The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has shot down suggestions of a fresh suspension of the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code (IBC) due to the second wave of Covid-19, while making it clear that banks can still restructure distressed but viable loans, ensuring that their balance sheets remain transparent, the Times of India reported. During initial discussions with the government, RBI has indicated a freeze will not help anyone in the long run as it will only show lower level of non-performing assets (NPAs), government sources told TOI.

Philippine Airlines Inc. is in talks with plane lessors about reducing its fleet size and has told them it’s considering a chapter 11 filing in the U.S. to carry out a restructuring, Bloomberg News reported. The airline could return at least two Airbus SE A350s to lessors and four of the 10 Boeing Co. 777s in its fleet. Two A350s are in the process of being taken back by aircraft lessors and will be redeployed to other carriers. Prior to the negotiations, Philippine Airlines had six A350s. One lessor reached an agreement with the airline for it to keep a 777 and an A330.

Go Airlines India Ltd., a no-frills carrier controlled by the Wadia Group, has sought approval from India’s markets regulator to raise as much as 36 billion rupees ($490 million) through an initial public offering, Bloomberg News reported. The company may consider a pre-IPO share issue of as much as 15 billion rupees, the airline said in its prospectus Friday, adding the IPO size will be cut if the pre-IPO placement happens. Go Airlines, the second biggest customer for Airbus SE, is planning to use the proceeds for repayment of debt, and dues to Indian Oil Corp.

China’s central bank injected medium-term cash into the financial system, in a push to keep borrowing costs low as the economy recovers from the virus pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. The People’s Bank of China added 100 billion yuan ($15.5 billion) of one-year funds with its medium-term lending facility on Monday, matching the amount coming due in a move that was expected by analysts. The authorities kept the interest rate unchanged at 2.95%.

Months after sweeping changes to insolvency laws, the budget revealed the government will re-examine what should happen when businesses go bust, ABC.net reported. Robyn Erskine, partner at insolvency firm Brooke Bird, said that it was disturbing the government was again raking over the systems used when businesses need to be wound up. "They're back having a look at that regime, only months after the introduction, and that creates uncertainty in the marketplace," she argued.

The Presbyterian Church of Queensland, which runs aged care operator PresCare, has been placed in receivership after the sale of three properties fell short, leaving it unable to pay debts owed to a creditor, the Australian Financial Review reported. PCQ was unable to meet the terms of a contract with its partner, real estate investment trust Catalyst Health, triggering the insolvency. Catalyst and PresCare had entered into several sale and lease back deals in recent years.

The global surge in commodities prices has now made Japan's decades-old fight against its "deflationary mindset" even more critical as businesses in the world's third-largest economy's struggle to break even, Reuters reported. Japanese firms' aversion to passing on higher prices has made it hard to raise wages for fear of being saddled with high fixed costs, which in turn feeds deflationary pressures.

Malaysia today said the U.S. Department of Justice has returned 1.9 billion ringgit ($460.22 million) of funds recovered from assets related to sovereign fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), Reuters reported. Malaysian and U.S. investigators say that at least $4.5 billion was stolen from 1MDB between 2009 and 2014, in a wide-ranging scandal that has implicated high-level officials, banks and financial institutions around the world. The United States has been returning funds it has recovered from seized assets that were allegedly bought with stolen 1MDB money.

Hong Kong sold a rare land parcel in the Causeway Bay area for a higher-than-expected price, a sign of recovery for the city’s commercial real estate market, Bloomberg News reported. The government sold the site to Hysan Development Co. and Chinachem Group for HK$19.8 billion ($2.5 billion) in a public tender, according to a statement. That exceeds a previous valuation of about HK$15 billion by Midland IC&I Ltd., reflecting optimism from developers that Hong Kong’s office and retail markets will rebound.

Australia unveiled a big-spending budget that aims to run the economy red hot, joining the U.S. and Europe with a fiscal-monetary tandem that seeks to drive unemployment down to levels rarely seen in the past 50 years, Bloomberg News reported. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s 2021-2022 fiscal blueprint aligns both economic orthodoxy with the political needs of a government facing an election in the next year.