The government notification stating that third-party assets, or loan pools sold by non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), must be serviced even when the company is under insolvency proceedings will give a boost to securitisation transactions, rating agency Icra said on Tuesday, The Financial Express reported. The notification was issued after defaults on securitisation transactions originated by troubled mortgage lender Dewan Housing Finance (DHFL) following a court-ordered moratorium on repayments to creditors.

China’s biggest health crisis since at least 2003 has worsened the outlook for defaults in the world’s second-biggest bond market, likely tipping a raft of distressed borrowers over the edge this year, Bloomberg News reported. With scores of millions of citizens barred from travel, and companies, factories and retail outlets shuttered for a period of weeks, strains on cash flow add an unexpected layer of stress on Chinese borrowers. Market participants had already anticipated that defaults in 2020 would be on par with 2019, which saw a second straight annual record high.

Aqua Munda, the little-known investor looking to purchase about S$1.8 billion worth of Hyflux’s debts, has extended the deadline of its offer for the second time, CNA reported. It is giving eligible creditors about three more weeks until 5pm on Feb 22 to submit their bids, Aqua Munda said in a press statement on Monday (Feb 3), citing “significant additional concerns” about Hyflux’s situation following a change of legal advisers at the embattled water treatment firm.

China’s banking system is facing greater risks than it seems as some bigger regional lenders are under pressure just like their smaller counterparts. “Some of the relatively larger stress-tested banks could require sizable recapitalization,” said S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Ming Tan, citing tests conducted by the People’s Bank of China, Bloomberg News reported. China’s vast network of regional banks is under pressure amid the slowest economic growth in three decades and rising loan defaults. The partially resolved trade dispute with the U.S.

India is cutting income taxes and increasing spending, hoping to resuscitate growth, which has tumbled to a 10-year low in Asia’s third-largest economy, The Wall Street Journal reported. Some economists and executives, however, warned that some of the measures unveiled over the weekend could end up hurting the economy more than they help it.

Stocks in China plunged in early Monday trading as investors returned from a long holiday to the prospect of the world’s No. 2 economy virtually shut down by the coronavirus epidemic, the International New York Times reported. Stocks in Shanghai opened 8.7 percent lower, while shares in the southern Chinese boomtown of Shenzhen fell 9 percent. The markets had been closed since Jan. 23 for the Lunar New Year holiday, and government officials extended that closure until Monday while the authorities dealt with the outbreak.

Some of the mom and pop investors desperate to recover money from Singapore’s embattled water treatment firm Hyflux Ltd. are losing confidence they’ll get much of anything back as the wait drags on, Bloomberg News reported. In the latest twist to the city-state’s most high-profile debt restructuring, Hyflux’s legal adviser this week expressed its intent to resign from the case due to “loss of confidence,” while the company said in turn that it has lost trust in its adviser and has since appointed new ones.

Bank of China agreed to pay €3.9 million to settle a French probe into allegations it turned a blind eye as customers moved millions to their Asian accounts without paying European taxes, The Irish Times reported. The lender will pay a €3 million fine and €900,000 in damages to French tax authorities to put the criminal allegations behind it, Paris prosecutor Remi Heitz said. The case will continue against 28 business owners and intermediaries involved in transferring the funds to China, Mr Heitz said Tuesday in a statement.

State-owned steelmaker Krakatau Steel has received approval from its creditors to restructure its loans totaling US$2 billion (Rp 27 trillion) by, among other changes, rescheduling repayment to 2027 in order to be able to revive its business, The Jakarta Post reported. Krakatau Steel president director Silmy Karim said in Jakarta on Tuesday that the debt restructuring would cut interest payments to $466 million from $847 million and cut costs by around $685 until 2027.

India and China have been hit by a surge in consumer prices that, together with a slowdown in growth, has sparked fears of “stagflation” in the world’s two most populous countries, the Financial Times reported. If the Asian powerhouses were to be overtaken by the phenomenon — rising prices in a stagnant economy — their slowing economies would pose a grave threat to global growth. The prospect of stagflation has haunted Beijing for the past six months. China’s economic growth is at a 29-year low and consumer price inflation remains above 4 per cent.