While many have celebrated the start of the New Year filled with hope, one expert believes that 2021 will be difficult for directors, officers, and their advisers due to a projected increase in insolvency claims against them, Insurance Business Magazine reported. “The view from specialists across our network is that while legislative measures… have offered some protection to directors of companies facing financial difficulties, insolvency claims will be a strong driver of D&O risk in 2021,” said Simon Konsta, partner at Clyde & Co. London.

Indian courts may rule in coming months on cases involving billions of dollars in distressed assets, and the decisions could clarify what roles banks play in helping companies devastated by the pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. What may be among the first of the verdicts could also be one of the most important: the Supreme Court may decide within weeks on requests by big borrowers seeking relief on repayments and defaults, in what’s being called the loan moratorium case.

The authorities in Tokyo requested on Monday that restaurants and bars close by 8 p.m. to prevent further spread of the coronavirus, an announcement that came after the Japanese prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, said that the central government would consider declaring a state of emergency in the capital and in three surrounding prefectures for the first time since April, the New York Times reported.

Manufacturers across Europe ended 2020 on a high while Asian factory activity expanded moderately thanks to robust demand in regional giant China, surveys showed, but the prospect of tougher coronavirus curbs clouded the outlook for the recovery, Reuters reported. Despite hopes that vaccination programmes being rolled out will eventually quell the virus, a resurgence of infections is forcing many countries to reimpose strict controls on economic activity, possibly hurting large exporters such as China and Germany.

Think of major threats to South Korea, and its nuclear-armed neighbor North Korea may come to mind. But a subtler risk to South Korea’s future well-being lies within its borders: a shrinking and rapidly aging population, the New York Times reported. The concern was underscored this weekend with the release of census data that showed South Korea’s population fell in 2020 for the first time on record. A declining number of newborns was exceeded by a growing number of deaths, according to census data reported Sunday by Yonhap, the South Korean news agency.

As of January 1, eligible Australian businesses experiencing financial distress can access a new, simplified debt restructuring process that allows them to restructure their existing debts while remaining in control of their business, the government said in a statement, the Australian Times reported. The reforms are aimed at repositioning the country’s insolvency system to help more incorporated small businesses – with liabilities of less than $1-million – restructure and survive the economic impact of the Covid-19 recession.

Around a dozen large borrowers have applied for the RBI’s loan restructuring scheme for those affected by COVID stress. The deadline for corporates and invididuals to make an application under the RBI's resolution framework for COVID-related stress ended on December 31. For small businesses, there is a separate restructuring scheme that will be valid until March 2021. The Future Group, Shaporrji Pallonji Group and SpiceJet are among those who will apply for loan restructuring.