Headlines

Syn Mun Kong Insurance (SMK) has filed for protection with the Central Bankruptcy Court after it failed to pay a whopping THB164 billion to 1.95 million people who purchased its Covid insurance, The Nation (Thailand) reported. SMK managing director Reungdej Dusdeesurapoj informed the Stock Exchange of Thailand that the company filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday in accordance with the decision of its board of directors.

Last December, after two years of stop-and-go growth, Japan’s economic engine seemed like it might finally be revving up. Covid cases were practically nonexistent. Consumers were back on the town, shopping, eating out, traveling. The year 2021 ended on a high note, with the country’s economy expanding on an annual basis for the first time in three years. But the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, geopolitical turmoil and supply chain snarls have once again set back Japan’s fragile economic recovery.

Three banks in China's central Henan province have frozen at least $178 million of deposits, offering scant information on why or for how long, leaving firms unable to pay workers and individuals locked out of savings, depositors told Reuters. Yu Zhou Xin Min Sheng Village Bank, Shangcai Huimin Country Bank and Zhecheng Huanghuai Community Bank froze all deposits on April 18, with all three telling customers they were upgrading internal systems. The banks have not issued any communication on the matter since, depositors said.

Holiday group TUI on Tuesday unveiled a capital increase to pay back elements of a German state bailout that it had received during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Reuters reported. The company will issue up to 162,291,441 new shares, which, based on Tuesday's closing price of 2.89 euros apiece, would result in proceeds of up to 469 million euros ($494 million). TUI said that it planned to use the proceeds as well as existing cash resources to fully repay the second installment of a so-called silent participation of the German government in the order of 671 million euros.

A digital rand in South Africa could cut the high cost of cross-border payments for banks but its introduction is still a few years away, a senior central bank official said, Reuters reported. However, regulation of crypto assets is in the offing and might come into force within nine to 15 months, South African Reserve Bank (SARB) Deputy Governor Kuben Naidoo told Reuters in an interview. It costs 13% of a transaction to remit money from South Africa to another country, more than double the average of the Group of 20 (G20) leading global economies, according to a 2021 World Bank report.

Air Canada sees higher-margin business travel coming "quite close" to pre-pandemic levels by as early as September, in the latest encouraging sign for the once hard-hit sector, a top executive told Reuters. Globally, business travel has lagged leisure in bouncing back from a COVID-19-induced slump, but airlines say it is now rebounding in North America as offices reopen and COVID restrictions ease. Corporate travel is important for airlines because of demand from frequent flyers and appetite for higher-margin premium fares.

European businesses in China are awaiting the next wave of disruption from COVID-19 outbreaks and see little chance of improvement until the country increases vaccination rates, the European Chamber of Commerce in China said on Monday, Reuters reported. Shanghai has set out plans to end its COVID lockdown that has lasted more than six weeks, hitting China's economy, where industrial output and retail sales fell in April at the fastest in more than two years, missing expectations.

Hungary told its European Union counterparts that it will cost at least 770 million euros ($810 million) to revamp its oil industry as they wrangle over potential sanctions that would target Russian supplies, Bloomberg News reported. Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government said 550 million euros were needed to overhaul its refineries to comply with the ban, and another 220 million euros for a pipeline from Croatia, according to people familiar with discussions that have taken place this week between EU ministers and documents seen by Bloomberg.

Credit Bank of Moscow (MKB), one of Russia's largest private lenders, has obtained a gold export license from the government, it said on Monday, becoming the latest Russian bank to turn to precious metals trade to offset the impact of sanctions, Reuters reported. The main operators of the gold market in Russia and its largest lenders - Sberbank and VTB - have been hit by harsh Western sanctions imposed on Moscow after it sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24. "MKB has a dedicated focus on developing operations with precious metals," MKB said in a statement.

European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic said on Tuesday the EU had significant concerns about the announcement by the UK government to enable legislation that would disapply basic elements of the Northern Ireland protocol, Reuters reported. "Unilateral actions are not acceptable," Sefcovic said in a statement. Sefcovic added that should the UK decide to move ahead with the bill, the EU would need to respond with all measures at its disposal.