China’s stock market was plunging and its currency was teetering. The head of the central bank, fielding questions at a rare news conference, said that China would make it easier to get home mortgages. It was February 2016 and Zhou Xiaochuan, the central bank’s longtime governor at the time, announced what proved to be the start of an extraordinary blitz of lending by China’s immense banking system. Minimum down payments for buying apartments were reduced, triggering a surge in construction. Vast sums were also lent to local governments, allowing them to splurge on new roads and rail lines.

The Indonesian government is reviewing a plan to merge state-owned airlines Garuda Indonesia and Pelita Air, a unit of energy firm Pertamina, to ensure affordable airfares, an executive said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The plan came a year after Garuda reached an agreement with its creditors to restructure its $9 billion debt.

Thailand's second-biggest lender Kasikornbank is in talks to buy consumer finance provider Home Credit Vietnam in a deal of up to $1 billion that would further its push to expand in Vietnam, Reuters reported. The Bangkok-based lender, also called KBank, hopes to become one of Vietnam's top 20 banks in terms of assets by 2027. It has total assets worth $119.7 billion, second only to Bangkok Bank in Thailand, Refinitiv data showed.

At a moment when the U.S. is trying to reset its tense relationship with China, states across the country are leaning into anti-Chinese sentiment and crafting or enacting sweeping rules aimed at severing economic ties with Beijing, the New York Times reported. The measures, in places like Florida, Utah and South Carolina, are part of a growing political push to make the United States less economically dependent on China and to limit Chinese investment over concerns that it poses a national security risk.

The Bank of Japan is purchasing government bonds at a record pace this year, a factor that likely prompted its recent move to allow larger yield movements so as to reduce the strain on its control of longer-term interest rates, the Japan Times reported. Doubling the effective cap on benchmark yields in December and again last month has yet to significantly reduce the BOJ’s bond buying, raising the possibility that more changes will be needed to help rein in purchases.

China cut its one-year benchmark lending rate on Monday as authorities seek to ramp up efforts to stimulate credit demand, but surprised markets by keeping the five-year rate unchanged amid broader concerns about a rapidly weakening currency, Reuters reported. The recovery in the world's second-largest economy has lost steam due to a worsening property slump, weak consumer spending and tumbling credit growth, adding to the case for authorities to release more policy stimulus.

A model Chinese real estate developer in a sector replete with risk takers is teetering on the edge of default. Short of cash, one of China’s biggest asset managers has missed payments to investors. And billions of dollars have flowed out of the country’s stock markets. In China, August has been a dizzying ride, the New York Times reported. What started three years ago as a crackdown on risky business behavior by home builders, and then an ensuing housing slowdown, has spiraled rapidly this month.

China’s central bank and financial regulators met with bank executives and told lenders again to boost loans to support a recovery, adding to signs of heightened concern from policymakers about the deteriorating economic outlook, Bloomberg News reported. Authorities also urged for adjustments and an optimization of policies for home mortgages at the meeting on Friday, according to a statement from the People’s Bank of China on Sunday, without elaborating on the housing initiatives. Executives from China Life Insurance Co.

Less than a year after a debt crisis shook South Korea, concern is growing that souring lending at credit unions risks bringing back distress, Bloomberg News reported. A branch of one of Korea’s biggest such lenders, MG Community Credit Cooperatives, was shut last month when it reported a 60 billion won ($45 million) loss on real estate-related loans. That triggered deposit outflows at the group of lenders on concerns over rising default rates.

Malaysia may pursue lawsuits against Goldman Sachs over the U.S. investment bank's role in the multi-billion dollar corruption scandal at state fund 1MDB, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said in an interview with CNBC, Reuters reported. Goldman settled with Malaysia in 2020 by agreeing to pay $2.5 billion in cash and guaranteeing the return of $1.4 billion in assets to the country in exchange for dropping all criminal charges against the bank. But Anwar, who came to power in late 2022, said earlier this year that Malaysia was re-evaluating the deal as the settlement sum was small.