Tuscany International Drilling Inc., a Canadian oil-field services company that operates in South America, sought U.S. bankruptcy court protection from creditors, citing heavy competition and slow payments from customers, Bloomberg News reported. The Calgary-based company listed assets and debt of as much as $500 million each in Chapter 11 papers filed today in Wilmington, Delaware. A Houston-based affiliated holding company also filed for bankruptcy.

Management at Bixi and all their employees received a total of $223,000 in salary bonuses in December, one month before the city-controlled bike-sharing service was forced to file for bankruptcy protection. The company is nearly $50 million in debt, most of which — $38 million — is owed to the City of Montreal, which advanced or guaranteed its loans, The Montreal Gazette reported.

A company which transformed a rooftop parkade into a mass-producing vegetable greenhouse — and touted by Mayor Gregor Robertson as an example of Vancouver’s “booming clean tech sector” — has filed for bankruptcy and owes its creditors more than $4 million, the Vancouver Courier reported. Bankruptcy records show Alterrus Systems Inc. and its subsidiary Local Garden Vancouver Inc. declared bankruptcy Jan. 21 after less than two years of operation at 535 Richards St.

Insolvency petition filings in the Cayman Islands spiked more than 30 per cent in 2013 when compared with 2012, resulting in the highest number of filings in the past three years, according to Appleby, Hedgeweek reported. The increase reversed a downward trend in the number of petitions filed in 2011 and 2012 that had followed high numbers in 2009 and 2010 driven by the global financial crisis, according to the firm’s Snapshot report on petition filings in the Cayman Islands going back to 2008.

Bixi has applied for protection from its creditors and the City of Montreal is taking over the local operation of the popular bike-sharing service, CBC News reported. Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre made the announcement Monday afternoon. “If Bixi can be saved, it’s through the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act," Coderre said. The company that owns Bixi — the Public Bike System Company, known in French as the Société de vélos en libre-service (SVLS) — owes $50 million to various creditors, including the City of Montreal.

A Hong Kong businessman intensified his fight for Fisker Automotive, the bankrupt maker of the plug-in hybrid Karma sports car, seeking an immediate appeal of a ruling that had opened the door for China's Wanxiang Group as a bidder, Reuters reported. The legal team of the businessman, Richard Li, filed an emergency motion late Tuesday seeking permission for a fast-track appeal of a ruling requiring some cash bidding, a day after Li raised his bid for Fisker to $55 million. Without cash bids, Wanxiang did not plan to join the auction. The auction could be held as soon as Feb.

Financially troubled Colossus Minerals Inc., a development-stage miner focused on Brazil, intends to file for protection under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, GlobalPost reported on a Canadian Press story. Trading in shares of Colossus, which was unable to make a Dec. 31 interest payment on its convertible gold-linked notes, have been halted on the Toronto Stock Exchange pending a delisting review. Colossus said Tuesday that its board has approved a proposal from certain noteholders and Sandstorm Gold Ltd.

Quebecor Inc. is showing interest in purchasing struggling wireless startup Mobilicity, a move that could potentially change Canada’s national wireless landscape at a time of faltering competition, The Globe and Mail reported. Bank of Nova Scotia analyst Jeff Fan said in a research note that the Montreal company signed a non-disclosure agreement with Mobilicity ahead of a key spectrum auction that began on Tuesday, suggesting it may harbour ambitions of securing more wireless licences outside its home market of Quebec.

What the US Supreme Court decides in a key court case involving Argentina and its bondholders will greatly impact how sovereign debt restructuring is done in the future, the BBC reported. The essence of the decade-long lawsuit between the country and a handful of its creditors is: Can bondholders demand full repayment of what they lent to a country even when others have settled for a haircut? Argentina's 2002 default of around $100bn (£61bn) was the largest at the time, until Greece's around 200bn euros debt restructuring.

Global regulators have watered down controversial new rules aimed at reining in banks’ reliance on debt, following ferocious industry lobbying, the Financial Times reported. Central bankers and supervisors on Sunday approved an international standard for the leverage ratio – a measure of financial strength that is considered less susceptible to being gamed by bankers – that offers some concessions to banks. The changes announced in Basel, Switzerland, will come as a relief to big investment banks who had been fretting they would be forced to raise billions in extra capital.