New Delhi / AFP Indian banks will strive to recover “every penny” from the troubled Kingfisher chief, who left the country owing more than $1 billion, the finance minister said on Thursday, as warnings sound over a mounting bad debt problem. More than a dozen lenders are chasing Vijay Mallya, dubbed the King of Good Times, for 90 billion rupees …

Kuala Lumpur / DPA Some 1,500 Malaysian companies have investments totalling 11.46 billion ringgit (US$2.81 billion) in Asean, said Prime Minister Najib Razak. “Malaysia is among the main investors in Asean with our firms investing widely in banking, commodities, hotel and tourism, aviation, manufacturing, and utility and infrastructure. Intra-Asean investments have also increased,” the prime minister said in reply to …

Singapore / DPA Renowned economist Song Seng Wun was not surprised at all to learn, in March last year, that he was among 15 employees being laid off from CIMB Securities. After 25 years in Singapore’s financial services industry, Song has endured enough business cycles to understand that job cuts come hard and fast in his field when business conditions …