Chinese regulators have asked some money management firms to report the duration of any new bond fund products, in the latest effort to curb risks in the market, Bloomberg News reported. The China Securities Regulatory Commission has also significantly slowed down the approval process for new bond funds and asked some fund companies to document their existing bond fund durations. A rally in Chinese government bonds is raising concerns from regulators that banks and investment funds are exposing themselves to excessive risk if the market turns.

A U.S. judge refused to block a debt payment designed to free Byju’s from an insolvency case in India, telling American lenders to take their complaints about the transaction to a court in the home country of the educational tech firm, Bloomberg News reported. Bankruptcy Judge Brendan Shannon rejected a lender request to block Riju Ravindran, brother of Byju’s founder, from paying more than $19 million to India’s governing board for cricket. A deal to clear the debt enabled Byju’s to win dismissal of an insolvency case in front of a judicial tribunal in India.

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) the regulator for bankruptcy proceedings in the country has issued 15 point guidelines to the committee of creditors (COC) while deciding insolvency cases with an aim to stem value erosion by curbing procedural delays and increase co-ordination among members, the Economic Times of India reported. The guidelines asks creditors to resolve any inter-se disputes between the members, particularly in relation to claims, preferably, through dialogue, or other non-adversarial means and avoid litigation.

India’s central bank left its policy rate unchanged, in an attempt to rein in relatively high inflation driven partly by elevated food prices, the Wall Street Journal reported. Reserve Bank of India Gov. Shaktikanta Das said Thursday that the monetary-policy committee decided to maintain its policy repo rate at 6.50%. He said that the committee will also remain focused on the withdrawal of accommodation.

South Korea announced a series of steps intended to increase housing supplies as it tries to temper a rebounding property market that has frustrated potential buyers and made the central bank cautious about a policy pivot, Bloomberg News reported. The government of President Yoon Suk Yeol plans to ease restrictions on redevelopment projects, help speed up the construction of apartments and provide loan guarantees to developers, according to a Finance Ministry statement that contained a slew of measures.

The Reserve Bank of Australia’s governor, Michele Bullock, warned again on Thursday that the central bank may still need to raise interest rates further as inflation risks continue to lurk more than two years after policy action started to cool it down, the Wall Street Journal reported. Bullock told a community meeting in her hometown of Armidale, New South Wales, that inflation is lower than where it was a year ago, but remains “too high.” “The board remains vigilant with respect to upside risks on inflation and will not hesitate to raise rates if it needs to.

China Vanke Co.’s sales slump extended in July, adding to liquidity pressure at the developer that’s become the latest focal point of the nation’s property crisis, Bloomberg News reported. Contracted sales for the month slumped 13% from a year earlier to 19.2 billion yuan ($2.7 billion), following a 29.3% slide in June, corporate filings show. The total was 24% lower on month. The protracted sales slump is escalating investor concern over its liquidity.

Banks are expected to take more enforcement actions on distressed buildings amid Hong Kong’s property market downturn, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Bloomberg News reported. That’s based on the estimate of the firm’s partner Christopher So, whose team oversees a portfolio of real estate under receivership valued at more than HK$10 billion ($1.28 billion). “Lenders tend to give borrowers some breathing space at the beginning.

A week after Japan’s top central banker shook up global markets with comments about raising interest rates, one of his deputies walked them back Wednesday and promised not to raise rates when markets are unstable, the Wall Street Journal reported. The pledge by Bank of Japan Deputy Gov. Shinichi Uchida led to a sharp recovery in Tokyo stock prices and a fall in the yen. That moved markets closer to where they were before the July 31 news conference by Gov. Kazuo Ueda, in which he suggested he wanted to keep raising rates despite lackluster consumer spending in Japan.

A battle between China’s central bank and government-bond buyers is intensifying, as traders keep snapping up the debt despite growing evidence of official displeasure, Bloomberg News reported. On one side is the People’s Bank of China, which skipped offering lenders short-term cash for the first time since 2020 on Wednesday — a sign it was seeking to limit leveraged buying of government debt.