A director of Indian tech firm Think & Learn Pvt faces financial penalties for defying a US judge’s order to find out where the troubled company stashed $533 million that jilted lenders say should go to them, Bloomberg News reported. Riju Ravindran, the brother of company founder Byju Raveendran, not only failed to make a serious effort to find out what happened to the cash, but deceived the court, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge John Dorsey said during a hearing yesterday in Wilmington, Del. “I conclude Mr. Ravindran’s testimony is not truthful,” Dorsey said.

Several cities across China have lowered down payment and mortgage loan interest rates, in response to the latest wave of stimulus measures to boost lackluster property demand, state media reported, Reuters reported. The down payment for first-time homebuyers in Hefei city and Wuhan city have been lowered from 20% to 15% - the lowest ratio allowed that the central bank announced last week, Shanghai Securities News reported on Wednesday. The ratio for second-time homebuyers was cut from 30% to 25%, the report said.

Oaktree Capital Management took ownership of Italy’s Inter Milan, one of the most storied football clubs in Europe, after its Chinese owner defaulted on a loan, Bloomberg News reported. The US fund has taken control of the club as of Wednesday after conglomerate Suning Holding Group Co. failed to repay €395 million ($428 million), Oaktree said in an emailed statement. The collateral backing the debt was a majority stake in the football club, Bloomberg News reported.

Indonesia’s central bank stood pat at its May policy meeting, a widely expected decision as policymakers keep an eye on rupiah stability and inflation against an uncertain backdrop, the Wall Street Journal reported. Bank Indonesia kept its benchmark seven-day reverse repo rate at 6.25%. All seven economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had expected the decision. The central bank also held its overnight deposit facility rate at 5.50% and its lending facility rate at 7.0%.

China Vanke has secured a fresh loan that takes its total borrowings this month to more than US$1 billion, part of the state-backed developer’s ongoing efforts to temper liquidity pressures as it seeks to finish housing projects, the Wall Street Journal reported. Vanke, one of China’s few major developers yet to default in the country’s ongoing property crisis, said in a stock-exchange filing on Monday that it had obtained a loan for 1.2 billion yuan ($165.9 million) from Bank of China to use for development projects in Changzhou, a city in Jiangsu province.

China will control the intertwined risks in the property sector, local government debt and small local financial institutions, Vice Premier He Lifeng said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. China is seeking to restore confidence in its financial system, which is mired in a property crisis and mounting local government debt, as the economy faces a host of challenges. The country will also seek to prevent systemic risks and crack down on illegal financial activities, state broadcaster CCTV quoted He as saying.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has warned that risks around the inflation outlook have risen, while uncertainty around the economy’s trajectory more broadly remains highly elevated, the Wall Street Journal reported. Minutes of the central bank’s May 6 to May 7 policy meeting showed that while it said there were increased risks that inflation will stay higher for longer than expected, the policy-setting board decided to keep interest rates on hold to avoid “excessive fine-tuning” of policy settings.

China’s benchmark lending rates were held steady this month, central bank data showed Monday after Beijing announced bold moves to address property-sector malaise, the Wall Street Journal reported. The one-year loan prime rate was steady at 3.45% while the five-year rate was unchanged at 3.95%, according to the official data. Economists had expected the benchmark rates to be left untouched after the People’s Bank of China kept key policy rates, including the interest rate on the medium-term lending facility that is used to price LPRs, unchanged earlier this month.

There are enough unsold homes in China to house every family in California and New York combined. Beijing might finally tackle the problem with a huge outlay of cash, but investors should curb their enthusiasm, according to a Wall Street Journal commentary. It might not be enough, or it could overshoot and reignite the housing bubble. Beijing rolled out measures Friday to support the sluggish housing market. The most eye-catching move is that it would let local governments buy apartments at “reasonable prices” to use as affordable housing in places with excessive inventory.

Thailand’s economy grew in the first quarter as private consumption and tourism helped counter weakness in goods exports, but the outlook for the year remains cloudy, the Wall Street Journal reported. Gross domestic product rose 1.5% from a year earlier, compared with the 1.7% expansion seen in the final quarter of 2023, the Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council said on Monday.