China's central bank said on Monday it had recently summoned some banks and payment firms, including China Construction Bank and Alipay, urging them to crack down harder on cryptocurrency trading, Reuters reported. The People's Bank of China's meeting came after China's State Council, or cabinet, last month said that it would tighten restrictions on bitcoin trading and mining. Beijing has sharply ratcheted up its campaign in the last few weeks.

Philippine Airlines Inc.’s parent company posted a record loss last year, reflecting the “extraordinary” impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the carrier, Bloomberg News reported. PAL Holdings Inc. reported a 71.8 billion pesos ($1.48 billion) loss in calender 2020, compared to a 10.3 billion peso shortfall the year before, the company said in a stock exchange filing Thursday. In the first quarter of this year, its loss narrowed to 8.6 billion pesos from 9.4 billion pesos a year earlier.

Troubled flag carrier PT Garuda Indonesia put off the payment on its Islamic debt once again, highlighting its financing crunch as the firm tries to avoid bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. The Southeast Asian airline, struggling as the pandemic depresses air travel worldwide, said it “will continue to defer the periodic distribution amount due June 3,” in a filing to the Singapore stock exchange on Thursday. The state-owned company missed the distribution payment on a $500 million sukuk on June 3, and a 14-day grace period ended on Thursday.

EAGLE Hospitality Real Estate Investment Trust (EH-Reit), which is part of Singapore-based Eagle Hospitality Trust (EHT), has received net proceeds of about U.S. $153.9 million following the sale of five chapter 11 properties, the Singapore Business Times reported. The net proceeds have been partially used to repay the debtor-in-possession facility and the stalking horse "break up" fee, EH-Reit trustee DBS Trustee said in a bourse filing on Thursday. The balance remaining is around $109.7 million, which will go to repaying ongoing post-petition expenses and pre-petition creditors.

Japan cleared the way for holding the Summer Olympics on schedule by setting an end to its state of emergency and lifting vaccinations to about a million shots a day, the Wall Street Journal reported. Thursday’s developments, combined with falling Covid-19 infection numbers and rising public support for the Games, make it highly likely that the Olympics will start in Tokyo on July 23 as scheduled, barring a last-minute surprise such as a renewed coronavirus wave.

The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday proposed further restrictions on purchases of telecommunications equipment that pose national security risks, strengthening its opposition to Chinese providers of 5G wireless and other technologies, the New York Times reported. The F.C.C. voted unanimously to explore the proposal to ban U.S. companies from all future purchases of telecommunications equipment from companies like Huawei and ZTE of China.

Around 200 applications for resolution of stressed assets have been filed under the insolvency law since the suspension of fresh proceedings ended on March 24, according to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI), the Economic Times of India reported. Amid the coronavirus pandemic that had significantly impacted economic activities, certain provisions under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) were suspended with effect from March 25, 2020. The suspension was in place for one year till March 24, 2021.

China’s crackdown on shadow banking is taking aim at more than $1 trillion of opaque investments sold by banks as low risk and high yield, even while funds were channeled to riskier borrowers such as developers, Bloomberg News reported. Banks and wealth mangers can no longer use money invested in so-called cash management products to buy long-term debt or bonds rated below AA+, according to long-awaited rules published on Friday.

Thai Airways International Pcl on Wednesday said that its acting chief executive officer, Chansin Treenuchagron, had resigned, Reuters reported. The airline's chief of human resources, Suvadhana Sibunruang, will take over as acting CEO, the company said in a statement. The announcement comes after a court approved the airline's restructuring plan. Chansin will remain as an administrator of the airline's business rehabilitation plan. Read more.