The number of Canadians who can’t pay their debts and are being forced into insolvency is on the rise for the first time since the recession, according to a report by CIBC, The Canadian Press reported. The bank says the cumulative number of insolvencies rose by 1.2 per cent in the six-month period ended in February. The overall increase came as personal bankruptcies fell by 4.7 per cent. However the number of proposals, where consumers negotiate to repay only a portion of their debt, rose by no less than nine per cent.

Proposed new obligations on multinationals to produce country-by-country reports on their financial affairs will have a “massive impact” on them, a leading member of the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation has said, the Irish Times reported. Pascal Saint-Amans, director of the Center for Tax Policy and Administration at the OECD, was reacting to what he said were “angry responses” to the organisation’s latest proposals on the topic.

The disclosure that some of the world’s largest banks had been used as a conduit for bribes allegedly paid to soccer officials has prompted the banks to scrutinize their ties with FIFA, and could make it more difficult for the sport’s powerful governing body to move money around the world, The Globe and Mail reported. Major U.S. and European banks say they are stepping up scrutiny of FIFA-related accounts, and are wary in particular of ties to two regional member organizations that feature prominently in the U.S. Department of Justice’s indictment. U.S.

Two weeks after announcing it will shut down its money-losing oilsands project, insolvent Southern Pacific Resource Corp. said its first-lien creditors have filed to throw it into receivership, The Calgary Herald reported. “The effect of a receivership will make any recovery for unsecured creditors or shareholders very unlikely,” the Calgary-based junior producer warned in a brief news release issued Thursday afternoon.

The liquidators of a pair of failed Cayman Islands-based hedge funds run by a former Harvard quarterback are suing Barclays PLC to claw back some $80 million they say was illegally funneled to the bank to cover margin calls, The Wall Street Journal reported. The offshore funds--ICP Strategic Credit Income Fund Ltd. and ICP Strategic Credit Income Master Fund Ltd. -- were so-called feeder funds managed by ICP Asset Management LLC, a money-management firm founded by Thomas C. Priore. Lawyers for the liquidators said in a suit filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York that Mr.

Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland were among six banks to be fined a total of $5.7 billion (£3.8 billion) by British and US regulators over allegations that they rigged the $5.3 trillion-a-day foreign exchange market, The Standard reported. The settlement, which also involved US banks JP Morgan, Bank of America and Citi, as well as Switzerland’s UBS, means banks have handed authorities around $10 billion to deal with the scandal. Barclays, Citi, JPMorgan and RBS also all pleaded guilty to a US antitrust violation.

The deal between the Canadian government and U.S. Steel that allowed the steelmaker to renege on its obligation to make steel in Canada — at plants in Hamilton and Nanticoke in Ontario — will remain a secret, CBC.ca reported. An Ontario Superior Court judge ruled that while it is reasonable that the deal be open, for fairness in the bankruptcy protection process, he dismissed an unsealing motion, saying he didn't have the authority to make that happen.

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc said on Wednesday it was seeking court protection from creditors of its Wabush iron ore mine and related assets in Eastern Canada, four months after it sought similar protection for its other Canadian iron ore assets. The U.S.-based iron ore and coal miner said it had concluded that a "more comprehensive restructuring and sale process" would result if it was able to include the Wabush group under the same creditor protection it obtained in January for its larger Bloom Lake iron ore assets in Quebec Superior Court.

The number of Canadians who can’t pay their debts and are being forced into insolvency is on the rise for the first time since the recession, according to a report by CIBC. The bank says the cumulative number of insolvencies rose by 1.2 per cent in the six-month period ended in February. The overall increase came as personal bankruptcies fell by 4.7 per cent. However the number of proposals, where consumers negotiate to repay only a portion of their debt, rose by no less than nine per cent. CIBC economist Benjamin Tal noted the affect of lower oil prices is starting to show.

Three-quarters of the world’s workers are temporary, casual or self-employed and this sort of employment is likely to become more prevalent, says the International Labour Organisation. The ILO, a UN agency that specialises in work, analysed employment patterns in 180 countries and found that the “standard” model of permanent full-time employment was “less and less dominant” in rich, developed economies, the Financial Times reported. In developing economies, salaried employment was still growing as a share of the total workforce but that historical trend appeared to be slowing.