Asia Pacific

Hundreds of people rushed on Tuesday to withdraw money from branches of two small Chinese banks after rumours spread about solvency at one of them, reflecting growing anxiety among investors as regulators signal greater tolerance for credit defaults. The case highlights the urgency of plans to put in place a deposit insurance system to protect investors against bank insolvency, as Chinese grow increasingly nervous about the impact of slowing economic growth on financial institutions. Regulators have said they will roll out deposit insurance as soon as possible, without giving a firm deadline.

Even before the loss of its Flight MH370, Malaysian Airline System (MAS) was bleeding cash, prompting talk that it may need another financial rescue from state investor Khazanah Nasional Bhd, its majority shareholder, Reuters reported. The flag carrier's cash and short-term investments at end-December were close to $1.2 billion - less than its average operating costs of the two previous quarters, and a signal that it may soon need fresh funding or bank loans.

Chinese steel mills were suffering a medley of woes in mid-March as sales slowed, production levels slumped and profits plunged, according to an investment bank survey published on Tuesday that foreshadows the rising risk of debt defaults in the world’s largest steel producer, the Financial Times beyondbrics blog reported.

The pace of migration of rural Chinese to cities, a dynamic hailed by Premier Li Keqiang as key to the nation’s development, is set to slow by a third in coming years, deepening economic-growth concerns, Bloomberg News reported. A government report released this month projected a 6.3 percentage-point rise in the share of people living in cities from 2013 to 2020 -- down from a 9.4-point gain the previous seven years. Nomura Holdings Inc. estimates that slower urbanization will slice as much as half a percentage point from annual gross domestic product growth over the next half decade.

Mt. Gox said on Friday it found 200,000 "forgotten" bitcoins on March 7, a week after the Tokyo-based digital currency exchange filed for bankruptcy protection, saying it lost nearly all the 850,000 bitcoins it held, worth some $500 million at today's prices, Reuters reported. Mt. Gox made the announcement on its website. Online sleuths had noticed around 200,000 bitcoins moving through the crypto-currency exchange after the bankruptcy filing.

A disproportionate number of ACT companies, including those in construction, are going broke because they are under-capitalised, according to liquidator Eddie Senatore, who has more than 25 years' experience in insolvency, The Canberra Times reported. This occurs when a company cannot afford operational expenses because of a lack of capital. For the ACT, the problem accounts for 16 per cent of insolvencies, almost twice the national average at 9 per cent.

A U.S. judge who froze assets belonging to the American affiliate of bankrupt Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox Co. loosened that restraint to see where some of the digital currency flows, Bloomberg News reported. U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman in Chicago today revised his temporary order issued March 11 to allow movement -- and possibly tracking -- of small amounts of Bitcoin. Jay Edelson, a lawyer for Mt. Gox depositor Gregory Greene, told the judge today that he was “trying to find a pot of crypto-gold.” Greene sued the exchange and and its principal, Mark Karpeles, for fraud last month.

One of the Bank of Japan's more outspoken policy board members warned on Wednesday that too much monetary stimulus could cause problems for the economy in the future, even as the head of the bank said that it should stand ready to act again if needed, The Wall Street Journal reported. Board member Takahide Kiuchi, a former Nomura Securities economist, has been skeptical over the BOJ's ability to attain its 2% inflation target in two years and is wary of maintaining an ultra-easing monetary policy for an extended period.

A denial by China's central bank that it is involved in emergency talks to bailout a troubled property developer reinforced signals Beijing is now more willing to let banks and other investors take losses on loans, Reuters reported. Media reports said the central bank was in talks with Zhejiang Xingrun Real Estate Co, which government officials have said is on the brink of bankruptcy. That led to financial market speculation the government could bail out the company. However, the reports "did not accord with reality", the People's Bank of China said in a post on China's Twitter-like Weibo.

The looming bankruptcy of a Chinese developer owing billions of yuan to domestic banks has raised worries that a softening property market is heightening risks for the financial system, Reuters reported. But the localised focus of the firm, and the nuanced reaction of investors, shows that financial markets are not pricing in the bursting of a real-estate bubble just yet. Government officials told Reuters on Tuesday that Zhejiang Xingrun Real Estate Co, based in the coastal city of Ningbo in Zhejiang province, is on the brink of bankruptcy.