China

The new arrangement enabling Hong Kong-seated arbitrations to seek interim measures from mainland courts represents a step forward for China's offshore financiers.

The CSRC and PBOC are planning to launch pilot bond index mutual funds that can be traded either on stock exchanges or the interbank market.

Liu Shiyu, the former head of the CSRC who was replaced in January, is now under investigation in a corruption probe.

ICBC was reportedly the first bank to lower its lending rate on small business loans, offering a rate of 4.5% in Q4 2018, compared to the PBOC's one-year benchmark lending rate of 4.35%.

The project to link the Shanghai and London stock exchanges has reportedly lost momentum in China, after earlier plans to launch in December were called off.

Rules drafted by the PBOC and SAFE will ease investments in China's fixed income market by creating some interoperability between the QFII/RQFII and CIBM schemes.

Despite the rise in overall NPLs at China's commercial banks, a boost in new lending and bad asset disposal resulted in lower NPL ratios.

Four deputy presidents and the head of one of Fuxing's subsidiaries have been detained for illegal fundraising activities, following charges brought against the group's chairman last July.

Following steep rises in corporate bond defaults, Chinese authorities have approved the trading of defaulted bonds on two exchange platforms.

The Dalian Commodity Exchange plans to open futures contracts in soybean, soybean meal, soybean oil and palm oil to foreign investors this year.