Japan's financial regulator has been ‌conducting checks on private credit exposure at major financial institutions, a source told Reuters on Thursday, as concerns mount over strains in the $2 trillion global private credit industry. The ​Financial Services Agency (FSA) is examining lending and investment ties to ​private credit, the source familiar with the matter said, declining ⁠to be identified as the matter is private. The move was ​first reported by Kyodo News.

Thai authorities seized assets worth 8.3 billion baht ($260 million) belonging to people behind an alleged money-laundering network linked to transnational cyber scam operations in Cambodia, Bloomberg News reported. The latest seizure by the Anti-Money Laundering Office included cash, cars, bank deposits and other securities, bringing the total value of assets confiscated in the widening probe to more than 20 billion baht, officials said at a briefing in Bangkok on Thursday.

Chinese banks likely extended significantly more new loans in March than in February, according to a Reuters poll on Thursday, driven by improved credit demand ​and a seasonal rebound. Banks in China are expected to have issued around ​3.4 trillion yuan ($497.61 billion) in net new yuan loans last month, up ⁠sharply from the 900 billion yuan in February, based on the average estimate of 17 economists ​polled by Reuters.

The Bank of Thailand will keep its interest rate at the current level “for as long as possible” to support the economy, even though inflation is set to accelerate due to the Middle East conflict, according to Governor Vitai Ratanakorn, Bloomberg News reported. “Inflation will definitely accelerate with oil price hikes and supply disruptions,” Vitai told reporters in Bangkok Thursday.

The Japanese business mood worsened in March to levels not seen since the start of the Ukraine war in 2022, a government survey showed, a sign surging oil costs and supply disruptions from the Middle East war were taking a toll on the fragile economy, Reuters reported. A separate survey by a private think tank also showed corporate bankruptcy cases rose for the fourth straight year in fiscal 2025 with further increases expected from around summer as surging costs from the conflict squeeze profits.

A committee of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has recommended the need to shift from an entity-centric, recovery-focused framework to a project-centric, completion-driven approach, along with stronger coordination between the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) and the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, the Hindustan Times reported.

Major global investment banks now expect China to keep official interest rates steady this year, scaling back earlier rate-cut calls, as the impact from the Middle East conflict appears ​limited, even as Beijing maintains a loose policy stance, Reuters reported. The receding rate cut expectations ‌also come as China holds up better than its regional peers amid the Iran war, while the broader economy has shown early signs of a rebound.

A study commissioned by the insolvency regulator has called for removing structural inefficiencies in the current auction design pertaining to the rescue of bankrupt micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and putting in place an improved model to boost resolution, the Economic Times of India reported. The study on MSMEs in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) by Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, favoured the introduction of a single objective auction model where the bidder offering the highest recovery is awarded.

China’s unrelenting housing downturn is forcing the country’s banks to confront a thorny issue: sinking real estate values are pushing millions of mortgages underwater, increasing the risk of losses for lenders and property owners, Bloomberg News reported. Behind the scenes, Chinese bankers and officials are getting creative to contain the fallout. Several state-owned banks have approached cash-strapped borrowers and offered them payment holidays on their mortgages for as long as two years.