The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has proposed major changes in the insolvency process to bring more discipline and transparency and to address issues that have come up in recent cases, the Times of India reported. The IBBI, which regulates both insolvency professionals and the process, has sought public views on amendments by September 17. A key development is the introduction of a code of conduct for the committee of creditors (CoC) proposed by a parliamentary standing committee headed by Jayant Sinha.

Japan's retail sales rose for a fifth straight month in July, beating expectations as the consumer sector continued its recovery, although a coronavirus resurgence has cast doubts over the spending outlook, Reuters reported. A surge in Delta variant cases this month forced the government to widen state of emergency restrictions, which are now threatening to hurt consumer spending and derail a fragile economic recovery.

China is framing rules to ban internet companies whose data poses potential security risks from listing outside the country, including in the United States, Reuters reported. The ban is also expected to be imposed on companies involved in ideology issues. Beijing said last month that it planned to strengthen supervision of all firms listed offshore, a sweeping regulatory shift that came after a cybersecurity investigation into ride-hailing giant Didi Global Inc. just days after its U.S. listing.

Malaysian Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz, who retained the post in the new government announced Friday by Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, has his work cut out for him, Bloomberg News reported. In October, Zafrul is set to unveil the 2022 federal budget to what may be the most divided parliament in Malaysia’s history. The spending plan will need to address an economy weakened by protracted lockdowns and a raging Covid outbreak, amid steep financial constraints and a deficit target that was already revised higher twice this year.

The United States will continue to be a "very generous" donor of humanitarian aid to the Afghan people and will aim to prevent any of its assistance from passing through Taliban coffers, State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Friday, Reuters reported. "We can maintain a humanitarian commitment to ... the Afghan people in ways that does not have any funding or assistance pass through the coffers of a central government," he told reporters.

Fugitive Indian businessman Vijay Mallya has filed papers in the UK high court seeking permission to appeal against his bankruptcy order, the Times of India reported. Mallya was declared bankrupt by the insolvency and companies court (ICC) of the high court on July 26 this year. His name is now listed in the individual insolvency register. A spokesman for the chancery division of the high court told TOI that Mallya had on August 16 filed a notice seeking permission to appeal the decision of Chief ICC judge Briggs, who had declared him bankrupt.

Centerra Gold Inc.’s units on Wednesday filed a motion in a U.S. Bankruptcy Court seeking penalties of $1 million a day against the Kyrgyzstan government, related to the seizure of the Canadian company’s Kumtor gold mine, Reuters reported. Centerra Gold said in May, its Kyrgyzstan units Kumtor Gold Co. (KGC) and Kumtor Operating Co. (KOC) commenced bankruptcy proceedings in a U.S. court following nationalization of the miner’s Kumtor gold mine by the former Soviet republic.

South Korea became the first major Asian economy to raise interest rates Thursday, with more hikes in the pipeline as its central bank indicated that financial risks pose a bigger threat to the economy than the latest virus outbreak, Bloomberg News reported. Governor Lee Ju-yeol said the quarter-percentage-point hike to 0.75% still left rates in an accommodative position that supports the economy. He added that the current delta wave is having less of a negative impact on growth as consumers adjusted behavior to the new normal of the pandemic.

Afghanistan's banks, critical to the country's recovery from crisis, are facing an uncertain future say its bankers, with doubts over everything from liquidity to employment of female staff after the Taliban swept to power, Reuters reported. Banks were expected to reopen imminently, a Taliban spokesman said on Tuesday, after they were closed for some ten days and the financial system ground to a halt as the Western-backed government collapsed amid the pullout of U.S. and allied troops.

The finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday announced that she has asked state-run banks to step up lending and hold outreach programmes or loans melas across India from October to lend to desirable borrowers, in order to give momentum to the stimulus package. Sitharaman said that it was too early say that there is lack of credit demand in the economy, the Economic Times of India reported. “This year too sometime in October, there will be a credit outreach in every district of the country,” the finance minister said.