China’s central auditing authority has sounded the alarm on a surge of bad debt at small banks around the country, raising the question of whether Beijing will continue to bail out struggling lenders or eventually allow some to go bankrupt, the Financial Times reported. The National Audit Office said that some banks in Henan province in central China had recorded 40 per cent of their loan books as bad debt by the end of 2018, the first official disclosure in decades of such high rates of toxic assets.

More of India’s smaller banks may become acquisition targets if the regulator gives a nod to the proposed merger of Lakshmi Vilas Bank Ltd. and Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd., according to Credit Suisse Group AG analysts. If approved, the deal would be the first example of a non-bank financial company like Indiabulls Housing merging with a bank, following the 2016 relaxation of Reserve Bank of India rules, Bloomberg News reported.

One of China’s top commodity traders, Tewoo Group, is selling copper at below market rates as it grapples with a liquidity crunch, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The company, which is owned by the local Tianjin government, is offloading some refined copper stocked in bonded zones as it unwinds financing deals with some banks, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information isn’t public, Bloomberg News reported. The metal is used as collateral in financing agreements or committed assets in so-called repurchase agreements with banks, they said.

Turkish companies are struggling to get off the hamster wheel of debt as foreign borrowings run near record highs, Bloomberg News reported. The reason: a plunge in the lira that has driven up the cost of their obligations in dollars and euros. Banks are being left to carry the burden amid a surge in demand from some of the country’s industrial giants to restructure their liabilities -- on top of a jump in bad loans. Lenders are also pulling back on providing new credit as the financial system comes under increasing pressure from the recession and an inflation rate of almost 20 percent.

Jet Airways’ creditors have launched a last-ditch attempt to find an investor to bail out the beleaguered Indian airline, which is in severe financial crisis after months of negotiations failed to secure fresh funds, the Financial Times reported. In a statement released on Thursday, a group of lenders said that they intended to follow a bank-led rescue plan and invited expressions of interest to buy a stake in the carrier, setting a short window of April 6-9 for submissions. The lenders warn that if no investor comes forward “other options may be considered”.

Nissan Motor Co is considering claiming damages against ousted boss Carlos Ghosn over alleged financial misconduct, the automaker's chief executive told shareholders on Monday, adding the scandal would not be fixed overnight. Hiroto Saikawa made the comments at an extraordinary shareholders' meeting in Tokyo, where Ghosn was expected to be voted out as a director, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

The Reserve Bank of India will issue new rules for resolving bad debts after the nation’s top court struck down an earlier directive that tightened rules for stressed asset resolution, Bloomberg News reported. The central bank “will take necessary steps including issuance of a revised circular as may be necessary for expeditious resolution of stressed assets,” RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das told reporters in Mumbai on Thursday.

One of Singapore’s highest-profile corporate debt restructurings was thrown into disarray on Thursday, as embattled water and power company Hyflux Ltd. scrapped a pact with its would-be savior, Bloomberg News reported. The rupture follows disputes in recent weeks with SM Investments Pte, the consortium of Indonesian businessmen that agreed last year to rescue Hyflux in return for a majority stake.

Nomura Holdings Inc. is embarking on yet another sweeping overhaul of its international business, as it cuts $1 billion of costs and fires dozens of employees in its struggling global trading operations, Bloomberg News reported. Japan’s largest securities firm will cull about 150 jobs across the Americas and Europe, the Middle East and Africa on top of reductions in Hong Kong and Singapore as part of the overhaul, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Vijay Mallya, the ex-billionaire known as the “king of good times” in India, may have to prepare for a bout of relative austerity as he fights multiple lawsuits against creditors, Bloomberg News reported. Mallya’s lawyers told State Bank of India, which is among lenders owed 1.142 billion pounds ($1.5 billion) by his defunct Kingfisher Airlines, that their client is willing to cut his spending to 29,500 pounds a month, SBI’s lawyers told a London court Wednesday. He is currently spending about 18,300 pounds a week.