The Philippine telecommunications regulator ordered mobile phone firms to cut mobile text messaging rates by 20 percent and reimburse their subscribers for excess charges from December 2011 onwards, in a decision likely to be challenged by the companies in court.

Japan's most powerful business lobby, Keidanren, plans to introduce corporate governance rules that will require better disclosure, a person familiar with the matter said, but they will stop short of bolder reforms sought by many investors.

Taiwan's financial regulator plans to punish a local bank for aggressively pushing complex foreign currency derivatives on companies, as complaints about losses rise amid the Chinese yuan's recent sharp fall.

Half-a-dozen shell companies, piles of forged documents, tax dodges, illegal stock trades and 19 bank staff are unwitting complicits in an embezzlement of a massive scale.

Singapore's police force and central bank are investigating suspected trading irregularities in companies at the centre of a penny-stock crash last year, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said late on Wednesday.