Reuters

By Renju Jose

SYDNEY (Reuters) - The Australian government on Wednesday introduced legislation that would require buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) firms to run credit checks on borrowers, aiming to regulate the rapidly growing sector popular among youth like other consumer credit products.

BNPL companies typically offer on-the-spot interest-free short-term loans with minimal credit checks that spread payments over weeks or months and are largely... (continue reading...)

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was set to meet his allies on Wednesday to discuss forming the government, a day after his Hindu nationalist party lost its outright majority in parliament in a surprise election verdict.

Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 240 seats on its own in the general election, 32 short of the halfway mark in the 543-member decision-making lower house, according to official results announced late on... (continue reading...)

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia should force Meta Platforms to pay news companies for content that appears on Facebook and impose broader regulation on social media firms, a senior News Corp executive said.

Meta said in March it would stop paying Australian news publishers for content. The government is now considering whether to apply a 2021 law that would force it to do so.

"Meta must be designated under the Media Bargaining Code and... (continue reading...)

By Ankur Banerjee

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Asian stocks rose on Wednesday, while the dollar was steady as a softening U.S. labour market firmed up bets of an interest rate cut in September from the Federal Reserve ahead of a crucial payrolls report this week.

Investor worries of a cooling U.S. economy, however, kept a lid on risk appetite, while the focus in Asia is on how Indian markets fare after stocks sank and the rupee slid on Tuesday... (continue reading...)

By Neil Jerome Morales and Mikhail Flores

MANILA (Reuters) -Philippine annual inflation quickened for a fourth straight month in May due largely to the faster pace of increases in housing, utility and transport costs, the statistics agency said on Wednesday.

The consumer price index rose 3.9% in May from 3.8% the previous month, marking the fastest rise since November 2023, bringing the five-month average inflation to 3.5%, well inside the... (continue reading...)