A panel set up by the Union finance ministry to help frame a bankruptcy code will submit its suggestions on insolvency in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by the budget session of Parliament, followed by its report covering the larger corporate sector later next year, Livemint reported. The government is hoping that a bankruptcy framework, along with the various steps taken in the last few months, will improve the country’s ranking in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business report. India is currently at the 142nd rank out of 189 countries.

Zalman Tech, a legendary maker of cooling solutions and other devices, has filed for bankruptcy. The company had to file for insolvency protection in South Korea because its parent company Moneual took loans it could not eventually repay by using fabricated export data. The destiny of Zalman is unclear. Zalman was established in 1999 and initially focused purely on coolers for microprocessors and graphics cards.

China’s small-loan providers have virtually halved lending as the slowing economy turns both lenders and borrowers more wary of risk, the Financial Times reported. New loans from China’s 8,591 small-loan providers came to just Rmb89bn ($14.5bn) in the first nine months of 2014, virtually half the Rmb161bn level in the same period last year, according to central bank data.

Australia could face its first recession in almost 25 years unless authorities further stimulate the economy, Morgan Stanley said. The nation’s economy will expand just 1.9 percent in 2015, with 1.5 percentage points of that coming from higher exports, and unemployment will climb to 6.8 percent, Morgan Stanley economists led by Daniel Blake said in a research report today. They project the currency will fall to 76 U.S. cents by the end of next year from 87.37 cents at 11:10 a.m. in Sydney.

Iron-ore junior Pluton Resources is battling receivership after junior Chinese creditor Rizhao Port Group appointed receivers and managers, prompting fellow-listed Watpac to suspend an existing mining services contract at the Cockatoo Island project, Mining Weekly reported. Pluto told shareholders on Monday that the receivers and its solicitors had refused the company’s requests for details of the appointment.

Ryanair is one step closer to taking over Cyprus Airways after getting through to the second round of bidding for the ailing flag carrier at the weekend, the Irish Times reported. The Irish airline was one of 15 which submitted proposals to the Cypriot government in September to acquire and turn around Cyprus Airways, which in 2012 needed a €73 million state bailout after losing €56 million. According to incoming finance chief Neil Sorahan, Ryanair was informally told on Friday that it was on a shortlist, meaning it is through to the second round of the process.

China’s shadow banking sector continued to grow at breakneck speed in 2013 and now ranks as the third largest in the world, a report released by the Financial Stability Board showed on Thursday, the Irish Times reported. The country vaulted ahead in the rankings under a new, more targeted definition of shadow banking adopted by the FSB, a task force set up by G20 economies in the wake of the 2008/09 global financial crisis to improve financial regulations.

Multiple major client losses have forced Sumo Visual Group, one of Australia’s biggest retail signage printers, into administration, only six months after making a big kit investment, ProPrint reported. The $30m-a-year 60-staff company with operations in Melbourne and Sydney entered voluntary administration on Tuesday under PPB Advisory. Sources close to the company say a big retail client recently jumped ship to a competitor while another switched out the vast majority of its work, and resulting cashflow issues led to the printer’s predicament.

Chaori Solar’s default on its Rmb1.09 billion ($195 million) bond may not lead to an acceptable template for resolving similar issues, Finance Asia reported. The Shenzhen-listed solar company, which in March became the first Chinese company to default on its onshore corporate bonds, is likely to see the bond bailed out by state-owned enterprises.

While multinationals have been bleating about tumbling sales in China, official retail data from the world’s second-biggest economy tells a more robust story. What gives? The correct read on Chinese shoppers’ propensity to buy is key both for the companies who are increasingly dependent upon the market and for the country itself: consumption, billed as a new growth engine, is required to offset the slowdown in investment.