Brazilian banks are wrestling with a growing pile of assets they’d rather not own: at least 13.8 billion reais ($4.2 billion) of cars, real estate, equipment and other collateral seized when borrowers defaulted on their loans, Bloomberg News reported. The total surged 42 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier at eight of the nation’s biggest lenders as fallout from the worst recession in Brazil’s history continues to weigh on banks’ finances, according to the companies’ financial statements.

Argentina sold 100-year bonds barely a year after settling a protracted legal dispute tied to a $95 billion default, Bloomberg News reported. With the $2.75 billion sale, the government of South America’s second-largest economy joins Mexico, Ireland and the U.K. in issuing debt that matures over a century, which is often particularly attractive to insurers and pension funds seeking to lock in long-term returns. Argentina, for its part, is taking advantage of historically low borrowing costs to finance the budget and pay off debt that’s maturing in the next few years.

Brazilian banks are wrestling with a growing pile of assets they’d rather not own: at least 13.8 billion reais ($4.2 billion) of cars, real estate, equipment and other collateral seized when borrowers defaulted on their loans, Bloomberg News reported. The total surged 42 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier at eight of the nation’s biggest lenders as fallout from the worst recession in Brazil’s history continues to weigh on banks’ finances, according to the companies’ financial statements.

In the wake of Goldman Sachs’s controversial purchase of $2.8 billion of bonds held in Venezuela’s vaults, investors have been trying to quickly figure out what other hidden assets the country might be sitting on. The stakes are high. As the central bank’s officially published foreign-reserve figure dwindles to just over $10 billion, that secretive stockpile might ultimately decide whether the nation averts default or not, Bloomberg News reported. Calculating the value of those securities, as you might expect, is tricky.

CSN’s failure to deliver its financial statements is stymieing talks with creditors, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Latin America’s most indebted steelmaker has yet to file audited financial statements for 2016 and the first quarter of 2017 amid a review of its accounting practices, Bloomberg News reported. Now, state banks Caixa Economica Federal and Banco do Brasil are balking at requests to renegotiate Cia. Siderurgica Nacional SA’s loans, said the people, who asked not to be named because the talks are private.

Reports of a failure to pay a debt to Russia and a requested ruling on whether such a failure constitutes a “credit event” that could trigger insurance contracts on billions of dollars of international bonds have brought Venezuela closer than ever to the brink of financial collapse.

Venezuela has been in talks with Russia about its $1 billion debt restructuring, TASS news agency quoted Venezuela's envoy to Moscow as saying on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Russia has slashed projected revenue by nearly $1 billion to reflect expectations that Venezuela may not make timely payments on bilateral loans, according to a document released by Russia's Audit Chamber on Tuesday. Read more.

Óleo e Gás Participações SA , the oil firm founded by Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista, said on Friday it filed for permission from a court in Rio de Janeiro to exit bankruptcy, Reuters reported. In a securities filing, it said it has fulfilled all its obligations under its court reorganization plan. OGPar, as the company is known, entered bankruptcy status to protect itself from creditors in October 2013. It sought to restructure 13.8 billion reais ($4.25 billion) of debt. In June 2014, creditors approved a debt restructuring program by a 90 percent margin, according to the securities filing.

Venezuela’s opposition is turning up the heat on Wall Street banks by alleging that some of the proceeds from a recent bond sale will be used to purchase weapons and help keep President Nicolas Maduro in power, Bloomberg News reported. In a letter dated June 1, Julio Borges, the president of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, said that at least $300 million in proceeds from the central bank’s “fire sale” of bonds to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Nomura Holdings Inc. will be used to purchase weapons from Russia.

Brasil Distressed, the troubled-asset buyer also known as BrD, shuffled its partnership and said it plans to step up purchases this year, Bloomberg News reported. BrD aims to invest in as much as 1.5 billion reais ($460 million) in soured debt from mid-size Brazilian companies, two-thirds more than it bought last year, Carlos Catraio, a managing partner, said in an interview. The firm has purchased about 3 billion reais in debt since it was created in 2010.