Brazilian consumer bad debt rose 3 percent in August compared with July, Serasa Experian, Latin America's largest credit bureau, said on Monday, Reuters reported. Compared with a year earlier, August bad debt was 29.2 percent higher, Serasa Experian said in a statement. In the January-August period, bad debt was 23.4 percent higher than the same period a year earlier, Serasa Experian said. Serasa Experian is part of the London-based Experian group, the largest credit bureau outside the United States.

Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez has signed into law modifications to the country's bankruptcy code that will give workers greater power to take over bankrupt firms at the expense of creditors such as banks, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Among the more controversial aspects of the law published Thursday in the Official Bulletin is a provision that allows the workers of a bankrupt firm who set up a cooperative to ask a judge to suspend for up to two years the ability of creditors to execute guarantees backed by the company's property or assets.

Brazilian policy-makers have fueled their country's economic boom through a state-owned bank that keeps business flush with credit, The Wall Street Journal reported. Now the engine that has helped the nation become a global player in beef, oil and mining is colliding with another policy imperative: battling inflation. The Brazilian National Development Bank, in its latest spur to the economy, last week announced it would lend $1.6 billion at below-market interest rates to help a large company to build a pulp and paper mill.

Small and medium-sized Brazilian lenders will have to merge with rivals to strengthen their capital base and revamp their fundraising structure, central bank director Anthero Meirelles said in a newspaper interview published on Monday, Reuters reported. Smaller financial institutions must "adapt their strategies" to face a more competitive landscape in the industry, Meirelles, the central bank's industry watchdog, told Valor Economico.

The world's biggest economies hope to make progress this week on a plan to identify countries that put the global economy at risk, while China warned against any moves that would curb its red-hot growth, Reuters reported. The meeting of the Group of 20 rich and emerging-market nations comes at a time of conflicting economic signals. Just as signs of a strengthening recovery in some rich countries have pushed their central banks to begin to pull back on economic supports, world markets have been rocked by fears that high oil prices will put the brakes on global growth.

A high-level executive at Latin America's largest shipping company in terms of revenue, Chile's Compania Sudamericana de Vapores SA, said the company won't go bankrupt despite recent financial troubles that have led to market speculation it could fail, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Vapores, whose finances have been weighed down by hefty ship and container leasing fees, as well as rising international crude oil prices, is looking to stanch its financial hemorrhaging through a $500 million capital increase and the listing of up to 49% of its SAAM ports unit.

Brazil's Central Bank President Alexandre Tombini said on Tuesday that default rates on loans are rising, Reuters reported. Tombini, speaking at a congressional hearing, did not give further details. Consumer credit has risen rapidly in Brazil in recent years, fueling an economic boom, but some analysts have voiced concern that default rates could rise this year as the economy cools and interest rates rise. Read more.

Argentina's flagship airline, Aerolineas Argentinas, has asked the courts to lift a 10-year-old legal measure shielding it from creditors after the company managed to restructure its debts, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. In a statement, the airline said it has paid 99.3% of the outstanding debts related to the court-ordered protection from creditors. Argentina seized Aerolineas Argentinas from Spanish tourism company Grupo Marsans in 2009 and has since pumped money into the airline to expand and update its fleet.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, on a visit Monday to Latin America's biggest economy, urged Brazilian officials to help the U.S. pressure China to allow its currency to appreciate, The Wall Street Journal reported. Though officials in public shied away from specifics of any plan to coordinate calls for a stronger yuan, a person familiar with the discussions said Brazil and the U.S. may speak with a common voice on the issue in a coming meeting of the Group of 20 major economies.

Argentina's largest electricity provider, Pampa Energia SA, said Monday it will pay $29 million to acquire Enron Pipeline Company Argentina SA, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. "The purchase is part of Pampa's broader plan to become an important player in Argentina's natural gas industry," a person familiar with the company's plans said. The pipeline company owns 10% of Compania de Inversiones de Energia SA, or Ciesa, which controls 55.3% of the gas distributor Transportadora de Gas del Sur SA, or TGS.