The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday said it would extend the government’s receivership of cash-strapped Kuo Hua Life Insurance Co for another year, allowing the receiver more time to secure a buyer, the Taipei Times reported. The move marked the fourth time the receivership has been extended, as the current one is due to expire tomorrow and the receiver — the semi-official Insurance Stabilization Fund — is in the process of arranging an auction in late October. The financial regulator has taken control of the insolvent company since Aug. 4, 2009.

Embattled timber company Sino-Forest Corp., which is in bankruptcy protection, says it is owed half a billion dollars from companies that have been deregistered in China, thestar.com reported. Sino-Forest, which filed for bankruptcy protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act in March, said in a new release Tuesday that it intends “to take all steps necessary” to collect receivables owing to it. It added that it believes the deregistrations, which have the effect of terminating the existence of the entities, were improper under Chinese law.

Shareholders in Renesas Electronics Corp. have reached a final agreement to provide around Y50 billion in loans to help the struggling Japanese chipmaker turn its business around through restructuring measures, sources familiar with the matter said Monday, Kyodo News reported. The agreement was reached by NEC Corp., Hitachi Ltd. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. after Renesas announced earlier this month its restructuring measures featuring closing or selling eight of its 18 domestic plants and eliminating more than 5,000 jobs with early retirements.

Some of China’s struggling auto makers, burdened by debt, may be forced into involuntary bankruptcy, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said last week, Forbes reported. The Ministry said in a note published on Tuesday that it is considering the introduction of a withdrawal mechanism to force near-bankrupt automakers out of the bloated automotive industry. China has around 1,300 automobile makers, including 171 car, truck and bus makers and more than 900 specialty vehicle manufacturers, according to the government.

China's statisticians get a tough press. After all, it was Europe, not China, whose fudged public finance data helped usher in the latest round of global financial turmoil. The biggest corporate fraud in recent memory isn't China's Sino-Forest, but America's Enron, The Wall Street Journal Heard on the Street blog reported. But a secretive single-party state claiming rapid growth as the rest of the world hovers on the brink of recession naturally arouses suspicion. The official numbers show growth in China's gross domestic product at 7.6% year-on-year in the second quarter.

Two Chinese private equity funds are closing in on a deal to buy the asset management arm of Dexia, highlighting the interest of Asian buyers in European financial assets as banks look to restructure in the wake of the financial crisis, the Financial Times reported. If the sale of the business for about €500m is completed, it would mark the last stage of a break-up of the twice-bailed-out Belgo-French bank, one of the biggest European victims of successive financial crises during the past four years.

Defence technology company Metal Storm has been placed in voluntary administration. The company today said it had appointed Adam Shepard and Adam Farnsworth of Dean-Willcocks Shepard Recovery & Strategy as administrators, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Metal Storm said it was hoped its business could be restructured or sold as a going concern. No details were given about the future of the company's workers.

Platinum Australia (PLA), the ASX-listed platinum miner with all its operations in SA, has now sought refuge from its creditors in voluntary administration. That means there could be some assets up for grabs for mining companies still in the ring, the Financial Mail reported. One of those is African Rainbow Minerals (ARM), Patrice Motsepe's diversified mining company, which is PLA's partner in the advanced Kalplats exploration project, 330km west of Johannesburg.

Higher loan-loss provisions by banks and greater "sacrifice" by founders or controlling shareholders of troubled companies are among the tighter norms for loan restructuring recommended by a panel appointed by India's central bank, Reuters reported. Banks should set aside 5 percent of total assets for standard loans that are restructured, up from 2 percent currently, while provisions for loans that are already restructured should be increased to 5 percent in a phased manner over two years, the report said.

The government said Thursday that it will step up efforts to support low-income households suffering from snowballing debt by offering them more low-cost financial products, The Korea Times reported. To that end, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) has decided to increase the amount of financial products tailored to the poor to 4 trillion won from the current 3 trillion. The new measure is aimed at reducing the financial burdens of low-income families to prevent them from becoming the epicenter of a household debt crisis.