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After a nationwide manhunt, Neeraj Singal was finally tracked down and seized by fraud investigators at an upscale New Delhi hotel in 2014. Accused of involvement in the bribing of bankers, a charge Mr Singal denies, the scion of the Bhushan Steel empire was hauled off for questioning, the Financial Times reported. Within days he was released on bail and returned as the controlling shareholder of Bhushan, built by his father from a door hinge producer into one of India’s largest industrial groups.

The European market for non-performing loans is becoming more active, with Italy and Spain accounting for most of the deals, according to research by the European Central Bank, the Financial Times reported. The total gross book value of NPL portfolios traded in the eurozone hit €66bn in the fourth quarter of 2017, its highest since the data series began in 2015, ECB’s semi-annual financial stability review found. The bulk of that figure came from Italy and Spain where just a handful of chunky portfolios accounted for the majority of the total.

Asia-Pacific equities were mostly lower in early trading on Tuesday as the political crisis in Italy worsened, investors favoured government bonds and the yen strengthened, the Financial Times reported. Among the region’s major benchmarks, the Topix index in Tokyo and the Kospi in Seoul each fell 0.6 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 0.5 per cent.

European Union governments are considering new rules to counter money laundering after alleged wrongdoing at two banks in smaller states of the bloc flagged risks to financial stability, according to officials and an EU document. The possible move follows the collapse of Latvian bank ABLV in February and the freezing of operations at Malta’s Pilatus Bank in March after allegations of money laundering, Reuters reported. In both cases, the alleged wrongdoing was exposed by U.S.

India’s economic and credit slowdown is revealing the strengths and weaknesses of its banking sector. Roiled by unprecedented frauds and surging bad debt, the nation’s state-run banks have returned the least to investors this year, Bloomberg News reported. However, investors’ belief in the potential of Asia’s No. 3 economy shows in the fact that its newest lenders offer the best returns, and a clutch of private Indian banks are among the world’s most expensive.

Banca Popolare di Bari ScpA, an Italian regional lender weakened by bad loans, plans to raise as much as 350 million euros ($410 million) from investors this year to strengthen capital and complete the bank’s cleanup, people with knowledge of the matter said. The lender will seek at least 250 million euros of fresh funds, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private, Bloomberg News reported. The bank hasn’t decided on the method of the capital increase and may consider listing the company, two of the people said. A spokesman for the bank declined to comment. Pop.

Contagion? Not this time. Developing nations are defying concern that the tumbling Turkish lira and Argentine peso will infect global financial assets, Bloomberg News reported. While pundits including Mark Mobius said the pain for emerging markets isn’t over and Paul Krugman said the current wobble had the whiff of a crisis to it, markets have been far more sanguine. On Thursday, 16 of 24 emerging-market currencies gained as the lira plunged more than 4 percent even after Turkey’s emergency interest-rate hike. Meanwhile, Argentina’s peso extended a two-day slide.

Try as you might, it's difficult to find a more depressing stock market story than Noble Group, the Financial Times reported in a commentary. Once Asia’s biggest commodity trader, the Singapore-listed company has left a trail of devastation for investors who bought into Richard Elman’s dream of building a Far East rival to Glencore. From Singapore’s mom and pop investors on the light-touch SGX, to institutional buyers that probably should have known better, all have suffered serious wealth destruction as critics have savaged Noble’s accounting practices.

The outlook for the eurozone economy is darkening at just the wrong time for the European Central Bank, The Wall Street Journal reported. The world’s number two central bank is preparing to phase out its giant bond-buying program, four years after the Federal Reserve wound down its own quantitative easing program. But threats to the 19-nation currency union are mushrooming. They range from international trade conflicts to a recent economic slowdown to a new governing coalition in Italy that is putting investors on edge.

Shares of Brazil’s state-owned oil company Petrobras plunged nearly 15 per cent in early trade on Thursday after the company’s overnight announcement of a surprise diesel price cut to pacify striking truckers, the Financial Times reported. The Brazilian bellwether stock was down 13.71 per cent at R$20.08 per share just before midday, dragging the benchmark Ibovespa index 1.81 per cent lower to 79,402.02 points.