The International Monetary Fund has asked its member countries for an extra $500bn in firepower to combat the world’s spreading fiscal emergencies, which it estimates will generate demand for bail-out loans totalling $1tn over the next two years, the Financial Times reported. The estimate was presented by Christine Lagarde, IMF managing director, to the fund’s executive board this week, according to people familiar with the discussions, and would most likely be financed by voluntary ad hoc loans rather than mandatory contributions. The IMF currently has $387bn in available resources.

Argentine supermarket chain Eki is in talks to sell about 25 of its large format stores to China's Yonghui Superstores Co., according to a person familiar with the matter, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported. "They already export wine and other [Argentine] products to China and are interested in expanding outside of China," said an Eki executive, who asked not to be named because of the confidential nature of the talks.

The number of failed companies is expected to rise by 3 percent globally this year, led by Europe, under the weight of an economic slowdown and tighter monetary and budgetary policy, credit insurance company Euler Hermes said in a report, Reuters reported. Failures will likely increase by 12 percent in the euro zone, including a 19 percent rise among Mediterranean countries that have been "very weakened by the crisis", Euler Hermes Chief Economist Ludovic Subran said. Euler Hermes economists expect global gross domestic product growth to slow to 2.7 percent this year from 3 percent in 2011.

As lending has expanded in Brazil, so too have new opportunities for debt collection, which for the first time is starting to become big business in Brazil, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Brazil's banks have been on a lending boom in recent years, as relatively steady economic growth has led to record low unemployment and rising salaries. The volume of credit in Brazil has almost doubled, and now accounts for nearly 50 percent of gross domestic product. Total loans reached 2 trillion Brazilian reais ($1.1 trillion) in November, according to the central bank.

A bankruptcy judge approved the sale of Peregrine I LLC's offshore oil-drilling vessel to La Patagonia Offshore Inc. for $5 million, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported today. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey signed off on the sale to La Patagonia on Monday following an auction last month, and the buyer has also agreed to pay about $2.7 million to cure defaults. Read more. (Subscription required.)

Analysts say that Argentinian President Cristina Kirchner's mixed signals about how she plans to address longstanding problems in Argentina's economy are adding to uncertainty that is causing capital flight, the Wall Street Journal reported today. In the gap between Kirchner's re-election last month and her December inauguration, Argentines are not clear which policy makers are in charge and what the strategy is, the analysts say.

OPEC member Venezuela sees no risk of debt default due to the stability of oil prices, an economic official said on Monday, amid some market fears the country faces a looming problem with maturing debt, Reuters reported. Despite growing international risk aversion, Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA and the government have issued $15.2 billion of dollar-denominated bonds so far in 2011 -- by far the largest amount in Latin America. Analysts say the maturing of various papers between 2016-17 could be a problem.

Holders of Empresas La Polar SA series A and B bonds agreed to back a debt restructuring plan that aims to avert the department store operator’s second bankruptcy in 12 years, said Nelson Contador, a legal adviser to the company, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. All of La Polar’s creditors will vote on the plan on Nov. 7, Contador told reporters during a meeting of bondholders Friday. Debt will be divided into two parts, La Polar chairman Cesar Barros told reporters at the same meeting.

Itau Unibanco Holding, Brazil's largest private-sector bank, reported its best quarterly earnings for this year as trading-related gains jumped and interest income grew faster than expenses. Gains stemming from the purchase and sale of securities and wider loan spreads offset rising defaults at Itau Unibanco. The bank earned 3.81 billion reais ($2.16 billion) in the third quarter, above the average estimate of 3.62 billion reais from nine analysts polled by Reuters last week.

Brazil's central bank said on Tuesday it will liquidate the assets of Banco Morada, which it said was insolvent and had violated legal norms, Reuters reported. The central bank, which in April said it would scrutinize the books of the Rio de Janeiro-based bank due to irregularities, said the controlling shareholders had not presented a viable recovery plan. Banco Morada has only one branch, and its total deposits as of December 2010 represented only 0.01 percent of Brazilian financial system assets and 0.03 percent of deposits, the central bank said in a statement.