The Brazilian government is considering easing legislation overseeing the acquisition of companies in distress or under bankruptcy protection by making buyers less liable for the burden of past obligations, O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper reported on Thursday. According to Estado, which did not say how it obtained the information, Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles plans to propose the amendments to the country's bankruptcy law in a policymaking meeting later in the day.

Venezuelans desperately rushed to banks Tuesday to dump cash after the government announced it is eliminating the largest circulating bank note to combat contraband in a country whipsawed by the world’s deepest recession and highest inflation, The Wall Street Journal reported. In the financial district of downtown Caracas, National Guard troops carrying assault rifles stood outside banks as crowds of people lined up to deposit stacks of 100-bolivar bills, which President Nicolás Maduro said Monday would become void on Wednesday night.

Brazil’s Senate on Tuesday approved a measure capping public spending, delivering a victory to embattled President Michel Temer, who is struggling to close a massive budget deficit and revive the nation’s moribund economy, The Wall Street Journal reported. In an unusually rapid session with little discussion, lawmakers voted 53 to 16 to approve a constitutional amendment limiting the nation’s annual spending growth to the previous year’s inflation rate.

Oi, the Brazilian telecom operator at the centre of a R$65bn debt default, the largest in the country’s history, is likely to consider more favourable debt-for-equity swap conditions for creditors in talks this week, the Financial Times reported. Oi chief executive officer Marco Schroeder said he was hearing creditors were discussing among themselves a proposal to convert some of the estimated R$32bn owed to bondholders into equity immediately and restructure the remainder into 10-year notes rather than accepting three-year convertible bonds as earlier proposed by the company.

A group of creditors of Brazil's struggling phone operator Oi SA, including export credit insurers and banks, plans to present to the company in the next two weeks a new restructuring proposal. The group, represented by FTI Consulting Canada ULC, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP, Mattos Filho, Veiga Filho, Marrey Jr. and Quiroga Advogados, said in a statement that it is in talks with the Sawiris Group and bondholders represented by Moelis & Co for an alternative restructuring plan for Oi, Reuters reported.

President Michel Temer moved to lift Brazil’s retirement age to 65 from an average of about 54 as he tried to shore up market confidence in his government by reforming one of the world’s most generous social security systems, the Financial Times reported. The pension plan, presented to Congress on Tuesday, is an attempt by Mr Temer to regain the initiative after several weeks of scandals, protests and poor economic data that have threatened to loosen the president’s grip on power.

Spain's infrastructure company Ferrovial SA is in talks to acquire from its Spanish rival Grupo Isolux Corsan SA three power transmission projects in Brazil, according to a Ferrovial letter seen by Reuters on Friday. Isolux is undergoing debt restructuring in Spain and has stopped development of the power transmission lines, whose licenses it obtained from the Brazilian government in licensing tenders in 2014 and 2015. Brazil's electricity watchdog, Aneel, is considering canceling the licenses and promoting a new tender to find a substitute for the battered Spanish company.

Oi SA could scrap a proposed three-year restriction on creditors swapping part of their debt for equity, in a sign that Brazil's No. 4 wireless carrier wants to lure bondholder support to exit bankruptcy protection faster, two people with knowledge of the matter said on Friday. The limit, which Oi included in a reorganization proposal on Sept. 5, drew creditor anger and helped slow the carrier's in-court restructuring. Chief Executive Officer Marco Schroeder told Oi's two bondholder groups this week that shareholders now seem less reluctant to accept a debt-for-equity swap, the people said.

As revolutionary as the Temer government’s proposed public spending cap could be, it’s far from the only measure Brazil needs to prevent a fiscal debacle. Among the many dysfunctions dogging Latin America’s biggest democracy -- prolonged recession, a loss-making pension system, systemic corruption -- one of the most insidious has gotten scant attention to now: explosive state and local debt, Bloomberg News reported. Consider Rio de Janeiro, which in June declared a state of financial calamity, the political equivalent to bankruptcy.

Brazil’s economy recorded its seventh straight quarterly contraction between July and September, disappointing hopes the new government of president Michel Temer could engineer a quick turnround in the fortunes of Latin America’s biggest economy, the Financial Times reported. The news on the economy, with gross domestic product contracting at an annual rate of 2.9 per cent during the third quarter, came after protesters fought pitched battles in the streets of Brasília overnight against a budgetary reform being voted on in the senate.