A former Goldman Sachs banker charged with helping to embezzle hundreds of millions of dollars from Malaysia's 1MDB sovereign wealth fund will go on trial in the United States next week, in a case that could shed light on how the bank responded to warnings of corruption, Reuters reported. Roger Ng, Goldman's former investment banking chief in Malaysia, will be the first - and likely only - person to stand trial in the United States over one of the biggest financial scandals in Wall Street history.

More than 25,000 people died by suicide due to either unemployment or bankruptcy between 2018 and 2020, the Union home ministry told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, the Economic Times of India reported. A total of 3,548 people committed suicide due to unemployment in 2020 (when the first wave of Covid-19 hit), 2,851 in 2019 and 2,741 in 2018, Union minister of state for home Nityanand Rai said while replying to a written question. As many as 5,213 people committed suicide due to bankruptcy or indebtedness in 2020, 5,908 in 2019 and 4,970 in 2018.

The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has directed the liquidator of Sterling Biotech to stay the auctioning process of the company until further orders, the Economic Times of India reported. The NCLT was hearing a petition filed by one of Sterling Biotech’s successful qualified bidders, India Gelatine and Chemicals Ltd. Gujarat-based Sterling Biotech is the world’s sixth-largest manufacturer of pharmaceutical gelatin and owes over Rs 8,100 crore to financial and operational creditors.

Some data-driven Chinese hedge funds have stumbled, after several years of eye-catching returns and surging inflows from investors, the Wall Street Journal reported. These quantitative fund managers use statistical models to select stocks and time trades, relying on machine-developed trading algorithms to filter out human weaknesses and find patterns in the market. The rise of Chinese quant investing mirrors earlier growth on Wall Street, with stock markets in both countries being large and liquid.

China eased a year-long cap on loans for the real estate sector to fund public rental housing, the latest bid by authorities to tackle a slumping property market, Bloomberg News reported. Bank loans to fund low-cost rental projects will no longer be subject to regulatory curbs, the People’s Bank of China said in a statement on Tuesday. The rules required banks to trim their loan exposure to the property sector to a certain level.

Turkey will announce a new scheme on the weekend to encourage households to convert their gold holdings into liras, finance minister Nureddin Nebati told investors in London on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Two investors who attended meetings with Nebati in London said the minister had told them about the plans to ensure part of the $250-$350 billion worth of gold held by Turkish households would find its way into the domestic saving system. "They will make announcements this weekend on how to convince people to let go of their gold holdings – it is a huge amount in Turkey," said on investor.

Indian bonds gained after the central bank scrapped a weekly debt sale amid rising yields with a central bank rate decision due on Thursday, Bloomberg News reported. The yield on the benchmark 10-year bond fell as much as 7 basis points to 6.80%. That remains nearly 40 basis points higher this year as record borrowing for the next fiscal year coincided with a global rout in bonds. The 5-year bond yield was down 6 basis points to 6.38%.

February 9 China Eases Property Loan Curbs as Housing Market Slumps China eased a year-long cap on loans for the real estate sector to fund public rental housing, the latest bid by authorities to tackle a slumping property market, Bloomberg News reported. Bank loans to fund low-cost rental projects will no longer be subject to regulatory curbs, the People’s Bank of China said in a statement on Tuesday. The rules required banks to trim their loan exposure to the property sector to a certain level.

Tax havens could come in the way of cross-border insolvency laws, with Videocon Oil and Nirav Modi's Firestar International, two recent examples of Indian companies owning foreign assets that are undergoing insolvency proceedings in the country, demonstrating why this is so, said legal, insolvency and banking experts, the Economic Times of India reported. Videocon Oil has assets in Brazil and Indonesia, owned through intermediate companies located in jurisdictions such as the British Virgin Islands (BVI) and Cayman Islands.

Jury selection is expected to begin on Monday in the U.S. corruption trial of a former Goldman Sachs banker accused of involvement in the looting of billions of dollars from Malaysia's 1MDB sovereign wealth fund, Reuters reported. Roger Ng, Goldman's former head of investment banking in Malaysia, has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to violate an anti-bribery law and launder money in connection with the alleged looting of billions of dollars from the fund.