As Sri Lanka Reviews Handing over East Container Terminal to India, China Watches Closely
China s monopoly of loaning big bucks to small nations and eventually buying their loyalty, is an open secret and Sri Lanka is also in the deep pockets of China beginning from 2013 when the Hambantota Port was offered to China state-controlled company. Sri Lanka ultimately ended up giving it for a 99-year lease to the China Merchants with 80 per cent stake when the GoSL could not repay the initial debt they claimed for developing the port.
Since then, Beijing has spread its wings over Sri Lanka, and so did the geopolitics in the region leading the nation becoming the battleground for geopolitics where countries like India, US, Japan, the UK, the EU and Australia accuse Sri Lanka of tilting towards China and creating an imbalance in trade ties.
Business Editor
The Central Bank has warned that Irish creditors with direct debits in place for UK customers may need to provide their banks with additional information to avoid payment requests being rejected.
It follows the end of the Brexit transition period last night. The Central Bank has engaged extensively with payment service providers, UK supervisory authorities and industry representative bodies to emphasise the mandatory requirements for additional information and to monitor progress towards compliance, the regulator said in a statement.
In recent weeks, the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland had warned that as many as 140,000 recurring direct debits were at risk after the UK became a third country.
Brussels wants new ‘Nama’ for Covid-hit SME bank loans Independent.ie 16/12/2020 Sarah Collins
Newly-appointed European Financial Markets Commissioner Mairead McGuinness will press governments – including Ireland’s – to set up Nama-style bad banks to take over the expected rise in bad debts in the wake of pandemic.
In an action plan to be tabled on Wednesday, Commissioner McGuinness will set out her thinking on how “asset management companies” – or ‘bad banks’ – can be used to lower banking sector risk.
However, the plans face opposition – including from Ireland, where the prospect of a new bad bank taking on small business or mortgage debt just as Nama is set to close is likely to be politically fraught.