- As expected, China's corporate-bond market has suffered its first ever domestic default, with Shanghai Chaori Solar Energy Science & Technology failing to fully pay 89.8M yuan ($14.7M) in interest that was due today.
- Until now, China had bailed out distressed companies.
- Moody's believes that the default will be a "wake-up call" that will help the growth of China's bond market. It will "signal regulators' higher tolerance for corporate bond defaults amid financial market reforms, which is in line with the current central administration's shift to adopt more market-oriented policies," Moody’s says.
- Meanwhile, the Shanghai government has reportedly given authorization for a city-owned investment company to purchase non-performing loans from local banks. The approval follows similar approval by other municipalities and indicates how Shanghai is preparing for an expected rise in bad debt.
- The markets reacted calmly to Chaori's default and the Shanghai Composite closed -0.1%.
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