China has taken another step to limit domestic investors’ exposure to offshore debt issued by local government financing vehicles, Bloomberg News reported. The National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors, the country’s interbank market watchdog better known as NAFMII, has halted registration of new credit-linked notes, a derivatives product, that use offshore LGFV debt as underlying assets. While the NAFMII earlier this month told some brokerages who are major issuers of CLNs that the suspension is temporary, it didn’t indicate when it may be lifted.

Even in 2016, the truth about China's real-estate market was obvious to anyone who knew what to look for: The boom had turned into a bubble—and was likely to end very badly, the Wall Street Journal reported. The bubble proceeded to get even worse, though, because no one wanted the music to stop. Chinese developers, home buyers, real-estate agents and even the Wall Street banks that helped underwrite the boom all ignored warning signs. Developers found ways to obscure the amount of debt they were holding, with the help of bankers and lawyers.

China’s central bank has again reiterated its cautious approach to monetary easing, reinforcing views that it’s unlikely to deliver a big liquidity boost via bond trading, the Wall Street Journal reported. Officials from the People’s Bank of China told the state-run Financial News that the central bank will stick to normal monetary policy tools, but broke weeks of silence about treasury bond trading, a policy tool it has used sparingly in the past two decades.

The U.S. is drafting sanctions that threaten to cut some Chinese banks off from the global financial system, arming Washington’s top envoy with diplomatic leverage that officials hope will stop Beijing’s commercial support of Russia’s military production, the Wall Street Journal reported. But as Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads to Beijing on Tuesday, the question is whether even the threat of the U.S.

The head of China’s central bank sees debt restructurings among poor countries moving too slow and wants creditors to agree on how to share the burden of debt relief, Bloomberg News reported. Pan Gongsheng, governor of the People’s Bank of China, shared the views during a closed-door meeting Friday in Washington on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund spring meetings. China’s role as a major creditor to developing nations has come under renewed scrutiny as billions of dollars in loans over the past decade have soured.

China’s benchmark lending rates were kept unchanged, official data showed on Monday, in line with market expectations after key policy rates were held steady amid signs of economic recovery, the Wall Street Journal reported. The one-year loan prime rate was kept at 3.45%, while the five-year rate was left at 3.95%, said the People’s Bank of China. The hold on LPR was widely expected after the PBOC left its medium-term lending facility rate unchanged last week. The MLF rate is used as a guide for LPR, which is set by 20 major banks in China.

With Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC’s filing of chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in federal court on Friday, it stops Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) executive director Andrew Yeom and IPI from completing their proposed settlement, the Saipan Tribune reported. CCC board chair Edward C. DeLeon Guerrero has been acting on behalf of Yeom in the settlement discussion with IPI throughout last week because Yeom’s temporary contract as executive director expired last April 13.

People across China are being weighed down by their debts and a system that penalizes them for not paying the money back. Beijing is cracking down on delinquent debtors by seizing their salaries or restricting them from getting government jobs, as well as curbing their access to high-speed trains and air travel. Many are forbidden from buying expensive insurance policies and told they aren’t allowed to go on vacation or stay in nice hotels. Authorities can detain them if they don’t comply, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Fitch Ratings has downgraded the outlook for six Chinese state-owned banks amid concerns about the government’s ability to support the sector in the event of stress. The move comes after the rating agency cut its outlook for China’s sovereign credit rating last week, the Wall Street Journal reported.