Centrais Eletricas do Para SA, a Brazilian utility know as Celpa that was acquired this month by Equatorial Energia SA, filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in New York, Bloomberg reported. The company, based in Belem, Brazil, listed both debt and assets of more than $1 billion in documents filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. Chapter 15 protects foreign companies from U.S. lawsuits and creditor claims while a company reorganizes abroad. Celpa is asking the U.S.

Yesterday, Argentina filed for a re-hearing of its arguments against hedge fund manager Paul Singer and other investors in its sovereign debt that neglected to restructure their debt in 2005 and 2010 (exchange bondholders), Business Insider reported. Argentina is making two arguments for why their case should be heard (before a panel of judges) again.

Brazilian state-led power company Eletrobras said on Tuesday that it plans to take over Cia de Eletricidade do Amapa (CEA) to help restructure the bankrupt northern Brazilian utility and recover debts, Reuters reported. The companies and the government of Amapa, which controls CEA, agreed to sign shareholder and management agreements aimed at restoring CEA to financial health, Rio de Janeiro-based Eletrobras said in a statement on Tuesday. Amapa authorities will receive financing from Brazil's federal government to pay off CEA's debts to Eletrobras and other suppliers.

An unexpected New York court decision has raised the spectre of an Argentine government default, causing a rise in the cost of insuring against a payment failure and rattling the country’s bond market, the Financial Times reported. The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York late last week ruled that Argentina was legally barred from prioritising payments to bondholders that participated in debt exchanges in 2005 and 2010.

The world's biggest banks are drawing up tactics to strengthen their hand in future sovereign debt restructurings, as they seek to avoid another situation similar to the Greek debt talks, when government pushed them into accepting to tens of billions of euros in writedowns, Reuters reported on an International Financing Review story.

Police in Sao Paulo said on Monday they had arrested the former head of bankrupt Brazilian lender Banco Cruzeiro do Sul on charges of money laundering and crimes against the country's financial system and capital markets, Reuters reported. Last month Brazil's central bank ordered the liquidation of the bank and its subsidiary, Banco Prosper, after seizing the lender on June 4 due to fraud-related losses and after administrators failed to find firm takeover bids. The liquidation of the bank represents one of the biggest collapses in the country's banking system in years.

Brazil's central bank seized Banco BVA SA on Friday, the latest sign of strain facing the nation's small-sized lenders following years of fast credit-fueled growth, Reuters reported. Deteriorating financing conditions and a breach of regulations at the Rio de Janeiro-based lender were cited as the main reasons behind the decision, the central bank said in a statement. Banco BVA had in recent weeks been at the center of speculation over a potential collapse.

A weekend gathering of the world's top finance officials deepened conflicts among some of the largest economies, raising fresh doubts about their ability to find big steps quickly to boost the flagging global recovery, The Wall Street Journal reported. At the annual meetings in Tokyo of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, European officials bickered about the damage caused by austerity; this week they head into a major euro-zone summit with no clear rescue plan for Greece.

The global economy risks skidding toward recession just three years after pulling out of the previous one, the International Monetary Fund warned, adding that fighting a renewed world-wide downturn will be much more complex than it was in 2009, The Wall Street Journal reported. "Risks for a serious global slowdown are alarmingly high," said the IMF's World Economic Outlook report, which was released here Tuesday ahead of the fund's annual fall meeting. It was its bleakest assessment of global growth prospects since the 2009 recession.

A decision by Brazil's central bank to reduce reserve requirements for commercial banks was not motivated by the liquidation of troubled consumer lenders Banco Cruzeiro do Sul and Banco Prosper, a senior government official said on Thursday, Reuters reported. The bank lowered some requirements on deposits on Sept. 14, the same day it folded the banks for accounting fraud and losses. "The reserve requirements decision has nothing to do with the troubles facing some small banks.