Australia on Thursday unveiled its biggest shakeup in bankruptcy laws in nearly three decades, allowing businesses to trade while insolvent and take more control over debt restructuring, in a bid to help firms through the coronavirus crisis, Reuters reported. Under the proposed rule changes, businesses with liabilities of less than A$1 million ($708,000) will be able to keep operating while they come up with a debt restructuring plan, rather than be placed in the hands of administrators.

Nearly 36,000 Japanese companies have chosen to discontinue their business so far this year, mainly due to the hit from the coronavirus crisis and up sharply from a year ago in a sign of the pain the pandemic is inflicting on the fragile economy, Reuters reported. The total number of companies closing businesses, without going through bankruptcy procedures, may top 53,000 by year-end. That would be the most since relevant data became available in 2000, Tokyo Shoko Research said on Wednesday.

Small businesses in India, already struggling amid the pandemic, are now having to repay mounting debt after a loan holiday ended last month, Bloomberg News reported. The Reserve Bank of India gave borrowers a six-month freeze on their loan repayments, which ended on Aug. 31, with about a third of India’s $1.8 trillion outstanding loans being deferred under the program. Businesses still trying to cope with a collapse in demand must now figure out how to pay back their loans or face closure. That’s a dilemma Regi Philip is dealing with.

Appellate tribunal NCLAT has directed that a plea by JM Financial Asset Reconstruction Company to initiate insolvency proceedings against Samay Electronics be placed before a third member of the NCLT Ahmedabad bench after two other members of the same bench gave a split verdict in the matter, Outlook reported. The two-member Ahmedabad bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) had delivered the split verdict on February 26, 2020.

China jolted markets in 2019 with three high-profile bank rescues that imposed losses on some investors, Bloomberg News reported. The appetite for experimenting with greater market discipline has been crushed by the coronavirus pandemic. 2020 has become the year of stealth rescues as authorities try to preempt bank failures and ensure stability for an industry at the forefront of cushioning the virus-induced economic slump.

Wirecard’s fabricated Asian business was not its only deception. The rest of the once-lauded German payment provider’s business was chaotic, beset by byzantine reporting lines, hobbled by lamentable IT and racking up losses, according to a report by Wirecard’s administrator and accounts of former employees, the Financial Times reported. The picture that emerges of the Wirecard businesses that did exist is a stark contrast to the one painted by former chief executive Markus Braun, who hailed the group as a highly profitable pioneer in the payments industry.

Thailand’s central bank is set to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged at an all-time low Wednesday as it calls on the government to use fiscal stimulus to spur the pandemic-hit economy, Bloomberg News reported. All 22 economists in a Bloomberg survey predict the Bank of Thailand will keep the key rate at 0.5% after reducing it three times earlier this year. Policy makers are keen to preserve their limited ammunition to respond to any further downturn as the coronavirus pandemic weighs on global growth.

Large conglomerates are rapidly restructuring their businesses in an effort to help cushion the negative impact caused by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, The Korea Times reported. As corporations are struggling with looming challenges from the global recession induced by the virus pandemic, they are selling not only cash-strapped units but also cash-generative businesses to secure liquidity. The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said mergers and acquisitions (M&As) rose sharply in the first half of this year compared with the same period in 2019.

Premier Oil’s biggest lender, hedge fund Asia Research and Capital Management (ARCM), plans to auction $200 million of the energy producer’s debt ahead of a $530 million equity raise by the company, three sources told Reuters, Reuters reported. ARCM, which holds more than 15% of Premier’s debt instruments, would retain about $240 million of the company’s debt if the auction succeeds. The bid deadline is set for Friday, one of the sources said.

The Parliament on Monday passed a bill that temporarily suspends initiation of corporate insolvency resolution process under the IBC, for a period not exceeding one year from March 25, to provide relief to companies affected by COVID-19 to recover from the financial stress, Big News Network.com reported. The Lok Sabha passed the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Second Amendment) Bill 2020 after a reply by Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The bill had earlier been passed by the Rajya Sabha and will replace an ordinance brought by the government.