India’s top mutual funds risk running afoul of the country’s securities regulator for granting more time to media mogul Subhash Chandra for repaying nearly a billion dollars in debt, Bloomberg News reported. Shares of the group’s flagship Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. have steadied since hitting a five-year low Monday after the group said the money managers had agreed to extend the repayment timelines on obligations due by September-end. What’s unclear is how the extension will be looked at by the regulator, who in June invalidated pacts between funds and their borrowers.

Investors on a call in July with distressed Indonesia textile firm PT Delta Merlin Dunia Tekstil were confounded -- how could the company’s fortunes have turned so fast? They’re still searching for answers, in a case that’s revived concerns about a lack of transparency in corners of Asia’s credit markets, Bloomberg News reported. The saga has also highlighted risks of more scares ahead as the trade war and mounting geopolitical concerns reverse a rally in junk debt.

A record pace of defaults hit China’s domestic bonds this year. In 2020, it could be the offshore market’s turn. That’s because of a looming wall of dollar debt, issued by now-stressed borrowers, that comes to maturity, Bloomberg News reported. There’s $8.6 billion of offshore bonds coming due next year that currently have at least 15% yields -- classifying them as stressed, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Put another way, nearly 40% of total outstanding corporate dollar bonds from China’s most troubled companies is due next year.

The brokerage arm of top Japanese lender Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group will cut about half of its staff in Asia outside of Japan in a restructuring to be finalised as early as Wednesday, two people familiar with the matter said, Reuters reported. Mitsubishi UFJ Securities staff in Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia will be cut to fewer than 100 people from around 180 now, two people said, declining to be identified because the information has not been made public. Sales and trading will be heavily impacted, while debt capital markets will remain largely intact, they said.

Indian media giant Essel Group, run by industry mogul Subhash Chandra, is seeking an extension to repay debt in order to avoid creditors liquidating its shares, Bloomberg News reported. The company faces a month-end debt repayment deadline. If that’s not met, creditors can sell shares in the group’s flagship Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. kept as collateral against loans. The case highlights broader risks that borrowings backed by stock pose to the equity market. There’s a lot at stake with share-backed loans currently at about 1.9 trillion rupees ($26.5 billion).

Commodities trader Trafigura has joined a group of lenders to provide a $1 billion loan backed by future oil sales to Chinese independent refiner, Shandong Qingyuan, in a deal which underscores the opening up of China to trading houses, Reuters reported. Chinese banks have scaled down lending due to an economic slowdown, creating an opportunity for trading houses to step in, just as they had after the 2008-2009 financial crisis when risk appetite fell as bank regulation increased.

India’s unexpected $20bn corporate tax cut, unveiled last week as the country battles a sharp economic slowdown, has triggered euphoria among business chiefs and equity investors, the Financial Times reported.

The IMF sharply increased its forecast for Turkey’s economic growth this year but warned the prospects of a sustainable recovery from last year’s currency crisis have dimmed, the Financial Times reported. In a concluding statement on Monday published after an annual visit by IMF staff, the fund revised its forecast for full-year GDP growth in 2019 from -2.5 per cent to 0.25 per cent. “Growth has rebounded, aided by policy stimulus and favourable market conditions, following the sharp lira depreciation and associated recession in late-2018,” it said.

Turkey forced banks to take losses on $8 billion in bad loans this week to kick-start lending and boost its economic recovery after losing patience with them, bankers, senior government officials and industry advisers told Reuters. Ankara’s most aggressive move yet to cure a hangover from Turkey’s 2018 currency crisis has left banks scrambling to meet a year-end deadline to restructure loans or ready them for sale, Reuters reported.

The Reserve Bank of India would prefer a market-led resolution to the nation’s simmering shadow banking crisis, Governor Shaktikanta Das said, dashing hopes for bailouts in the struggling sector, Bloomberg News reported. “We are monitoring the top 50 non-bank finance companies, which account for 70%-75% of the sector loans outstanding,” Das said at the Bloomberg India Economic Forum in Mumbai late Thursday.