Asia Pacific

The Monetary Board placed the Surigaonon Rural Banking Corporation under the receivership of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) by virtue of an MB resolution dated April 23, Minda News reported. As receiver, PDIC took over the bank the following day. Surigaonon Rural Banking Corporation is a 10-unit rural bank with head offices located at the junction of Rizal and Gemina Streets in this city. It has another branch in the city, and in the cities of Tacloban, Cagayan de Oro, Davao and Butuan.

China’s central bank is readying its most aggressive easing tool since it launched a massive stimulus plan in 2008 to counter the global financial crisis, in a bid to help one of the government’s most important economic-rescue initiatives get off the ground, The Wall Street Journal reported. Chinese leaders have singled out the ballooning debts of various levels of government as an economic threat that must be defused.

Cyprus's international lenders have yet to decide if recent changes to the island's insolvency law are enough to allow an outstanding review of its aid programme to be concluded, the European Central Bank said on Monday, Reuters reported. Earlier this month, lawmakers in Cyprus approved legislation governing foreclosures, paving the way for the island to join the ECB's sovereign bond-buying programme. But the ECB said no final decision had been taken as to whether the Cypriot action was enough to meet the terms of its aid-for-reform programme.

Fitch Ratings lowered Japan’s credit rating as the country continued to wrestle with staggering debt, the International New York Times reported. The rating agency said Monday that the government did not include sufficient measures in its budget to replace a sales tax increase it delayed in the current fiscal year, which ends next March. Japan’s debt, more than twice the size of its economy, is the largest among developed nations. The country has struggled to find a way to cover rising costs for health and elder care.

Several Chinese provincial governments have been forced to postpone bond auctions as banks balk at the low yields on offer, state media reported on Friday, highlighting the challenges of carrying out a Rmb1tn ($161bn) plan to lower financing costs for cash-strapped localities, the Financial Times reported. China’s local debt has surged since the 2008 financial crisis as regional governments borrowed to finance infrastructure projects in an effort to stimulate the economy. Economists have warned that the debt poses a risk to the banking system.

Vietnam's central bank will acquire all shares in a small, loss-making bank in Hanoi, a unit of Ocean Group Co, to ensure the banking system's safety, the second move in less than two months as it seeks to clean up the fragmented sector. "The State Bank has announced its compulsory purchase of all the shares owned by existing shareholders in Dai Duong (Ocean) Commercial Bank," the State Bank of Vietnam said in a statement on Saturday.

Factory activity in China contracted at its fastest pace in a year in April, an early reading of a survey showed on Thursday, suggesting that economic conditions are still deteriorating despite increasingly aggressive stimulus efforts by the Chinese central bank, the International New York Times reported. The HSBC/Markit preliminary purchasing managers’ index fell to 49.2 in April, remaining below the 50-point level, which separates growth in activity from a contraction on a monthly basis. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a reading of 49.6, equal to March’s final figure.

The enactment of the hotly-debated insolvency framework into law last Saturday was credit positive for Cypriot banks because it lays the groundwork for large-scale loan restructuring and improves the banks’ recovery prospects, Moody’s ratings agency said on Thursday.

ANA Holdings Inc said it has agreed to acquire a stake of up to 19.9 percent in bankrupt budget carrier Skymark Airlines Inc, gaining access to highly coveted landing slots and strengthening its lead over rival Japan Airlines Co., Reuters reported. Under the deal, Japanese private equity firm Integral Corp, which has provided funds to keep Skymark in business since its bankruptcy in January, will hold just over 50 percent. An ambitious expansion programme, including plans to fly Airbus A380 superjumbos on overseas routes, stretched Skymark's finances, leaving it vulnerable to competition.

Facing calls to explain why banks had largely failed to pass on to consumers and businesses two policy rate cuts this year, Raghuram Rajan, the normally easy-going governor of the Reserve Bank of India, launched a rare attack. “Banks are sitting on money,” he said after the RBI’s latest interest rate meeting. “Their marginal cost of funding has fallen.