In a related story, Bloomberg News reported that AirAsia Group Bhd. will cease operations in Japan immediately as it tries to reduce cash burn amid the coronavirus outbreak that’s wiped out travel demand globally. AirAsia Japan has stopped operations as of Monday, Southeast Asia’s second-biggest budget carrier said in a statement. That will help the parent conserve cash. Further steps on the decision will be made in accordance with applicable laws and regulations including the Japan Civil Aeronautics Act, it said.

AirAsia Group Bhd. has stopped funding its Indian affiliate as the global travel slump leaves the Malaysian group struggling to support a sprawling empire of no-frills airlines, people familiar with the matter said, Bloomberg News reported. AirAsia India Ltd.’s future may now depend on Indian conglomerate Tata Group, its majority shareholder, which has provided emergency funding but has yet to commit to a full rescue, according to the people, who asked not to be named discussing a confidential matter. The airline isn’t at any immediate risk of folding, the people said.

Singapore said on Monday it would extend relief programmes on mortgages and loans for individuals and small firms into next year because of the prolonged impact of the coronavirus pandemic, Reuters reported. The programmes, which include deferrals on mortgage payments and lower interest rates on loans, were introduced in April and were set to expire on Dec. 31. “Many individuals and businesses will continue to experience cashflow pressures into early 2021,” the Monetary Authority of Singapore and associations representing the city-state’s financial industry said in a statement.

India should look to make rapid strides towards introducing a comprehensive 'individual insolvency' regime now that it has achieved several milestones in corporate insolvency in recent years, according to IBBI Chairman M S Sahoo, The Hindu Business Line reported. Giving a sense of direction to the reform agenda on IBC in the days to come, Sahoo has in an article —written for a special publication to commemorate 4 years of existence of IBC —also said that there may be a need to amend IBC to introduce the concept of pre-packs in India.

India will subsidize interest costs for small borrowers who had availed of a six-month loan repayment holiday to survive as the pandemic devastated cash flows, according to court documents seen by Bloomberg. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government will pay the “interest on interest” on loans of as much as 20 million rupees ($273,000) for the duration of the Reserve Bank of India-authorized moratorium that ended on Aug. 31, according to an affidavit filed by the Ministry of Finance in the Supreme Court on Friday, Bloomberg News reported. A spokesman for the ministry declined to comment.

The COVID-19 pandemic could trigger a debt crisis in some countries, so investors must be ready for granting some form of relief that could also include debt cancellation, World Bank President David Malpass was quoted as saying on Sunday, Reuters reported. “It is evident that some countries are unable to repay the debt they have taken on. We must therefore also reduce the debt level. This can be called debt relief or cancellation,” Malpass told Handelsblatt business daily in an interview. “It is important that the amount of debt is reduced by restructuring,” Malpass added.

Malaysia Aviation Group, the holding company for Malaysia Airlines Bhd, said in a letter to lessors the group is unlikely to be able to make payments owed after November unless it receives more funding from state fund Khazanah, Reuters reported. The letter, reviewed by Reuters, follows a request by the troubled carrier for steep discounts on aircraft rentals from its lessors as part of a broad restructuring plan, three sources with knowledge of the matter said.

In March this year, the Australian Government implemented new measures to assist financially distressed businesses and individuals to navigate the economic impacts of COVID-19, Mondaq reported. As expected, we have seen a drastic downturn in the filing of Wind Up Applications and Creditors' Petitions with the Courts, and the uptake of voluntary administrations. The number of Wind Up Applications filed between July and August 2020, as compared to July and August 2021, are down by 89% and Court Liquidations have also significantly decreased by 74%.

The International Monetary Fund sounded a warning over rising global debt levels and proposed reforms to the debt-restructuring process for countries that struggle to meet their obligations, a number that is set to rise as the pandemic batters economies, Bloomberg News reported.

The Treasurer says he expects the reforms to cover around 76% of businesses facing insolvency today – 98% of whom who have less than 20 employees, The Weekly SOURCE reported. Taking elements from the United States’ Bankruptcy Code, the measures – which have yet to be legislated but will start on 1 January 2021 – will see a shift from the current ‘creditor-in-possession’ regime to a ‘debtor-in-possession’ system.