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The European Commission has proposed new measures to force banks to set aside more money against new loans turning bad and to favor offloading their existing stocks of bad debt, in a bid to reduce risks in the bank sector, Reuters reported. The proposals follow others put forward in recent months to raise capital requirements, set new loss-absorbing buffers and facilitate the orderly liquidation of failing lenders, all of which Brussels believes will make the bloc’s banks safer after many of them were rescued with taxpayers’ money during the financial crisis. The new measures to reduce banks’ exposure to so-called non-performing loans (NPLs) could bolster the case of EU states pushing to set up a common bank deposit insurance which would spread risk across the bloc. This idea is opposed by Germany and other countries who fear they may have to bankroll losses at weaker lenders in other states. Read more. 

Join thought leaders from academia and the bench, representatives from U.S. and European governmental agencies and private organizations on April 19 for a symposium to examine the policies, strategies & proposals erected in the 10 years since the Financial Crisis. Click here for more information and to register. 

The international jewelry business that’s part of the empire controlled by Nirav Modi, the billionaire accused of masterminding India’s biggest bank fraud, was driven toward U.S. bankruptcy protection after Indian authorities began seizing and freezing assets, Bloomberg News reported. The company’s attorney outlined that background at a Manhattan federal bankruptcy court hearing yesterday. Modi, the chief executive officer of the parent company of the jeweler Firestar Diamond Inc., is under investigation for an alleged $2 billion fraud in India. Firestar isn’t linked to the complaints filed by authorities, the company said last month. Two holding companies and Modi personally are guaranteeing an existing revolving credit facility with Israel Discount Bank, according to a filing. Israel Discount didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Modi, a jeweler who’s dressed actresses including Kate Winslet and Priyanka Chopra, has been accused along with Mehul Choksi of defrauding Punjab National Bank. PNB alleges that the duo and their associates worked with some rogue employees and used fake guarantees to obtain loans from abroad.

Indian mobile carrier Aircel Ltd. said today that it filed for bankruptcy pressured by a high debt pile and mounting losses following a price war triggered by a telecom upstart, Reuters reported. Talks between Aircel, 74 percent owned by Malaysia’s Maxis Communications Bhd, and Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom) to combine their wireless operations ended late 2017 due to regulatory and legal uncertainties, and interventions by various parties. Aircel, whose debt amounts to 155 billion rupees ($2.38 billion), then tried unsuccessfully to restructure its debt.

The international jewelry business that’s part of the empire controlled by Nirav Modi, a billionaire accused of masterminding India’s biggest bank fraud, has filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. just as the Indian lender at the heart of the scam revised up its fraud estimate, Bloomberg News reported. Firestar Diamond Inc. blamed liquidity and supply chain challenges and listed up to $100 million in assets and debt, according to chapter 11 documents filed Monday in a bankruptcy court in New York. Back in India, Punjab National Bank told the stock exchanges that the fraudulent transactions could be $204 million more than the previously estimated $1.8 billion. Modi has been accused along with Mehul Choksi of defrauding PNB. PNB alleges that the duo and their associates worked with some rogue PNB employees and used fake guarantees to obtain loans from abroad.

Shipping tycoon John Fredriksen has reached an agreement with a majority of creditors over a restructuring plan for oil rig firm Seadrill, according to U.S. court documents, Reuters reported. The company, once the world’s largest offshore driller by market value, filed for chapter 11 protection with debt and liabilities of over $10 billion last September after a sharp drop in oil prices in 2014 cut demand for rigs. Under an amended plan, supported by 99 percent of its bank lenders and about 70 percent of unsecured creditors, including South Korean shipyards, the company will raise $1.08 billion in new capital via the issuance of new secured notes and equity. Seadrill will issue $880 million in new secured notes, up from $860 million planned previously, and $200 million in new equity, the same level as previously planned. Unsecured bondholders which contested the original restructuring plan by Fredriksen and private equity firm Centerbridge Partners, will get a bigger stake in the company, one bondholder source told Reuters.

A drug company once led by Martin Shkreli is grappling in bankruptcy court with an international consortium that includes medical charities that bested it in a competition over U.S. rights to sell a treatment for a dangerous infection, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Humanigen Inc., the company, wants to use chapter 11 investigative powers to see whether it has some claim on benznidazole, a drug used for decades in Latin America to treat Chagas disease, a parasitic infection that can cause serious heart problems. Last year, crucial rights to bring the drug to the U.S. market were awarded, and Humanigen lost out, dealing a blow to its plans for post-bankruptcy success. Hopes of profits from its benznidazole assets propelled Humanigen, then called KaloBios, out of bankruptcy in 2016. However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration awarded the coveted “golden ticket” priority review voucher for the drug to a rival coalition, which included Chemo Research S.L., Exeltis and the Mundo Sano Foundation, along with the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative.