National Australia Bank illustrated the tough market facing sellers of UK banking assets on Monday, scrapping plans for a sale of its British banking operations and saying it would instead shrink them by cutting 1,400 jobs, Reuters reported. The Australian bank, which operates 337 Clydesdale and Yorkshire bank branches, looked at a number of options including a sale or expansion but decided neither was realistic given the UK's return to recession last week.

One of the country's largest housing subdivisions has been bought, just over a year after it plunged into receivership, The New Zealand Herald reported. The 250ha Lakes residential community on the western outskirts of Tauranga - which at one time was forecast to have a value of more than $1 billion once completed - has been bought by local developers Carrus Corporation. The price has not been disclosed.

Veteran investor Jack Rodman has had enough. After waiting 11 years for China to sell its rising pile of bad bank loans, he is quitting and going to Spain instead. His pull-out exposes a pressing failing in China's booming financial sector: it does not properly dispose of a growing store of bad loans from banks' profligate lending, keeping risks pent up within the world's second-biggest economy, Reuters reported in an analysis.

The Chinese government is pushing in two directions as it seeks to slow price growth while avoiding a collapse. It’s lowering borrowing costs for first-time homebuyers to encourage purchases while Premier Wen Jiabao keeps curbs in place to stem the speculators who have helped drive home prices up by as much as 140 percent since 1998, Bloomberg reported. China’s 18 percent first-quarter drop in home sales contributed to the slowest economic growth in almost three years.

Former Bridgecorp director Rod Petricevic has been jailed for six and a half years, The New Zealand Herald reported. Petricevic was found guilty earlier this month on 18 charges for misleading investors and of knowingly making false statements that Bridgecorp had never missed a payment of interest or principal. Some of the charges Petricevic was convicted of under the Crimes Act carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail.

Elpida Memory Inc.’s bankruptcy is fueling concern the company could be a burden to an acquirer, with shares of SK Hynix Inc. and Micron Technology Inc. declining on takeover speculation, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. Investors aren’t keen on a full or partial takeover by Hynix or Micron because “they would need funds to buy Elpida’s assets, and even after an acquisition, they would need a lot of money to keep operations going,” said Yuichi Ishida, a Tokyo-based analyst at Mizuho Investors Securities Co.

All countries are unequal, but Korea seems to be among those that are more unequal than others, The Korea Times reported. And as the scourge of inequality worsens by the day, the nation appears to be at a loss in attacking the problem: Policymakers here are reluctant to introduce dramatic changes to the country’s tax and benefit systems, claiming that the risk would be a bankrupt government, while schools and businesses continue to be woefully inept at educating and training a quality workforce.

The Chinese city of Chongqing accumulated tens of billions of dollars in liabilities during Bo Xilai's term as local Communist Party chief, as it juiced growth that helped launch the former high-flyer's campaign for a top political post.

Indonesia’s influential Bakrie family is facing another debt crisis after creditors issued a default notice on a $437m loan, triggered by the collapse in the price of London-listed miner Bumi plc shares that had been used to guarantee the loan, the Financial Times reported. People familiar with the transaction say none of the 20 lenders in the syndicate led by Credit Suisse are likely to demand repayment even if the Bakries do not increase their collateral.

Australia is ready to help beef up the International Monetary Fund's war chest but needs to see a firm commitment from Europe's leaders to tackle the crisis in their region, Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Wayne Swan said in an interview. "We have to ensure from a global perspective that the IMF has the resources that it requires to deal with any challenges in the future," Mr. Swan told Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal Wednesday ahead of the spring meetings of the fund and the World Bank this week in Washington D.C. Mr.