Shades of the 1990s are haunting China’s rust-belt cities as strapped state-owned employers look at cutting jobs, with beleaguered Wuhan Iron & Steel Group the latest company said to be laying off thousands of workers, the Financial Times reported. The dismantling of market pricing reforms and the “iron rice bowl” system of life-long jobs in the 1990s eliminated thousands of state-owned small or medium-sized enterprises, which specialised in everything from industrial boilers to wedding photographs.

Last week the Australian Securities and Investments Commission fired a shot across the bows of insolvency companies, The Weekly Times reported. In forcing Tony Matthews, of ­Anthony Matthews and Associates, into an “enforceable undertaking” ­arrangement, ASIC has effectively placed all insolvency practitioners on notice that creditors have every right to expect prompt, efficient, diligent and judicious action in relation to companies in financial strife.

The Hong Kong-based civic group China Labour Bulletin says strikes and labor protests nationwide nearly doubled in the first 11 months of 2015 to 2,354 from 1,207 in the same 2014 period. China’s labor ministry says 1.56 million labor-dispute cases were accepted for arbitration and mediation in 2014, up from 1.5 million in 2013, The Wall Street Journal reported. Behind the strife is an economy decelerating faster than the government expected, sparking layoffs and factory closings.

If General Motors can continue selling its Chevrolet brand of cars even after filing for the biggest industrial bankruptcy in the world in 2008, why is that Kingfisher Airlines is not flying, nor are its bankers able to recover dues from it despite promoter Vijay Mallya's and group companies' loan guarantees? The difference may lie in how courts look at bankrupt companies, attitude of the borrowers and the lethargy of bankers, The Economic Times reported.

The Monetary Board last week ordered the closure of two rural banks—one in Camarines Sur and the other in La Union, Inquirer.net reported. In a Dec. 10 circular, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Deputy Governor Nestor A. Espenilla Jr. said the Monetary Board had decided to prohibit Peñafrancia Rural Bank of Calabanga (Camarines Sur) Inc. from doing business in the country. Also, the rural bank’s assets and affairs were placed under receivership pursuant to Section 30 of Republic Act No. (RA) 7653 or The New Central Bank Act, Espenilla said.

COSCO Corporation (Singapore) took a beating after its shares resumed trading on Monday, December 14. Investors punished the shipping company after a much-awaited privatisation deal with its parent company fell through last week, Singapore Business Review reported. COSCO shares have been suspended from trading since August 11, after it was reported that its majority shareholder Cosco Group is eyeing a privatisation exercise for the struggling shipping company.

Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd.’s debt restructuring will probably succeed after gaining local support as both onshore and offshore creditors met over the weekend to align their interests, advisers said, Bloomberg reported. The Shenzhen-based developer is believed to be getting backing from a committee of onshore creditors, the local government and the China Banking Regulatory Commission, according to an e-mailed statement from Kirkland & Ellis and Moelis & Co., who are advising some offshore bondholders. There’s “high likelihood” that the onshore restructuring can succeed, they said.

The government has argued that the recommendations made by the Productivy Commission to change insolvency laws will foster more entrepreneurship and aid innovation, SkyNews.com.au reported. The default bankruptcy period will be reduced from three years to one while a safe harbour will protect directors from personal liability for insolvent trading if they appoint a professional restructuring adviser to develop a plan to turnaround a company in financial difficulty.

Japan avoided falling into the second recession of the Abenomics era over the summer, as stronger-than-expected capital spending helped the economy grow in the third quarter, revised figures show, The Wall Street Journal reported. Japan’s gross domestic product, the broadest measure of a nation’s economic activity, grew 1.0% in the third quarter from the prior three-month period on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis, the Cabinet Office said Tuesday. Previously it had estimated that the economy shrank 0.8% on that basis in the third quarter.

Korea Asset Management Corp (KAMCO) anticipates it will continue to buy up plenty of ships from locally distressed lines next year, Splash24/7 reported. As of the end of October, the state-run debt restructuring company had purchased 35 vessels from shipping firms, including Hanjin Shipping and Hyundai Merchant Marine, for KRW505.5bn ($434m) since the 2008 financial crisis. KAMCO anticipates at least KRW100bn in ships outlay next year – all of which will be chartered back. Korean shipping lines have been among the hardest hit in the downturn.