Asia Pacific

Even as the amendments to be Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) are getting delayed, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has made a slew of regulatory changes in the past 18 months to enhance the efficiency of the resolution process, FinancialExpress.com reported. “Until amendments to the IBC are carried out, it’s only logical for the IBBI to make regulatory changes,” an official source told FE. Going forward too, the IBBI will be making significant changes to regulations to improve the efficiency, transparency, and effectiveness of the resolution process, the person added.

China's Evergrande Property Services Group said on Friday that it expects to record a decrease of up to 37% in its annual profit for the year ended December 31, 2024, due to legal expenses related to a deposit pledge, among other reasons, Reuters reported. In early January, a Guangzhou city court ordered the firm's parent China Evergrande to repay pledge guarantees on deposit certificates totalling 13.4 billion yuan ($1.85 billion).

On the night of Feb. 21, Ben Zhou, the chief executive of the cryptocurrency exchange Bybit, logged on to his computer to approve what appeared to be a routine transaction. His company was moving a large amount of Ether, a popular digital currency, from one account to another. Thirty minutes later, Mr. Zhou got a call from Bybit’s chief financial officer. In a trembling voice, the executive told Mr. Zhou that their system had been hacked, according to a New York Times analysis. “All of the Ethereum is gone,” he said. When Mr.

China submitted a revised request for dispute settlement consultations with the United States to address new U.S. tariffs applied on goods originating in China, the World Trade Organization said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The Trump administration's latest tariff hike on Chinese imports has heightened fears of a renewed trade war between the U.S. and China, the world's two largest economies. China's revised request comes after an extra 10% duty on Chinese goods took effect Tuesday, adding to the 10% tariff imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump on February 4.

Malaysia’s central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged as expected, citing a balanced outlook on growth and inflation, the Wall Street Journal reported. Bank Negara Malaysia on Thursday maintained its overnight policy rate at 3.00%, where it has been since May 2023. “At the current OPR level, the monetary policy stance remains supportive of the economy and is consistent with the current assessment of inflation and growth prospects,” Bank Negara said.

Turkey lowered its benchmark one-week repo rate from 45% to 42.5% on Thursday, EuroNews.com reported. The decision came after official data showed annual inflation dipping below 40% for the first time in nearly two years. In a statement released after the committee meeting, the bank said it would review inflation trends and adjust rates cautiously in upcoming policy meetings. “While inflation expectations and pricing behaviour tend to improve, they continue to pose risks to the disinflation process,” the bank said.

South Korea’s headline inflation eased in February, providing room for the central bank to loosen monetary policy further to support the slowing economy, the Wall Street Journal reported. The benchmark consumer-price index rose 2.0% from a year earlier, following a 2.2% increase in January, the country’s statistics office said Thursday. The slowdown in price growth was largely driven by stabilizing prices of some agricultural products as well as lower services prices, according to the statistics office.

Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has introduced a proposal aimed at significantly lowering the tax rate on crypto gains from the current maximum of 55% to 20%, CoinMarketCap.com reported. This proposal seeks to classify cryptocurrencies as a new asset class under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, thereby aligning the tax treatment of crypto with that of traditional securities. Currently, Japan categorizes crypto gains as miscellaneous income, subjecting investors to a steep tax burden.