This year's corporate payments survey by trade insurance major Coface showed no improvements - and quite a few deteriorations - in trade payments compared to 2014.Coface runs the annual survey on Asia-Pacific economies. This year, the survey covered almost 2800 companies in 11 sectors of activity across eight economies: Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.   Delayed payments were highest in India, where 84 per cent of respondents said they faced what Coface classed as "overdue issues".  "The problem of non-performing assets will probably reduce the lending capacity and profitability of banks - which means that some companies could suffer from tightening bank credit controls," Coface concluded.  Similarly, overall corporate payment experience remained weak in China, where 21 per cent of respondents reported their average overdue time was more than 90 days, the highest in the region. In addition to the unsolved issues of high leverage and overcapacity in many sectors, downwards pressure on the RMB and stock market volatility are concerns for the Chinese market in 2016.  Looking at Australia, Coface said that in 2015 more of the respondent companies from Australia offered sales on credit terms, albeit with a decrease in overall average credit terms, compared to previous years. The overall corporate payment experience in Australia improved, with fewer respondents faced with overdue and ultra-long overdue issues. Looking ahead in regard to the Australian economy, Coface forecasts that it will grow at a similar pace in 2016 as in 2015.  "Slowing inflation will probably provide room for the Reserve Bank of Australia to maintain its accommodative stance to supporting the economy," Coface suggested. The Coface report gels with a similar report from Moody's Investors Service, which says that banks in Asia Pacific (ex-Japan) show moderate loan exposure to borrowers in commodity-related industries, with such loans making up around 7 per cent of gross loans on average at year end 2015. However, the quality of such loans will likely continue to deteriorate, based on Moody's assessment that energy and commodity prices will remain low over a prolonged period. Moody's notes that the pressure on the quality of commodity-related loans could lead to possible negative bank rating actions in Singapore, Korea and Mongolia over the next 12 to 18 months, as reflected in Moody's negative outlooks on many banks in these economies.