group of 18 lawmakers, including Arkansas’s French Hill, wrote to Yellen on Tuesday in a letter obtained by Bloomberg News, asking Yellen to take action at the fund and respond to their request by Thursday afternoon.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Wednesday backed the central bank's recent moves to raise interest rates, but took a swipe at a board member for criticizing his plan to allocate International Monetary Fund resources to pay off debt, Reuters reported. "I respect that decision they're taking because inflation must be kept under control," he told a regular news conference. "This should be something that matters to all of us." Inflation in July stood at 5.81%, well above the bank's target of 3%, and the bank last week raised its key interest rate by 25 basis points to 4.5%.

Greensill Capital’s bankrupt U.S. unit won court approval to sell its Finacity Corp. business to White Oak Global Advisors for $7 million after reaching a deal with unsecured creditors, Bloomberg News reported. The transaction includes an agreement with Finacity founder Adrian Katz, who dropped demands for $21.2 million in payments related to Greensill’s purchase of Finacity in 2019. In return, the bankrupt U.S. unit will not try to sue Katz or certain other insiders for their role in the deal.

Canada's inflation rate jumped to 3.7 per cent in July, as the cost of shelter and durable goods went up at a fast enough pace to push the cost of living up to its highest level since 2011, CBC reported. Statistics Canada reported Wednesday that the homeowners' replacement cost index, which is related to the price of new homes, went up at an annual pace of 13.7 per cent in July. That's the fastest uptick on record dating back to 1987.

Laurentian University has issued a request for proposals from firms to undertake a review of its governance and operations as it continues through its insolvency restructuring, Sudbury.com reported. The university has set an Aug. 31 deadline for companies bidding on any one of, or a combination of the following: a governance review of Laurentian’s senate; a governance review of Laurentian’s board of governors; and an operational review. Companies interested in the contract have been asked to make submissions through MERX (reference No. 0000205175) and Bonfire.

London-based Pearson PLC will pay $1 million to settle charges it misled investors about a 2018 cyber intrusion involving the theft of millions of student records, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Monday, Reuters reported. The educational-publishing firm did not admit nor deny the regulator's charges, the SEC said, but in 2019 the firm disclosed in its annual report that the data breach may have included birth dates and email addresses, when, in fact, it knew that such records were stolen.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government said that it will make Covid-19 vaccines mandatory for airline and rail passengers, transportation workers and federal employees, in one of its final announcements before the start of a Canadian election campaign, Bloomberg News reported. Government officials said on Friday that the plan is to require government staff to be inoculated by early fall. Workers and passengers on airlines, railways and cruise ships will also need proof of vaccination by the end of October. “We need to regain public confidence in travel.

Mexico can use a multibillion dollar transfer from the International Monetary Fund to prepay debt, as the country’s president is considering, but the government would need to purchase the funds from the central bank, Banxico Governor Alejandro Diaz de Leon said, Bloomberg News reported. The IMF’s transfer to the central bank of the recently-approved reserves, worth roughly $12 billion, isn’t a “donation,” Diaz de Leon said in an interview late Thursday.