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VIENNA/FRANKFURT, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Property and retail giant Signa declared insolvency on Wednesday after last-ditch attempts to secure fresh funding failed, making it the biggest casualty so far of Europe's property crash.Controlled by Austrian magnate Rene Benko, the group is an owner of New York's Chrysler Building as well as several high-profile projects and department stores across Germany, Austria and Switzerland.The multi-billion-euro group, whose tentacles reach from Germany's best-known department store, Berlin's KaDeWe, to the country's top high-street chain Galeria and a skyscraper project, is set to send ripples...

Nov 27 (Reuters) - Earlier this fall, Morgan Stanley (MS.N) bought $300 million worth of protection against losses on some of its loans from Blackstone Group (BX.N) and other investors, two sources familiar with the matter said.The transaction, details of which have not been previously reported, was effectively insurance, structured as a sale of bonds called credit-linked notes, according to the sources and regulatory filings.By transferring the risk to investors, the $1.4 trillion asset bank could reduce the amount of capital it has to hold against those loans to cover...

A sign for the Bank of Montreal in Toronto, Ontario, Canada December 13, 2021. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsTORONTO, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Canada's big banks are likely to wrap up a challenging financial year with another quarter of declining profits and rising bad debt provisions amid a slowing economy.The big six banks have axed thousands of jobs this year as investment banking fees lagged and business south of the border weakened due to the U.S. regional banking crisis.While high interest rates have boosted the banks' lending margins, residential...