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China’s low interest rates are failing to spur lending in the economy, creating a challenge for policy makers as they try to bolster the nation’s fragile recovery, Bloomberg News reported. Central bank data on Friday showed a sharp slowdown in aggregate financing, a broad measure of credit, in July, as new loans and corporate bond issuance weakened. At the same time, growth of M2, the broadest measure of money supply, accelerated more than expected to 12% in July.
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India’s anti-money laundering agency has frozen assets worth $46.4 million from the local entity of Vauld for facilitating “crime-derived” proceeds from predatory lending firms in the latest headache for the crypto exchange that filed for protection from creditors last month, TechCrunch reported.
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The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has admitted Mumbai-based Topworth Urja & Metals under the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) and appointed Alok Kailash Saksena as an interim resolution professional for the company, the Economic Times of India reported. State-owned lender Bank of Baroda had approached the bankruptcy court in 2018 against Abhay Lodha- promoted Topworth Urja & Metals after it defaulted on its dues of about ₹ 218 crore. "The application made by the financial creditor is complete in all respects as required by law.
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Huobi Group founder Leon Li is engaged in talks with a group of investors as the Chinese entrepreneur is looking to sell his majority stake in the crypto exchange at a valuation between $2 billion to $3 billion, according to a Bloomberg report, Decrypt reported. People close to the matter said that FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and Tron founder Justin Sun are among the investors who have held preliminary talks with the Huobi boss. Li is reportedly seeking to sell about 60% of the firm.
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Germany plans to give the transportation of materials and equipment essential for energy production priority on the country's rail networks should water levels on the Rhine fall further and hamper shipping by river, a draft decree shows, Reuters reported. DB Netz, the rail network arm of railway operator Deutsche Bahn, has already rejigged usage conditions to give preference to trains carrying mineral oil products and hard coal for power generators as Germany tackles an energy crisis.
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The number of initial public offerings at the Philippine Stock Exchange will probably rise to a record this year, with a value of at least 150 billion pesos ($2.7 billion), bourse President Ramon Monzon said in a virtual briefing, Reuters reported. The guidance is based on existing IPOs in the pipeline and share sales that have already take place, including eight in the first half of the year that raised a total of 76.17 billion pesos, according to Monson.
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At the same time the cost of living is creeping ever higher, so too are the number of insolvency filings from Canadian consumers, the Toronto Star reported. Data released by the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy Canada shows that the number of Canadians filing for personal bankruptcy may be returning to pre-pandemic levels. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, government subsidies have kept consumer debt at bay resulting in fewer bankruptcies or consumer proposals, a process where a person in debt pays a smaller percentage of owed money to their creditors.
Sergio Camacho, the chief executive of Unifin Financiera SAB de CV, was sick of the questions about the financial health of his firm, the largest shadow lender in Mexico, and he was out of patience, Bloomberg News reported. Unifin was doing well, he blurted out, and would grow its business and thrive. “The market has been irrational,” Camacho barked at one investor after cutting him off during the firm’s earnings call last month.
Thousands of Ukrainians are picking up shattered lives and trying to start over, many creating small businesses that they hope will bring them and their new communities fresh purpose, the New York Times reported. Others are working jobs that are a step down from positions lost because of war, grasping lifelines to keep their families afloat. “The Russian invasion has spurred a lot of people to pull up and start building new businesses,” said Andriy Sadovyi, the mayor of Lviv, which has become a locus for people fleeing the war-torn east.
New Zealand home prices fell on an annual basis for the first time in 11 years in July, adding to signs of a slowdown for the global economy as central bankers worldwide try to tame inflation, the Wall Street Journal reported. The national median sale price of 810,000 New Zealand dollars, equivalent to $519,000, was 1.8% lower than a year earlier, cooled by higher interest rates and lending restrictions, the country’s real-estate institute said Thursday. It was the first annual fall in prices since July 2011.