The repo and lending market for Asian international corporate bonds can be relatively illiquid…. This tends to limit supply, making repo rates particularly sensitive to demand (see Figure 29), which increases the risk to market-makers that sell bonds not held in inventory. A characteristically regional low tolerance for settlement fails heightens this risk, which perhaps helps to explain a reported ‘liquidity skew’ among dealers towards the bid side.
The full report is available at https://www.icmagroup.org/assets/documents/About-ICMA/APAC/The-Asian-International-Bond-Markets-Development-and-Trends-March-2021-03032021.pdf