China’s bid to ease funding strains faced by private sector firms is proving to be tough going and signs are that things may get gloomier, Bloomberg News reported. Local company bond failures are at their highest levels this year and show no indications of abating. Junk bond sales have slumped to 2014 lows and spreads between lower and top rated borrowers are hovering near the widest in more than two years. What makes all this worse is the slowing economy, according to Nanjing Securities Co.

China is preparing to end its $176 billion experiment with peer-to-peer lending. Alarmed by a surge in defaults, fraud and investor anger, Chinese authorities are planning to wind down small- and medium-sized P2P lending platforms nationwide, people with knowledge of the matter said, Bloomberg News reported. Regulators may also order the largest platforms to cap outstanding loans at current levels and encourage them to reduce lending over time, one of the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private deliberations. Shares of P2P platform operators sank in New York.

China’s record year for bond defaults might feature one more superlative before the calendar turns: the first delinquency on an offshore security sold directly by a Chinese company, Bloomberg News reported. While Chinese dollar bonds have typically been issued via overseas units, some companies began direct sales three years ago. Among such issuers is Huachen Energy Co., which failed to make a coupon payment last week on its $500 million dollar bond due in 2020 governed by New York law -- though it has said it will make good on the amount by Dec. 18, within the grace period.

China’s financing units for local governments, already grappling with bloated debts, now face an even bigger predicament -- a build-up of credit guarantees that leave them vulnerable to surging defaults, Bloomberg News reported. Around 2,000 of these platforms, known as local government financing vehicles, have offered a total of 7 trillion yuan ($1 trillion) of guarantees to loans, bonds and shadow financing for domestic companies, said Lv Pin, an analyst at CITIC Securities Co. That surpasses the tally of LGFVs’ own outstanding local bonds, Bloomberg-compiled data show.

Unirule Institute of Economics, a Beijing-based think tank advocating free market policies, “will cease public activities under its name temporarily”, its parent company said. Beijing Unirule Consulting Co Ltd said bit.ly/2BwSir1 on Monday its license was revoked after the company received an "Administrative Penalty Notice" on Oct. 22, Reuters reported.

It’s been a tough couple years for Pactera Technology International Ltd. The tech outsourcing arm of embattled Chinese conglomerate HNA Group Co. has been ditched by Bank of America Corp. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., sued over a collapsed acquisition and cut deep into junk territory by Moody’s Investors Service, Bloomberg News reported.

Some Chinese developers were quick to complete the bulk of their refinancing early in the year, Bloomberg News reported. Those who waited now risk paying dearly for their tardiness, with borrowing costs doubling since January.

A weak set of finance data points to a deepening Chinese growth slowdown into 2019, highlighting the government’s challenge in getting loans to private companies and other cash-starved parts of the economy, the Financial Times reported. The data were released amid a debate within the bureaucracy about how best to encourage the banking system to overcome its reservations and lend more to the private sector.

A group of countries including the US, Brazil and China has objected to EU plans for splitting up sensitive import quotas with Britain after Brexit, in the latest sign of how big trading powers are stepping up their demands about how the UK’s departure should be handled, the Financial Times reported.

New banks loans in China likely fell in October due to a seasonal lull but were still well ahead of historical trends as policymakers urge lenders to keep cash-starved firms afloat as the economy slows, a Reuters poll showed. Banks likely extended 862 billion yuan ($196.56 billion) in net new yuan loans in October, a traditionally weaker month due to long holidays, according to the poll, which surveyed 32 analysts, Reuters reported.