The number of Indian real estate companies tipped into insolvency has doubled in less than a year since the collapse of a key shadow bank, an event often compared to the Lehman crisis that squeezed American funding markets a decade ago, Bloomberg News reported. As many as 421 developers entered bankruptcy court by the end of June, up from 209 in September 2018, around the time when the government seized control of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd. The move triggered a credit crunch for smaller financiers and property firms, which depend on funds from shadow lenders.

One of India’s largest private sector lenders slumped by a record in the bond market on Wednesday, as concerns mount over the health of the nation’s finance sector amid a shadow banking crisis, Bloomberg News reported. Dollar bonds of Yes Bank Ltd., which has sizable exposure to the cash-strapped shadow lenders, slumped a record 5.5 cents to 80.9 cents on the dollar on Wednesday, the lowest since the bonds were sold in 2018.

Japan’s regional banks, desperate to shore up waning earnings, are making risky bets that could blow up in the next economic downturn. In search of returns squeezed by negative interest rates, local lenders have been boosting real-estate and small-business loans that led bad-debt costs to triple last fiscal year, Bloomberg News reported. And with their holdings of Japanese government bonds falling to about half the levels of five years ago, they are increasing exposure to foreign assets.

An Indian bank was able to dupe regulators about its growing exposure to a single property developer for at least a decade before the firm filed for insolvency, according to a letter written by the lender’s managing director, who has since been removed, Bloomberg News reported. Punjab & Maharashtra Co-operative Bank Ltd. used “dummy accounts” and other methods to hide its oversized loans to Housing Development & Infrastructure Ltd. from the Reserve Bank of India, Joy Thomas wrote in the letter, a copy of which was seen by Bloomberg News.

India’s Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) said on Tuesday it aims to resolve 50% of its debt by March 2020 and had identified resolution plans for all of its 302 entities, Reuters reported. The indebted conglomerate’s non-executive chairman Uday Kotak made the comment a year after the government replaced IL&FS management with a team he leads, following a series of defaults that triggered concerns of a bad debt crisis in India’s shadow banking sector.

Turkey’s finance minister said on Monday that steps taken by the government would give banks a “clean slate” to begin lending again, but bankers and analysts said Ankara needed to do more to understand the extent of the mess and to finally clear it up, Reuters reported. Two senior bankers said that big lenders may not completely abide Ankara’s most aggressive move so far: a directive two weeks ago for banks to reclassify as non-performing loans (NPLs) some 46 billion lira ($8.2 billion) in debt.

In a related story, Bloomberg News reported that four years into one of the biggest, longest unwindings in India’s corporate history, tycoon Anil Ambani found himself in a familiar place Monday: Presenting shareholders with another plan to sell off assets and pay debt. His Reliance Group is planning to pay creditors 150 billion rupees ($2.1 billion) more by March, the embattled executive told investors on Monday in Mumbai. Financial unit Reliance Capital Ltd., whose credit rating was downgraded to default by local firms this month, will exit its lending business, he said.

Mounting debt failures in India have been catching rating companies off guard, underscoring continued challenges a year after the landmark failure of shadow bank IL&FS increased scrutiny of the industry, Bloomberg News reported. Defaults at companies including Dewan Housing Finance Corp., Cox & Kings Ltd. and Altico Capital India Ltd. have occurred even as their long-term ratings indicated very low to moderate risk of non-payment. “Raters have not been able to detect stress in time,” said Ashutosh Khajuria, chief financial officer at Federal Bank Ltd.

The dedicated bankruptcy court, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), ordered that insolvency proceedings be started against Mumbai-based real estate developer Lokhandwala Infrastructure under Section 7 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), The Economic Times reported. The Mumbai bench of NCLT restricted the developer from creating any third-party rights or disposing of any assets. This is the second major city-based real estate developer after HDIL which has been referred for the insolvency resolution process under the IBC.

Between August 2017 and September 2017, HDFC had sold over 28 lakh pledged equity shares of Religare for a net value of Rs 12.81 crore and 10 lakh pledged shares of Fortis Healthcare for a net value of Rs 14.53 crore, The Financial Express reported. The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear HDFC’s appeal seeking to initiate insolvency proceedings against RHC Holding, an entity promoted by billionaire brothers Malvinder Mohan Singh and Shivinder Mohan Singh for recovery of `41 crore.