If last week's developments at China's most indebted property developer are anything to go by, 2022 might see Beijing soften its attempts to purge the sector and make more allowances for economic stability, Reuters reported. China Evergrande Group, whose rocky financial situation has roiled Chinese property firms and global financial markets over the past year, got a reprieve this week after investors agreed to extend a payment date on a yuan bond.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday that a collective global effort is needed to deal with the problems posed by cryptocurrenices, Reuters reported. "The kind of technology it is associated with, the decision taken by a single country will be insufficient to deal with its challenges. We have to have a similar mindset," Modi said at the World Economic Forum's virtual Davos Agenda conference. India has been mulling virtual currency-related regulations which were widely expected to be introduced in the winter session of the parliament in December before being shelved.

China Evergrande Group on Thursday secured a crucial approval from onshore bondholders to delay payments on one of its bonds, as other cash-strapped developers also scrambled to negotiate new terms with creditors to avoid defaults, Reuters reported. Struggling with more than $300 billion in liabilities, sector giant Evergrande was seeking more time for bond coupon and redemption payments to avoid a technical default that would have complicated its politically sensitive restructuring.

Several of China’s largest banks have become more selective about funding real estate projects by local government financing vehicles, concerned that some are taking on too much risk after they replaced private developers as key buyers of land, Bloomberg News reported. At least five state-run banks have imposed new restrictions this year on loans to weaker LGFVs seeking to buy land and develop new real estate projects, said the people, asking not to be identified discussing a private matter.

Singapore Airlines Ltd. became the first carrier to tap the debt market for dollars in 2022, raising funds at a discount to peers thanks to its government backing, Bloomberg News reported. The flag carrier sold $600 million of seven-year bonds to yield 3.493%. That’s nearly a percentage point lower than the average yield at issuance for global airline notes sold in 2021, according to Bloomberg-compiled data. In 2021 Air Canada borrowed for five years at 3.875% while United Airlines Holdings Inc. had a 4.625% yield at issue for 8 years, the data show.

Troubled cruise operator Genting Hong Kong Ltd. plunged by a record Thursday after shares resumed trading, following warnings from the company in recent days of more defaults due to the insolvency of its German shipbuilding subsidiary, Bloomberg News reported. Part of Malaysian tycoon Lim Kok Thay’s sprawling casino-to-hospitality Genting empire, the Hong Kong cruise firm’s shares slid 56% in the city. They had been suspended since last week.

The Turkish lira has become so volatile that Turks have ditched the local currency for assets with an even riskier reputation: cryptocurrencies, the Wall Street Journal reported. While the lira unraveled against the dollar in the last quarter of 2021, cryptocurrency trading volumes using the lira leapt to an average $1.8 billion a day across three exchanges, according to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.

Legal technology startup LegalPay has partnered with Mumbai-based non-banking finance firm Jumbo Finance Ltd to give interim finance to the companies undergoing the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP), the Economic Times of India reported. New Delhi-based LegalPay, which also works as an alternative-investments platform specializing in legal financing, is also in talks with some more such NBFCs to fund companies under CIRP. mid-market companies, including micro-small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), undergoing insolvencies requiring up to Rs 5 crore.

It was once hailed as the future of Chinese banking, a privately run lender that would mint money by outmaneuvering its state-owned rivals, Bloomberg News reported. An ill-fated push into property lending has instead turned China Minsheng Banking Corp. into one of the biggest casualties of the real estate debt crisis that’s roiling Asia’s largest economy. Battered by mounting losses on loans to developers including China Evergrande Group, Minsheng’s stock tumbled 31% in the 12 months through last week -- the worst performance in the 155-member Bloomberg World Banks Index.

Vodafone Idea Ltd. said that India’s government doesn’t want to actively run the unprofitable phone operator after its board approved a rescue plan that made the state its biggest shareholder with a 36% stake in the company, Bloomberg News reported. “They do not have to desire to take over the operations of the company,” Ravinder Takkar, managing director and chief executive officer of Vodafone Idea, told reporters on Wednesday.