Seven years after the global financial crisis started, Canada’s banks remain selective in what they disclose – a problem illustrated by Ottawa’s recent crackdown on credit-card transaction fees, The Globe and Mail reported. Despite being one of the banking sector’s most widely discussed issues, with lenders lobbying Ottawa furiously out of fear that any ruling would be too harsh, the average investor had almost no way of calculating how many millions or billions of dollars were at stake.

Engineering and construction company SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. on Thursday said it would cut 4,000 jobs and record significant charges over the next 18 months as part of a restructuring aimed partly at combating a global slowdown in mining, The Wall Street Journal reported. Montreal-based SNC said it plans to scale back some underperforming activities and its corporate structure in a bid to improve efficiency and bolster its competitive position.

Prospective LNG exporter AltaGas Ltd. of Calgary said Monday it plans to double its asset base from $7.5 billion to $15 billion by 2019. At an investor day webcast from Toronto, executives said AltaGas plans to expand its utility and power operations but most of the growth will be in its ability to handle and export western Canadian natural gas from prolific shale plays in northeastern B.C. and northwestern Alberta.

U.S. Steel is indefinitely idling its coke-making operations in Hamilton as it restructures the company and looks for a potential buyer — part of what a union head calls a piece-by-piece dismantling of the plant, CBC.ca reported. The company is “hot idling” the coke battery, which means it won’t be used after Nov. 1 but will remain prepped for future use. About 100 workers are affected, said Rolf Gerstenberger, president of the United Steelworkers Local 1005. Some will be reassigned to other duties, while others may be laid off.

LDK Solar Co., the Chinese solar-cell maker that defaulted on its bonds this year, filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. to help carry out restructurings already under way in Hong Kong and the Cayman Islands, Bloomberg News reported. Xinyu, China-based LDK filed for Chapter 15 protection today in Wilmington, Delaware, listing about $1.13 billion in debt and $510 million in assets as of May 31. Chapter 15 is the section of the bankruptcy code used by foreign companies restructuring abroad to fend off creditors and distribute payments in the U.S.

Womenswear retailer Boutique Jacob Inc. is abandoning its restructuring efforts and closing all its 92 stores in Canada, the Chronicle Herald reported on a Canadian Press story. The Montreal-based clothing chain says efforts over the last few months to “try to breathe new life into the company” have failed. The insolvent retailer has been liquidating inventory at its Canadian stores since filing for protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act in May. It says it will proceed with selling all of the remaining merchandise at its stores and online at Jacob.ca.

Barbados business leaders and economists say the Caribbean island should seek an accord with the International Monetary Fund as the government struggles to spur an economy with one of the world’s heaviest debt burdens, Bloomberg News reported. Efforts by the government to trim the public sector by firing 3,000 workers and reining in spending failed to spark growth in the first half of the year in a country with a debt load equal to 96 percent of gross domestic product. That prompted the Barbados Chamber of Commerce to say the government should consider talks with the IMF.

The United Steelworkers union has reached a tentative contract agreement with U.S. Steel Canada Inc. that covers workers in Hamilton, marking the first time the steel company has not locked out workers at one of its two major Canadian mills, The Globe and Mail reported. Since the 2007 purchase by United States Steel Corp. of what was then Stelco Inc., the company locked out workers once after failing to reach an agreement covering its Hamilton workers, and twice at its Lake Erie operations in Nanticoke, Ont.

“We will not kick you when you are down, at least not for a couple of days”: that is the gist of a putative deal struck by 18 global banks this week, which agreed not to pull abruptly out of contracts with each other if one of them hits the buffers. As modest as that may sound, regulators see it as the foundation of a firewall to halt the spread of future financial crises, The Economist reported. The agreement concerns derivatives, contracts whose value “derives” from the performance of an underlying asset such as a share, currency or bond.

Stakeholders have approved a controversial but essential step in U.S. Steel Canada Inc.’s bankruptcy protection process, allowing the company to move ahead with a restructuring that could result in the sale of its Canadian operations, the Financial Post reported. After several days of intensive behind-the-scenes negotiations — “virtually 24 hours a day,” according to U.S. Steel Canada lawyer Paul Steep — an agreement was reached Wednesday on a $185-million loan that will allow the company to continue operations during the restructuring process. The loan will come from U.S.