Asia Pacific

The world must act to contain the risk of another devastating housing crash, the International Monetary Fund warned on Wednesday, as it published new data showing house prices are well above their historical average in many countries, the Financial Times reported. The warning from the IMF shows how an acceleration in global house prices from already high levels has emerged as one of the major threats to economic stability, with countries making limited progress in keeping them under control.

Large banks and trading firms are frantically trying to determine whether they have fallen victim to a suspected commodities fraud emanating from the giant Qingdao Port in northeast China, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. Citigroup and several other large Western banks are concerned that their loans may lack the appropriate collateral, big stockpiles of copper and aluminum at the port. The banks have inspectors on the ground who are trying to assess whether enough of the metals are there.

A surge in business loans to the slowing mainland Chinese economy has prompted Hong Kong regulators to impose strict financial rules four years before they are required under new global standards, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. The move is aimed at discouraging banks in Hong Kong from raising money by relying too heavily on short-term funds that can evaporate during periods of tumult. But big global banks have been resisting, over fears that the rules will cut into their profit by driving up loan costs.

Cyprus is set to become the latest peripheral eurozone country to return to global debt markets just one year after its controversial €10bn bailout by international lenders, the Financial Times reported. The island state has hired five banks to set up meetings with possible investors in a new sovereign bond as government borrowing costs across peripheral Europe continue to fall to record lows. Although the country issued €100m of six-year bonds through a private placement in April, this will be the first formal bank-managed bond issue since its rescue.

Malaysia will unwrap plans to restructure loss-making Malaysian Airlines within six to 12 months, a state investor said, as a slump in business since the disappearance of Flight MH370 leaves the carrier set to exhaust its cash reserves by mid-2015, Reuters reported. Moves to rescue Malaysian Airline System Bhd (MAS) have been expected by investors since ticket sales slumped after the unexplained loss of MH370 on March 8. Already squeezed into three years of losses by intense local and longer-haul competition, MAS turned in its worst quarterly performance in two years in January-March.

Nexus Energy shares have slumped as much as 29 per cent on the likelihood that the contentious $26.6 million takeover offer from Seven Group Holdings would be voted down by shareholders, forcing the oil and gas junior into administration and potentially handing control of its key asset to oil major Royal Dutch Shell, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Proxy votes on the scheme of arrangement for Seven Group's 2¢-a-share takeover were due by 11am Tuesday ahead of voting at a shareholder meeting in Melbourne on Thursday.

China has taken a fresh step to boost flagging growth by cutting the amount of cash reserves some lenders must hold at the central bank in a bid to boost lending to small businesses and the rural economy, the Financial Times reported. The People’s Bank of China said it would reduce the “required reserve ratio” by 0.5 per cent for banks that mainly lend to small businesses and rural borrowers. In the first quarter of this year, China’s economy grew by an annual 7.4 per cent, down from 7.7 per cent expansion in the final three months of 2013.

Bitcoin company CoinLab Inc. has thrown its support behind Japanese bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox's U.S. bankruptcy case, a change of course for CoinLab, which has sued Mt. Gox for $75 million, The Wall Street Journal reported. Lawyers for CoinLab said in court papers Friday that they wouldn't object to Mt. Gox's formal request for U.S. bankruptcy protection, despite earlier hints that they might challenge that request. Court documents offered no explanation for CoinLab's decision. Japanese insolvency expert Nobuaki Kobayashi, who is leading Mt.

India’s new Prime Minister Narendra Modi didn’t waste much time: Among his first acts on his first day in office was to make it a priority to recover billions of dollars stashed overseas to avoid taxes, Bloomberg News reported. Within 24 hours of his May 26 inauguration, Modi created an investigative team of former judges and current regulators to find the concealed assets, known as black money, and bring them back. At stake is what’s estimated to be as much as $2 trillion, more than India’s annual gross domestic product.

BASIC Bank's default loans continue to escalate in the face of irregularities, despite Bangladesh Bank's efforts to keep it in check, The Daily Star reported. By the end of June, it is forecast to hit Tk 1,700 crore, up 13 percent from March 30, according to a finance ministry report placed in parliament on Thursday. The figure is 13.45 percent of the state-run scheduled bank's total outstanding loans, and a central bank official tipped the actual figures to be much higher as the bank showed a huge amount of bad loans to be non-classified.