Argentina’s National Securities Commission (NSC) has launched an official investigation into 30.9m pesos ($11.3m) of bonus payments made in 2005 to directors of Banco Hipotecario, one of the main mortgage lenders in the country.

The argentine authorities are introducing capital controls on speculative inflows even though Chile abolished its controls in 2001 amid controversy over their effect.

Argentina’s debt exchange plan is in limbo after a court froze Argentine assets on US soil, including $7bn worth of bonds. Sophie Roëll reports from New York.

ARGENTINA could re-open its debt exchange to the 24% of investors who rejected it, once the country’s Congressional elections in October are over.

Argentina’s recovery from its debt default is likely to be slow and investors’ lack of confidence over contractual law is not helping. Jason Mitchell reports from Buenos Aires.
Argentina will probably reach an accord with its international creditors next year but is likely to suffer the consequences of its debt default for many years as investment flows stall, productivity falls behind competitor countries and interest rates remain high, which will hamper growth.

Two and a half years after Argentina’s debt default, creditors are up in arms over the country’s offer to pay back only a quarter of the Ł82bn it owes. But the government has so far refused to budge. Sophie Roell reports.
It’s not a promising sign in any negotiations when one party is not willing to talk to the other and both sides seem as unreasonable as each other. Furious with the paltry amount the Argentine government is offering for the $82bn in debt it defaulted on in December 2001, the Global Committee of Argentina Bondholders (GCAB), grouping together holders of about $37bn in debt, is fighting back with its own idea of a fair settlement.

Local asset managers in Argentina may be suffering but foreign firms are benefiting. Jason Mitchell reports from Buenos Aires.

Argentina’s negotiating strategy of threatening to default on its loans to get its own way has underlined the case for greater IMF independence.

Alfonso Prat-Gay, Argentina’s central bank governor, talks to Karina Robinson about his plans for recapitalising the ailing financial system.
In the run up to my meeting with 38-year-old Alfonso Prat-Gay, governor of the Central Bank of Argentina, I had met 16 top businessmen, bankers and economists who were uniformly charming and informative. So I feared for the famed trait of Argentine arrogance (the classic joke told to me by a host of locals is: How can you make a lot of money? Buy an Argentine for what you know he is worth and sell him for what he thinks he is worth). It was with a sigh of relief, then, that I encountered Mr Prat-Gay, who has that famed trait in spades.

Social unrest and a government that turns a blind eye to problems means Argentina’s future looks bleak, reports Karina Robinson from Buenos Aires.