Asian markets: Aiful is awful as the region's stocks decline

Markets across Asia retreated Friday, with the MSCI Asia Pacific Index down 0.4 percent from yesterday's one-year high.

Japan's Nikkei index slipped 0.7 percent, closing at 10,371. Aiful Corp. led declines, plummeting 27 percent for the day. Shares in Aiful, the country's third-largest consumer lender, plunged after the company announced it was seeking to reschedule debt payments. The company's woes may have deepened as a result of new regulations put in place by the Japanese government, which include caps limiting the interest rates lenders can charge and also require lenders to repay borrowers who had been charged too much interest.