Japan’s banking regulator is surveying regional lenders on how local businesses are coping with new restrictions to contain COVID-19, as it seeks to forestall a spike in bankruptcies, Reuters reported. The survey by the Financial Services Agency (FSA) follows the government’s roll-out of state-of-emergency measures last month that could destabilise regional economies. While policymakers stress Japan’s banking system remains stable as a whole, the move underscores their concern over the prolonged and widening damage the coronavirus pandemic is inflicting on companies and banks.

Japan’s Topix stock benchmark climbed to a three-decade high on Monday, drawing even more attention to its future amid plans for a sweeping market reform, Bloomberg News reported. The Tokyo Stock Exchange is set to undergo a once-in-a-generation shakeup in little over a year. Japan Exchange Group Inc., which owns the bourse, plans to cut the number of market segments, apply new listing criteria and turn five confusing, overlapping divisions into three simpler sections: blue-chips, start-ups, and the rest.

Pressure is mounting on companies whose behavior could pose a risk to China’s financial system. HNA Group, the vast Chinese conglomerate that threw tens of billions of dollars at trophy businesses around the world, is nearing the biggest corporate collapse in recent Chinese history, offering a glimpse of how Beijing treats its most powerful entrepreneurs, the New York Times reported. HNA’s insolvency is the largest China has seen since the country first began using its bankruptcy law in 2007, according to Michelle Luo, a bankruptcy lawyer at Hui Ye law firm.

New Zealand is clamping down on property investors in an attempt to rein in spiraling house prices, Bloomberg News reported. The central bank said Tuesday that it will reinstate mortgage lending restrictions on March 1 and tighten them further for investors from May 1.

Seadrill Ltd, the rig operator controlled by billionaire John Fredriksen, filed for bankruptcy protection for its Asian units after the economic downturn triggered by the coronavirus pandemic worsened a crisis in offshore oil drilling, Bloomberg News reported. The filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of Texas is the second within four years by the driller that was once the industry’s largest by market value. The filing covers Seadrill GCC Operations, Asia Offshore Drilling Ltd., Asia Offshore Rig 1 Ltd., Asia Offshore Rig 2 Ltd.

Embattled Chinese coffee chain Luckin Coffee Inc. filed for chapter 15 bankruptcy in New York, less than a year after the company said that more than a quarter’s worth of business may have been faked, Bloomberg News reported. The move will protect the company from lawsuits by U.S. creditors while it reorganizes in China, where it runs several thousand outlets. All its coffee shops will remain open for business and the chapter 15 petition will not materially impact the company’s day-to-day operations, according to a statement issued today.

China’s army of tiny hedge funds are pulling further ahead of their better-known foreign competitors with outsized gains helping them attract more assets, Bloomberg News reported. The nearly 15,000 funds offered by Chinese managers returned 30% on average last year, with the best-performers surging 10-fold, according to Shenzhen PaiPaiWang Investment & Management Co. That dwarfs the average 12% gain for hedge funds globally.

People marched through Monywa, in the heart of Myanmar, and Mawlamyine, on the eastern coast, demanding an end to military rule, the New York Times reported. They refused to disperse in the casino town of Myawaddy, even when the police fired warning shots. In Sagaing Division, in the foothills of the Himalayas, a man from the Naga ethnic group wearing a fur hat garnished with hornbill feathers and boar tusks raised his arm in a defiant salute. And in Yangon, the largest city in the country, columns of red-clad protesters surged toward Sule Pagoda from as far as the eye could see.