More than S0,000 recovered after banks, Singapore and Hong Kong police foil scam

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SINGAPORE: &nbsp, More than S$ 370, 000 ( US$ 271, 000 ) have been recovered after the Singapore Police Force ( SPF), together with two banks and the Hong Kong police, foiled a scam targeting a 70- year- old victim.

According to a news release released on Wednesday ( May 1 ), DBS on Tuesday reported that suspicious transactions of approximately S$ 180, 000 were being made from the boy’s account to a bank accounts in Hong Kong.

The victim’s bank alerted SPF’s Anti-Scam Centre ( ASC ) and immediately stopped further transactions from the victim’s account.

ASC then” swiftly notified” Hong Kong’s Anti- Deception Coordination Centre ( ADDC ) about the beneficiary account.

According to the news release, officers were called in after the ASC was unable to reach the person. Although the soldiers went to his house, he was not.

” The ASC tried various methods and managed to reach the victim’s family companion, who disclosed that S$ 240, 000 was missing from the victim’s UOB banks bill”, said SPF.

The ASC “immediately collaborated with UOB to transfer money from a bank accounts in Hong Kong to the victim.” &nbsp,

SPF continued, adding that the ASC and ADCC worked together to return the entire balance from the Hong Kong lender account.

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Yen’s plunge raises specter of new Asia currency crisis – Asia Times

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Tokyo — Dealers are pondering whether the Group of Seven may be experiencing a dollar crisis as a result of the Japanese yen’s 12 % decline this year.

The good news: no already. The terrible news, though, is that there are still seven weeks left in this year of harmful living for Japan’s money. especially when you consider Tokyo leaders ‘ lack of urgency in allowing the yen to flow.

This unsettling Asia has given the country’s markets a 1997-like feeling as central banks work to maintain exchange rates. The conflict with currency traders is raging, from the Malaysian ringgit’s 26-year lows to Indonesia’s main bank’s surprise price increase next week.

In Manila and Bangkok, northern banks are shelving price- reduces programs. In Seoul, Governor Rhee Chang- young says the Bank of Korea is ready to “deploy stabilizing methods” amid “excessive” won techniques. In Beijing, authorities are mulling their possibilities as negative forces complicated China’s view.

China, of training, is the biggest problem. Does the market of President Xi Jinping and the yen collide in a downward spiral that will lead to a new currency war?

” They probably should — to boost exports, help deflation and help domestic growth” ,&nbsp, says Brad Bechtel, global head of foreign exchange at Jefferies Financial Group Inc.” But I do n’t think they will”.

We see the chance for further near-term failure, according to Khoon Goh, mind of Asia study at ANZ Bank, as the authorities have been steadily allowing the inland spot to change.

The Taiwanese renminbi is now trading at 7.24 to the US dollar. Devaluation that resembles a 2015 seems out of the problem because it would waste taxpayer-funded money on expanding global faith in the yuan. And the more the yuan falls, the more difficult it becomes for big house builders to pay off-shore bonds, raising the risk of default.

In the meantime, making the yuan a major election hot button as Democrats devoted to Donald Trump and Democrats led by US President Joe Biden battle it out on various fronts ahead of the November 5 vote.

Will China’s renminbi follow the yen? Photo: Asia Times Files / Reuters / Jason Lee

But the longer Tokyo keeps Asia in anticipation, the greater the risk of a local panic ala the 1997- 98 Asian financial crisis. Money traders, for instance, are convinced Japan is constantly intervening to block the yen’s fall. In reality, though, officials are generally winking at earth industry.

The going- through- the- movements vibe is on distinct show. Yes, it seems fairly obvious that the Bank of Japan made an action to support the renminbi on Monday. The BOJ’s first venture into foreign exchange markets since October 2022 appears to have been led by the unexpected$ 48.2 billion decline in its current account.

Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki would be at the speaker shortly and frequently making the case if this were a move to improve the renminbi for actual. He may be working the devices with leaders in Washington, Berlin, London, Ottawa, Paris and Rome to get the G7 on board.

From the events of late 2022, when Tokyo last acted on the yen, Suzuki’s team knows full well that unilateral intervention does n’t work. It jolts the business for a few days, but then the dollar’s cut begins anyhow.

In some ways, this is the value of 25 years of creating your international brand, your financial design, and an underestimated exchange price.

A number of Asian finance ministers have been around since at least the end of the 1990s. A G7 country has become addicted to an ultra-weak exchange rate, but what has endured is a beggar-thy-neighbor policy that resembles Argentina’s.

There are no noticeable changes that Tokyo is making. It’s more of a line in the sand for the yen-dollar exchange rate than a test of political virtue signaling.

Suzuki and his former boss, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, are merely telling China and the US that the yen is n’t moving up to 170 to the money or higher.

However, in the days and weeks to come, the renminbi might remain heading there as well. Not because Suzuki or Kishida do n’t want it to but because, well, they kind of do.

Tokyo authorities are beginning to notice the benefits of the yen hitting 160, which is the weakest since 1990, amid all the articles. For the third consecutive month in March, abroad shipments increased. The 7.3 % get in March season- on- season followed a 7.8 % rise in February.

It’s undoubtedly the best item Asia’s second-largest business has to offer as of the second half of an increasingly erratic 2024.

” The prospect for Japan looks fragile”, information Stefan Angrick, senior economist at Moody’s Analytics.

The local business, Angrick adds, “has been very poor as wage increases have trailed prices, which has kept homeowners reluctant to invest. This, in turn, has kept companies hesitant to invest. Continue a trend of upsetting gross domestic product releases by continuing a trend of slow economic growth in Japan’s first third of the year.

This considerably complicates the BOJ’s way ahead. Everything that Governor Kazuo Ueda’s group believed they knew about 2024 is going wrong. China’s economy is n’t bouncing back with great force, the Federal Reserve is n’t cutting interest rates and the dollar’s powerful rally is n’t losing momentum.

As the renminbi free-falls, Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda sat quietly. Image: Twitter / Screengrab

Japan’s market also has recession fears in the rearview mirror. At the same time, prices in the Tokyo region, a great proxy for national developments, is now rising at a&nbsp, 1.6 % season- on- year&nbsp, price, below the BOJ’s 2 % target.

Currency traders are aware that Ueda’s BOJ may have missed its window for a significant rate increase or two. The yen is slowly but surely returning to the levels it was before officials were alleged to have intervened.

That’s not to say strategists are n’t baffled by the yen. The yen is regarded by Global Dragonomics as” the biggest anomaly in global financial markets,” with its value estimated to be 40 % below purchasing power parity measures.

As such, Gavekal writes,” the yen’s weakness is having wide- ranging global repercussions, from fueling a carry trade that boosts emerging market debt, to weighing on US exports and thus President Biden’s re- election prospects. Markets are on the lookout for direct foreign exchange interventions to strengthen the yen because the BOJ is yet to find the weak currency reason enough to change its monetary policy position.

Or not. As Asia’s second- biggest economy loses momentum, inflation recedes and Kishida’s approval numbers flatline, is the BOJ really about to slam on the monetary brakes?

Again, Tokyo policymakers ‘ lack of urgency speaks louder than intervention threats. As Richard Katz, author of” The Contest for Japan’s Economic Future”, notes, Japan “has plenty of ammunition” to stop the yen from falling too far.

” Even though it now runs a trade deficit most years, Japan still runs a&nbsp, surplus&nbsp, in a broader measure, the international current account”, Katz explains. ” That’s because it earns so much from its investments abroad, and those earnings keep growing”.

In 2023, net income on these investments&nbsp, totaled 34 trillion yen ( US$ 215 billion ), amounting to 6 % of nominal GDP.

The most important thing, Katz says, is not to panic over a yen in freefall. ” If it looked like capital flight was beginning”, he explains,” Japan could use its currency reserves to shore up the yen. However, it’s very unlikely that it would need to do so.

Katz points out that Japan and other nations have experienced currency shocks, such as Asia’s 1997-98 crash or the 2010 European debt crisis. ” They”, he adds, “had run year after year of current account&nbsp, deficits&nbsp, and, as a result, were big international&nbsp, debtors”.

For now, though, the “yen is weak because Japan’s economy is weak and its exporters are increasingly uncompetitive”, Katz says. So, intervention can primarily delaying the unavoidable for a short while or preventing markets from reaching too far.

This area of weakness is fundamentally bigfooting. The economy’s underperformance is a key reason why Kishida’s approval ratings are in the low- to- mid- 20s. In the weeks to come, the BOJ’s deliberations will be affected by this dynamic.

Although the BOJ technically is independent, its scope of independence is more limited than that of the US Fed or the European Central Bank.

For example, a government representative attends BOJ policy meetings. What truly sovereign monetary institution maintains rates at or close to zero for 25 years?

For Ueda, the lessons from 2006 probably loom large in his own deliberations. Governor Toshihiko Fukui successfully fought against quantitative easing and other board members to force two additional official rates increases in 2006 and 2007.

Yet Fukui’s attempt to normalize rates failed. The Tokyo establishment reacted strongly, complaining that Japan Inc. was n’t ready for tighter credit. Soon after, the economy slid into recession. Once Masaaki Shirakawa replaced&nbsp, Fukui&nbsp, in 2008, he quickly cut rates back to zero and restored QE.

Bank of Japan does n’t want to shortcircuit the Nikkei 225’s rally. Image: Twitter

Then, in 2013, Haruhiko Kuroda joined him to increase BOJ stimulus efforts even more and ultimately end deflation. In 2013 alone, the Nikkei 225 Stock Average&nbsp, surged 57 %. Today, it’s rallying to the point where the benchmark is now trading near its all- time 1989 high.

Finding a way to normalize rates without putting an end to the Nikkei’s bull run is Ueda’s balancing act. And without being the most recent BOJ leader to suffer the consequences of a recession, falling stock, or both.

All of which explains why Tokyo is less eager to reverse the yen’s decline. And why Asia has little choice but to rely on Japanese officials to understand how to handle the yen’s pounding.

Follow William Pesek on X at @WilliamPesek

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India’s economy: The good, bad and ugly in six charts

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Commuters walk along platforms at the Churchgate railway station in Mumbai on January 31, 2024. (Photo by Punit PARANJPE / AFP)Getty Images
By Nikhil Inamdar
BBC Business Correspondent, Mumbai

In January, thousands braved the freezing cold at Delhi’s Red Fort to hear Prime Minister Narendra Modi speak.

His message was “Viksit Bharat 2047”, a promise to make India a developed nation by 2047.

It’s the latest catchphrase from a man known for his penchant for catchy taglines.

“Developed India” is an imprecise pledge, but in the 10 years since Mr Modi first stormed to power, he has been trying to lay the foundations for a period of economic boom.

The prime minister and his government inherited an economy that was teetering on the precipice. Growth was slowing and investor confidence was low. A dozen Indian billionaires had gone bankrupt, saddling the country’s banks with enormous unpaid loans that had crippled their capacity to lend.

Now, 10 years on, India’s growth is outpacing other major economies, its banks are strong, and the government’s finances are stable despite a painful pandemic. India surpassed the UK as the fifth largest economy last year and according to analysts at Morgan Stanley, it’s on track to overtake Japan and Germany and hit the third spot by 2027.

GDPs of India and the UK in 2023

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There is undoubtedly an air of optimism in the country. It successfully hosted the G20, became the first to send a rocket near the Moon’s south pole, and has birthed a few dozen unicorns. The soaring stock markets have also had a trickle-down effect on the wealth of its middle class.

On the face of it “Modinomics” – the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s economic vision for India – appears to be working. But dig deeper, and the picture is more complex. For a vast swathe of the country’s 1.4 billion people who live on the margins of sustenance, it’s not boomtime just as yet.

So who are the winners and losers of Modinomics?

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Digital revolution

Mr Modi’s push for digital governance has begun to transform the lives of some of the country’s poorest people.

Today, Indians in the remotest corners of the country can buy many daily goods without cash, paying as little as 20p for a packet of bread using a QR code on their phone.

India's digital payments growth

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Underpinning this digital revolution is a three-layer system of governance, which includes universal identity cards, a payments infrastructure that enables click-of-a-button money transfer, and a data pillar that gives people access to crucial personal documents like tax returns.

Linking hundreds of millions of bank accounts to this “digital stack” has cut red tape and corruption.

Estimates suggest that up to March 2021, an equivalent of about 1.1% of GDP was saved due to digital governance, allowing the government to dole out a volley of social subsidies, cash handouts and also spend on infrastructure building, without running high deficits.

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Cranes, cranes everywhere!

Everywhere you go in India there are cranes and JCB machines at work giving its creaky public infrastructure a shiny makeover.

Take a look at this slick first underwater metro in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata.

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There’s no doubt this country is getting a facelift.

Building new roads, airports, ports and metros has been the centrepiece of Mr Modi’s economic policy. He spent over $100bn annually in infrastructure spending (capital expenditure) in the past three years.

Capital expenditure of the government over the last few years

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Nearly 54,000 km (33,554 miles) of national highways were built between 2014 and 2024 – which is twice the length of the preceding 10 years.

The government has also considerably eased up the bureaucracy, which has been a major bugbear of India’s economy for decades.

But Mr Modi’s policies haven’t delivered for all.

The brutal lockdowns imposed during the pandemic, the lingering after-effects of a cash ban in 2016, and faulty implementation of a new goods and services tax – a long pending reform meant to streamline the country’s welter of indirect taxes – have had far-reaching structural consequences on India’s economy.

Migrant workers who arrived from Maharashtra state travel on a mini truck to go back to their hometowns, after the government eased a nationwide lockdown imposed as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus, in Allahabad on May 15, 2020.

Getty Images

The country’s vast unorganised sector – small enterprises that form the backbone of this country – are still reeling under the impact of some of these decisions.

And the private sector is not committing big investments. As a proportion of GDP, private investments slumped to barely 19.6% in 2020-21 from a peak of 27.5% in 2007-08.

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Jobs blues

In January, thousands gathered outside government recruitment centres in the northern city of Lucknow to go to Israel for jobs in the construction industry. My colleague Archana Shukla was on location.

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The desperation of these workers showed India’s jobs crisis is real. And it is crushing aspirations everywhere.

“I’m the first master’s degree holder in my family,” says Rukaiya Bepari, a 23-year-old graduate in the town of Miraj in western India.

“But there’s no industry where I live. So I’m now taking tuitions. It doesn’t pay much.”

Neither Rukaiya nor her brother have had full-time work for the last two years. They’re not alone.

India's labour force participation rate

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Unemployment among educated youth has doubled from 35.2% to 65.7% between 2000 and 2022, according to latest figures by the Indian Labour Organization, a human rights group.

There’s also been no significant growth of real wages in India since 2014, according to numbers computed by noted developmental economist Jean Dreze.

India “risks squandering its demographic dividend” – the economic growth potential from a big working-age population – the World Bank’s regional economist said in an interview to the Financial Times recently.

Job creation is a problem Mr Modi has been unable to solve.

Right off the back of his victory in 2014, the prime minister launched an ambitious Make In India campaign to turn India into the world’s factory. In 2020, his government doled out $25bn in incentives to companies across sectors from semi-conductors to mobile electronics in order to enhance India’s manufacturing capabilities.

But success has been elusive.

Yes, the likes of Foxconn – which makes iPhones for Apple – are moving their supply chains to India as part of the global “China plus one” diversification strategy. Other major global giants like Micron and Samsung have also been enthused to invest. But the numbers are not significant yet.

Manufacturing’s share as a percentage of GDP has remained stagnant in the last decade despite these efforts.

India's manufacturing and export growth under NDA and UPA

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Growth in exports was also faster under Mr Modi’s predecessors.

“Even if India’s manufacturing grows 8% per year till 2050 and China’s stagnates at the 2022 level, India’s manufacturing size in 2050 will still not match that of China’s in 2022,” says Prof Vidya Mahambare of the Great Lakes Institute of Management.

Lack of a large scale industry means half of India’s population still depends on agriculture for their livelihoods – which is increasingly becoming unprofitable.

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Two speed recovery

A direct impact of this? Squeezed household budgets.

At 3%, the growth in overall private consumption expenditure – the money people spend on buying things – is the slowest in 20 years.

And household debt has touched an all-time high, even as financial savings plunged to their lowest levels, according to new research.

Many economists argue that the nature of India’s economic growth post pandemic has been uneven, or “K-shaped” – where the rich have thrived, while the poor continue to struggle. India may be the fifth largest global economy at an aggregate level, but on a per person basis, it still languishes at the 140th rank.

Chart showing GDP of Brics countries

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And inequality has widened to a hundred-year high according to research from the World Inequality Database. No surprises then that election campaign discourse recently has been rife with chatter around wealth redistribution and inheritance taxes.

A three day pre-wedding ceremony of Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s son recently offered a glimpse into the country’s new gilded age. Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Ivanka Trump were in attendance. Rihanna shook a leg with Bollywood’s biggest celebrities, while the Ambani women flashed diamonds and jewellery once part of the Mughal empire’s collection.

Luxury brands making cars, watches and liquor have been growing faster than India’s more mass-market companies, according to Arnab Mitra, who researches Indian consumer brands at Goldman Sachs.

Viral Acharya, a professor at NYU Stern, says a handful of the biggest conglomerates have grown “at the expense of the smallest firms”.

The super-rich, he says, have benefited from sharp tax cuts and a conscious policy of creating “national champions” in which prized public assets like ports and airports have been preferentially given to a few companies to build or run.

Latest court revelations show many of them have also been India’s top political donors to the ruling BJP.

Mukesh Ambani, the Chairman of Reliance Industries, Isha Piramal, Rihanna, Shloka Mehta Ambani, Akash Ambani and Radhika Merchant react on the stage during pre-wedding celebrations of Anant and Radhika in Jamnagar, Gujarat, India, March 1, 2024.

Reliance Industries

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India’s decade?

All combined, this presents an inconsistent picture of India’s economy. But for all its problems, the country is on the runway for take-off, say experts.

“India’s next decade could resemble China’s path (of hyper growth) from 2007 through 2012,” analysts from Morgan Stanley wrote in a widely discussed paper.

They add that the country has many advantages – a young demographic, the geopolitics of global de-risking from China and a clean-up of sectors like real estate. Other megatrends like digitalisation, a transition to clean energy and growth in global offshoring will propel future growth, say experts.

The infra push is also something that will have long-term payoffs. By making improvements in roads, power supply and turnaround time at ports – India is finally “creating an environment in which manufacturing can flourish”, says DK Joshi, CRISIL’s India economist.

A drone view of the construction work of the upcoming coastal road in Mumbai, India, March 7, 2024.

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But along with the focus on “physical capital”, Mr Modi needs to pay heed to creating “human capital”, says Dr Raghuram Rajan, the former governor of India’s central bank.

Indian children aren’t learning as well as they should to face up to the world of artificial intelligence. A quarter of those aged 14 to 18 can’t read simple text fluently, according to a report published by the non-profit Pratham Foundation.

Covid-19 dealt a major blow to students, who couldn’t attend school for nearly two years. But the government has continued to underfund education, and healthcare.

In its first decade, Modinomics appears to have delivered for a select few. But for many the jar, as it appears, is still half empty.

“We will grow old before we grow rich” if growth isn’t faster and more equitable, says Dr Rajan.

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Multi-currency e-wallets can do more in fraud prevention and customer support, experts say

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SINGAPORE: Multi- money electronic- wallets have grown in popularity by touting ease and cost savings, but they can even do more to tackle concerns about fraud prevention and resolution, experts said.

A multi- money e-wallet allows users to change and hold various currencies on a mobile game, as its title suggests.

In the write-up- epidemic travel bubble, the likes of YouTrip, Revolut and Wise have seen more users, mainly due to their aggressive exchange rates compared with conventional banks or moneychangers. They are also cheaper to use than record accounts, with lower or zero fees for international purchases.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore ( MAS ) revised its cap on e-wallet purchases late last year, giving these e-wallets a boost.

Under the revised rules that took effect on Dec 15, users can hold up to S$ 20, 000 ( US$ 14, 700 ) in their e- wallets, up from S$ 5, 000. The annual saving reduce also went up from S$ 30, 000 to S$ 100, 000.

The primary travel budget to increase the user restrictions in accordance with the new regulations was YouTrip. In order to meet the authorities ‘ expectations regarding mitigating fraud threats, it also implemented new security measures, such as a “kill change” for users to defrost their account.

Different people have said they will follow suit.

However, authorities told CNA that despite having their own security measures and procedures for customer support in the event of scams, multi-currency e-wallets may still be less secure and effective than traditional financial institutions, which are subject to stricter requirements.

Aurobindo Ghosh, an associate professor of finance at Singapore Management University, said banks usually have huge teams monitoring user data and patterns to identify deceptive transactions in real time. These abilities are also being enhanced by advances in technology like artificial knowledge.

However, he claimed that these costs are” costly,” and that banks will have to pass some expenses on as fees to cardholders in order to maintain the features and safety that are offered.

On the other hand, multi- money cards mainly “act more like online wallets and bank facilities”. They typically operate with less workforce and are typically less regulated, according to experts, making them less expensive to run.

Asst. Prof. Ghosh explained that whenever we are choosing a multi-currency digital wallet, we sacrifice some of the increased security features for the less expensive option.

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They wanted us to sign up ‘right there and then’: Parents speak up about cord blood banks’ marketing tactics

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” NOT PERMITTED TO OVERSELL”

Companies StemCord and Cordlife confirmed to CNA that they take part in pregnancy- and baby-related events like girl fairs, talks, and workshops. According to them, the goal is to raise awareness among families and raise awareness of cord blood banking.

Relatives told CNA that they’ve even seen salespeople at secret gynecologists. &nbsp,

Valerie Wong, the CEO of StemCord, stated that the company uses its website and social media platforms to promote cord blood banks and areas brochures at gynecological and obstetric clinics.

All of our sales staff are trained to follow the guidelines set, and they are not permitted to overcharge or provide false data, she said.

She added that Stemcord’s technique is “educational”, and meets with the advertising and special rules set by MOH.

A Cordlife spokesman stated that the company” strives to maintain ethical business practices” in its advertising efforts, including being open and sincere.

We take care to ensure that all information provided to expecting kids about cord blood banks and our companies is based on reliable sources of facts and medical data, according to Cordlife.

According to its spokeswoman, parents are also informed about the risks associated with the selection of other sources of plant cells and care as well as the process of rope body selection and the retrieval of the necessary parental blood samples.

They can even” change their minds” before the delivery also after entering into an agreement, said Cordlife.

In StemCord’s event, anxious parents often mark up in their second or third as, said Ms Wong. They must sign up before giving birth so that they can take the cord blood selection box to the hospital on the day of the delivery, she continued.

The second secret cord blood banks in Singapore, Cryoviva, did not respond to CNA’s ask for feedback.

In response to CNA’s concerns, MOH stated that it looked into three 2021 to 2023 cases of cord blood bank licensed marketing.

In Singapore, the Healthcare Services Act of 2020 permits cable blood bank. When marketing their companies, owners are required to follow the rules of the Act regarding marketing.

These include making sure their ad is technically correct and appropriate, as well as ensuring that it does not contain any information that amounts to soliciting or encouraging the use of the company, according to MOH.

Cord blood banks is also simply advertise through online and print media, like as brochures and flyers.

” Before written acceptance of an individual must also be obtained before brochures, flyers, brochures or papers containing the contact details of a owner can get distributed to the individual”, MOH added.

Owners who breach the rules face a fine of up to S$ 20, 000 ( US$ 14, 700 ) and up to 12 times ‘ jail.

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Ant International picks Malaysia for its Digital Business Centre, hiring 500 with eye to grow ‘huge operations centre’

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  • Multi- tribal culture coupled with skill, cost based, friendly policies important draw
  • Give companies from all 4 key columns of Ant International’s company to worldwide customers

(From left): Nina Xiao, HR Director of Ant International; Douglas Feagin, President of Ant International; Nik Naharudin, Director, Digital Talent & Entrepreneurship, Digital Industry Acceleration Division, MDEC; Nik Hishamuddin, Head (Tertiary), Digital Talent & Entrepreneurship Department, Digital Industry Acceleration Division, MDEC.

If you thought the release of five online banks last year had stirred up the competition for blockchain talent in Malaysia, then reconsider.

With the statement in KL on April 19 from Singapore-based Ant International, which Alibaba founded in 2012 and currently owns a 33 % stake in, that it plans to establish a online business center in Malaysia with a staff of 500 executives by 2025 and plans for ongoing getting into 2028, the competition really got a lot more cooked.

The majority of the roles will be tech and knowledge focused, with the biggest team being the Technology and Development department composed of software engineers, followed by product &amp, design ( UX, UI, product design ), data science, business development, finance, management, and risk control.

For each of these agencies, Ant International is bringing in a whole set of responsibilities said Nina Xiao, HR Director of Ant International. For example, in data research it will have data technology and modelling, risk data, business data and operating data expertise. ” So that’s to say that we mean it for real. We are bringing in all the features for the center here in Malaysia”, she stressed.

While there are many places where Ant International may have chosen to have a Digital Business Center, Malaysia is not only juicy with skills and opportunities but it also has quite forward-looking policies, and a government that supports the development of a digital market, Douglas Feagin, chairman of Ant International, explained why the Singapore-based international business arm of the Hangzhou based Ant Group Ptd Ltd. had chosen Malaysia for this expansion.

The country’s multi- ethnic culture fabric is another strong draw, compared to other markets said Xiao,” So that’s why I think, if we’re setting up our global centers, Malaysia could be one of the destinations as (our ) people who are coming here wo n’t feel it’s so difficult to blend in”.

aims to construct a massive operations center in Malaysia

Feagin says Ant International wants to establish” a huge operations center in Malaysia” over the next 10 to 20 years, starting with the 500 executive officers the company is ready to hire right away, while expressing confidence in their investment in Malaysia, where it sees “huge long term growth.”

To be clear, the center in Malaysia is not specialized in serving customers from Malaysia or Southeast Asia. It will be handling customers from all over the world with the long-term growth that Ant International anticipates coming from the early stages of adoption of both digital payments and business digitization, with Ant International developing the tools to assist businesses in adopting digital. &nbsp,

Without disclosing the investment amount, Feagin stressed that Ant International will be investing a lot,” and that’s both the initial investment, then the ongoing investment”.

It helps that Southeast Asia makes up the largest portion of Ant International’s global business, said Feagin. While Ant International has also expanded in Singapore, moving into larger premises last year, Malaysia, with its combination of talent, world class infrastructure, strong digital economy push and cost advantage, is where the action is going to be for the group, which has confirmed that it will be moving into the premium Exchange 106 tower ( formerly known as TRX Signature Tower ).

This Malaysian center will be where we have the most people and be a core engine of our growth, Feagin said. Here, we will represent all of our various business ventures.

By all, he means the four key pillars of Ant International’s business:

    Cross-border mobile payment service Alipay , which connects over 88 million merchants to 1.5 billion consumer accounts on over 25 e-wallets and banking apps in 57 nations and regions, enables customers to travel and make payments worry-free across borders, and allows retailers to develop cross-border consumer engagement and digital marketing. Alipay is integrated with Malaysia’s national QR, DuitNow QR.

  • Antom Merchant Payment Services, a service that assists global retailers in digital communication with customers in Asia and the world.
  • With its World Account, WorldFirst has created a digital payment and financial service for cross-border trade SMEs, helping over 1 million SMEs expand internationally. By 2024, it plans to serve Malaysian SMEs.
  • The Monetary Authority of Singapore regulates ANEXT Bank, a digital wholesale bank focused on providing SMEs with simple, affordable financial services.

According to Mahadhir Aziz, CEO of Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation ( MDEC ),” The opening of the new Digital Business Center in Malaysia plays an important role for local tech talent to thrive in the digital industry.” He added that Ant International’s decision will also lead to the creation of investment opportunities and “position Malaysia as the digital hub of ASEAN.”

Career development for young talent

In order to support its aggressive hiring plans, Ant International intends to work with local partners to develop the tech talent it needs, including through initiatives like its 10×1000 online platform, an open and global learning community, and to foster and inspire future digital leaders through &nbsp, mentorship exposure with Ant International’s leaders. It has trained 120 people in the nation over the past few years, with the aid of partners like MDEC, TNG Digital, and the Fintech Association of Malaysia, with the help of pf partners like TNG Digital and the Fintech Association of Malaysia, with 33 % of those being female.

Additionally, it is laying out the welcome mat for recent graduates and interns with Xiao, highlighting the strong culture at Ant International and the company’s potential for rapid career growth as the company develops. She points to the company’s chief technology officer. She continued,” He started with us over ten years ago and is now the CTO,” noting that this is not an isolated example because many of its key technology leaders today started out as fresh graduates who grew with the business.

The business also fosters a culture of sharing experience. For each newcomer, we’ll pair them with an experienced senior as their buddy to give them daily guidance and professional career advice to ease them into the new working environment and learn quickly, Xiao said.

” Those who join our team will have a front row seat to global fintech innovation and collaborations, and they will play a role in our mission to influence the future of fintech and commerce,” said Feagin.

He expressed his excitement at the prospect of launching a new chapter of Ant International’s Journey in Malaysia, where they have contributed for the past ten years.

With the Malaysian government encouraging the development of tech skills and positioning Malaysia as an innovation hub,” We are now looking forward to a future that is more global, more connected, and more inclusive.” We think that working with partners like MDEC can significantly increase the impact our local tech talents can have both globally and locally.

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Hong Kong exports rebound despite Sino-US trade war – Asia Times

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After a considerable year-on-year reduction in the same period last year, Hong Kong’s exports and imports rebounded in the first third of this year.

The logistics hub saw its exports rise 11.9 % to HK$ 1.06 trillion ( US$ 135 billion ) in the first three months of this year from a year ago, according to the Census and Statistics Department. Its imports surged 8 % to HK$ 1.14 trillion for the same time. &nbsp,

Neither figure has yet returned to the levels of 2021 and 2022 as the city’s exports and imports fell 17.7 % and 12.7 %, respectively, in the first quarter of last year.

A spokesperson for the Hong Kong government claimed that while exports to the United States and Europe remained on decline, a rise in exports to land China contributed to the rise in total imports. &nbsp,

He claimed that despite improving physical desire, high global geopolitical tensions and limited cash in the financial market will continue to have a negative impact on Hong Kong’s imports. &nbsp,

Michael Li, sin- chairman of the Hong Kong Chinese Importers ‘ &amp, Exporters ‘ Association, said the damaging factors seen in the first quarter of 2023, including the Ukrainian- Soviet war, the US- China social fight and the US rate hike, are fading out.

He claimed that, unless some fresh negative aspects arise, Hong Kong’s exports have returned to normal during the first quarter of this year and are likely to increase by 8 to 12 % for the entire year starting in 2023. &nbsp,

He claimed that the West’s attempt to advance the so-called de-Sinization of the global supply chain failed. He claimed that there were many overseas buyers at this year’s Canton Fair, a trade show held annually in Guangzhou. &nbsp,

According to Chinese press, there were more foreigners attending this year’s Canton Fair, particularly those from Russia, the Middle East, and South America. &nbsp,

Some foreign buyers are drawn to China’s low prices of digital goods and electric vehicles, while some US importers prefer to purchase today because they worry that US-China trade relations will crumble ahead of the US national elections in November.

As Donald Trump threatens to increase tariffs on Chinese goods, according to Ryan Lam, head of research at Shanghai Commercial Bank, some companies are putting their China development plans on hold. However, Lam still anticipated that due to the country’s strong demand for phones and electronic components in foreign countries, its exports would increase by 8 to 9 % this year from 2023. &nbsp,

Trade with Russia&nbsp,

The US and the European Union are increasingly concerned about Hong Kong’s package of northern chips and digital goods to Russia.

In a statement released in April 2023, Nikkei claimed that between February 24 and the close of the year, cards produced by Intel and Advanced Micro Devices from Hong Kong and Russia amounted to at least US$ 74 million. In 2021, it stated that the number would only be US$ 51 million. &nbsp,

In December, the Washington-based analytical non-profit C4ADS reported that Hong Kong and Hong Kong were the main ports of high-end bits to Russia. According to the statement, Hong Kong has already become the world’s main port for cards entering Russia. &nbsp, &nbsp,

The US Commerce Department has previously slapped a number of Hong Kong and Foreign firms that had shipped US high-end technology and cards to Russia over the past two years. &nbsp,

According to a study released by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, Hong Kong’s exports to Russia increased 11.2 % to US$ 2.66 billion last year from$ 2.62 billion in 2022, accounting for about 2 % of the city’s total imports. &nbsp, &nbsp, &nbsp,

The exported goods include communications equipment and parts, computers, semiconductors, electrical valve and tubes. &nbsp,

Hong Kong imported some precious metals and stones from Russia in 2023, along with electronic gadgets and semiconductors. Credit: Hong Kong Trade Development Council

For the same time, Hong Kong’s exports from Russia surged 118 % to US$ 3.06 billion, 96 % of which were imports of gold and silver items, gems and precious and big- precious stones. &nbsp,

Financial atomic weapons

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed concern about China’s aid for Russia’s military during a meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday in Beijing. &nbsp,

He claimed that China was providing a range of products, including “dual-use items that Moscow is using to ramp up its defense business bottom,” including microelectronics, chemicals for munitions and jet propellants, and “dual-use items that Moscow is using to ramp up its defence industrial bottom.”

Normal trade between the two countries should n’t be halted or restricted, according to Chinese officials, as long as China does not provide any weapons to Russia.

Janet Yellen, the US Treasury Secretary, warned Beijing officials on April 8 that sanctions could be applied to Chinese banks that support Russia in the wake of its conflict in Ukraine. Because they can forcefully hit the sanctioned banks, these curbs are referred to by the media as “financial nuclear bombs.” &nbsp,

Russian state newspaper Izvestia reported on April 12 that Chinese banks, including Bank of China and Great Wall West China Bank, have recently started preventing payments from Russia, particularly for crucial electronic components like laptops, storage, and servers. &nbsp,

On April 22, a US official told Reuters that the country has no concrete plans to impose sanctions on Chinese banks.

New economic world order

Chinese exporters can only receive payment in renminbi from Russia through either underground banks or a cross-border payment system called Multilines Corp., according to a Chinese columnist by the name of Hong in an article published last month.

He asserts that Multilines is a trustworthy business capable of accepting payments from Russian companies that have been sanctioned. &nbsp,

According to Multilines ‘ website, the company offers full- fledged services that cover the buying, selling, importing, exporting and hedging of precious metals. It has offices in China’s Chongqing and Hong Kong. &nbsp,

Ali Hussnain, chairman and chief executive of Multilines, studied marketing at the Lahore University of Management Sciences in Pakistan. He is also the chairman of the Economic &amp, Business Advisory Council of the Pakistan House, a think tank based in Islamabad and Bronshoj, Denmark. &nbsp,

Muhammad Athar Javed, the founder of Pakistan House, asked Russian President Vladimir Putin in a plenary session of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Moscow in October whether Russia could use its natural resources to create a new economic world order. &nbsp,

Putin claimed that China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the Eurasian Economic Community can work together to overthrow the US dollar’s hold on the global stage. &nbsp,

Read: Blinken to China to fuss about support for Russia

&nbsp, Follow Jeff Pao on X: &nbsp, @jeffpao3

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No limit to how low the yen will go – Asia Times

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Who needs Las Vegas or Macau when betting on the yen’s potential lower is the best match anywhere in Tokyo?

It’s not where the&nbsp, Bank of Japan&nbsp, wanted to find itself this month as it mulled interest rate plan. That Governor Kazuo Ueda’s team did nothing on Friday ( April 26 ) was hardly surprising.

What was sudden, although, is Tokyo’s absence of urgency to end yen declines that danger upending economic interactions from Beijing to Washington.

In neighboring China, the dollar’s 10.6 % fall so far this year has Xi Jinping’s group mulling its individual choices.

Despite 5.3 % rise in the first quarter year on year, financial selling remain sweet, “pointing to weaker need”, says Carlos Casanova, scholar at Union Bancaire Privée. This suggests that regional consumption decreased in March in line with broad-based consumer price index drops.

China’s industrial output even continues to offend. This may suggest that production is not gaining as much from the continuous recovery in global trade as we had anticipated, according to Casanova, because of overcapacity constraints in key sectors, she says.

These overcapacity changes could exacerbate recession. No policy change did cause client costs to maintain more quickly than a weaker yuan. Does Xi and People’s Bank of China Governor&nbsp, Pan Gongsheng&nbsp, tilt toward a weaker rmb?

Xi’s inner sphere might interpret the dollar’s sharp decline as political include to create a more effective exchange rate that would increase exports and calm upward price pressures.

There would be just as some drawbacks as pros, though. As house developers struggle to pay off offshore loan, a weaker yuan could increase the risk of failures. It may hinder efforts to boost chinese confidence. Additionally, it might make fun of the US social creation as the November 5 election draws near.

This final risk is a huge one for Japan, also. An also weaker renminbi is sure to irritate politicians across the board despite Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s close ties to US President Joe Biden. Republicans devoted to Donald Trump are likely to find a common ground with Binden’s Democrats over the fall in Asian exchange rates.

Biden recently announced plans to impose new tariffs on imported Taiwanese steel and aluminum. Trump, of course, is previewing 60 % fees on all mainland products. He’s even talking about a 100 % tax on specific car imports, a&nbsp, gambit&nbsp, that Chinese CEOs fear had simply come for their vehicles, to.

Chinese officials are trying to pull off a challenging balancing act as these threats grow. Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki claims to be “watching business movements with a great sense of urgency,” but his group also is monitoring the raise Japan is receiving from a poor yen.

Japan’s imports rose 7.3 % yr- on- season in March. Additionally, the country is experiencing an unheard-of increase in hospitality driven by international visitors who are yen-stripped.

However, Tokyo’s leaders are aware that the effects of a falling exchange rate could have a negative impact on the country. The hour news channels feature the receding yen. For homeowners, it’s smacking more of Chinese weakness in world lines than financial recovery.

World investors&nbsp, are grappling with a tantalizing dilemma. If” Japan is back”, as a Nikkei 225 Stock Index at 34- time highs suggests, why is the renminbi in freefall piping a 34- time low? And why has the BOJ lacked the will to restore near-zero costs since 1999?

On Friday, the BOJ doubled down on its do- little plan. Ueda &amp, Co held its benchmark policy rate at 0 %- 0.1 %. &nbsp, Merchants, in other words, have much reason to fear the BOJ, at least for now. And it seems a safe bet that the yen’s decline to 160 to the dollars will result in.

Despite the fact that the renminbi is at its lowest point in 34 years, global investors have every reason to believe the yen has overheated.

For one thing, it’s fueling inflation that’s affecting customer and business trust. For one thing, it’s a growing breeze for businesses that rely on the local market for their profits. Despite the hospitality wave, retailers and travel companies are struggling.

All this is breaking investment methods. As 2024 began, gamblers figured the biggest Japanese&nbsp, wage increases &nbsp, among union employees in more than 30 years would make a virtuous cycle of spending and business income.

They also affirmed their belief that the Federal Reserve in Washington did cut interest rates by at least five times this month, boosting the renminbi.

With each fresh batch of regular data, these expectations are waning. Rie Nishihara, a JPMorgan researcher, warns that gains in inflation-adjusted wages will essentially be a clean if the renminbi falls to 157 per buck.

The vast majority of work are provided by little and mid-sized businesses, but they are already hampered by rising import fees. The same goes for large corporations.

” The situation]with the yen ] has reached a level that needs to be corrected”, says Takeshi Niinami, head of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives.

Strategist Shusuke Yamada at BofA Securities Japan notes that the eerie silence from&nbsp, Tokyo policymakers&nbsp, is n’t going unnoticed in trading pits around the globe.

The BOJ should recognize that policy has been too indulgent, that the upcoming rate hike is immediate as it is in June, and that the terminal rate may be higher than the market had predicted, according to Yamada.

Some, though, doubt the Ministry of Finance is on the point of acting.

” The Bank tail will not be allowed to tickle the dog”, said Vishnu Varathan, planner at Mizuho Bank. The BOJ even is likely to adhere to its plan of “dovish restriction” when it comes to tweaking brief- term rates, he said.

Yet the danger is that “if the BOJ abstains from intermediate, the yen may experience more upward pressure”, says Eman AlAyyaf, CEO of EA Trading.

She adds that the BOJ wants to prevent a” sustained pressure from higher US interest rates” from causing a sharp upward trend in the yen at the same time.

Arguably, Ueda’s BOJ brought today’s dilemma on itself by&nbsp, slow- walking steps&nbsp, to exit quantitative easing ( QE ). Since April 2023, when Ueda took command, international markets have been primed for a tilt apart from QE, or zero costs.

Month after month, Ueda’s staff demurred. Then, as China’s market slows, the BOJ’s glass to restore scheme is narrowing. Japan’s prices changes are showing symptoms of restraint, too.

Tokyo’s core inflation rate, which excludes fresh food and energy, slowed to 1.8 % year on year in April from 2.9 % in March. Since September 2022, the raise was the smallest.

” The schedule of the next BOJ interest rate hike does get a little complicated as the latest&nbsp, Tokyo inflation&nbsp, data for April slowed down from the previous quarter and came in below anticipation”, says Kelvin Wong, scientist at OANDA.

It’s hardly helpful to hear on Thursday that the US’s economy may be slowing more than initially anticipated. US gross domestic product grew just 1.6 % year on year in the first quarter, well below all economists ‘ projections.

” This report was the worst of both worlds: economic growth is slowing and inflationary pressures are persisting”, says Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Independent Advisor Alliance.

Most economists still give the US the benefit of the doubt right now. The downshift may have masked otherwise solid&nbsp, economic momentum.

” The economy is at full employment, with unemployment steadfastly below 4 %, and growth remains close to the economy’s potential, with real GDP tracking close to 2 %”, says Dante DeAntonio, economist at Moody’s Analytics.

DeAntonio adds that “growth continues to surprise, and consumers are growing their spending. Businesses are also playing their part. Inflation remains the sole blemish. Although economic growth will not reach its full potential for a season, recession risks have decreased as the economy continues to be resilient.

The end result is that Asian central banks are now more perplexed than ever about the Fed’s policy outlook. The BOJ is Exhibit A, especially considering domestic economic conditions also refute the need for tighter credit controls.

Takeshi Yamaguchi, chief Japan economist at Morgan Stanley MUFG, states that” consumer sentiment is generally weak as individuals cope with higher costs and do not anticipate wages to keep up with inflation.”

Here, &nbsp, Ueda may be worried&nbsp, the BOJ will be blamed for pushing Japan into a recession. That’s what happened in 2006, the last time the BOJ tried — and failed — to normalize rates.

Governor Toshihiko Fukui then put an end to QE, and his team at the time were able to raise the official rates twice. The recession that followed enraged the political establishment. By 2008, Fukui’s successor was resurrecting QE and pushing rates back to zero.

In 2013, Ueda’s predecessor Haruhiko Kuroda supersized the BOJ’s balance sheet, growing it to a size bigger than Japan’s US$ 4.7 trillion GDP.

Since then, as the BOJ hoarded bonds and stocks, it’s become harder to discern where the BOJ’s portfolio ends and the private sector begins. In consequence, withdrawing liquidity is much more difficult than it was in 2006.

The yen’s spectacular drop might force Ueda’s hand, though. The advantages of a weak yen are quickly being overshadowed by the negative effects of a currency in relative free fall. Not least of which is insulting Beijing and Washington policymakers who already have enough on their plates.

Follow William Pesek on X at @WilliamPesek

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Massive fraud case exposes Vietnam’s corrupt bank system – Asia Times

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How much is dependent on bank operation in the world as evidenced by the 2008 financial problems. Authorities have since been given new forces to retain some of the biggest organizations on a much shorter rope to stamp out chance, greed, and corruption.

But this approach has n’t worked everywhere. A woman in Vietnam was given the death penalty on April 11, 2024, after obtaining US$ 44 billion in false money from one of Vietnam’s largest businesses.

By avoiding a Taiwanese law that forbids anyone from owning more than 5 % of a company’s stock, Truong My Lan took the money, the majority of which is improbable to be recovered, out of Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB). She eventually became the owner of more than 90 % of the institution by using various means, including lots of shell companies.

Meanwhile, the loans that she took out ( worth just under 10 % of Vietnam’s GDP for 2024 ) made up 93 % of the bank’s entire lending portfolio. She frequently retracted large sums of money from her room.

Lan is expected to charm the judge’s ruling. However, this extraordinary situation of fraud, which uses deposits to bank loans, highlights the natural vulnerabilities of banks. Put simply, for every £10 ($ 12.45 ) deposited, a bank could lend up to £9 ($ 11.22 ) to fund mortgages or corporate loans, keeping just £1 ($ 1.25 ) as a reserve to allow for withdrawals.

However, the bank might not have enough cash in reserve to cover it if depositors demand a sizable amount of cash in the event that they wish to remove it at all. After Lan’s imprisonment in 2022, SCB was subject to a bank robbery, which meant the bank has been in state power ever since.

To minimize this kind of scenario, banks in most places are properly regulated. Many people are now required to hold more capital and cash to withstand anxiety, as has the global financial crisis.

The magnitude of the fraud and corruption at SCB highlights the disastrous effects a crooked atmosphere can have on the financial sector. Various studies have shown that problem can negatively impact bank stability, lower lending, and raise the risk of bank crises.

The SCB test was a significant component of the so-called” Blazing Furnace” campaign, which targeted politicians and business leaders in an effort to remove corruption from the Asian government and economy, for a long time.

But it may not be that easy.

There is a claim that corruption you really have social benefits in some circumstances, such as helping to “grease the wheels” of a sluggish economy. Some claim that the Vietnamese economy has experienced substantial economic growth in recent years ( the sector has tripled in size since 2010 ) mainly as a result of high levels of corruption. What happened with SCB is very common ( on a smaller size ) in the country.

This theory is supported by research that suggests that corruption can actually play a supporting role in society rather than always being financially destructive.

The theory is that corruption can often speed things along while avoiding bureaucracy’s inadequate restrictions in places with slow-moving administration and limitless red tape.

Corrupting forces

In some circumstances, problem can lead to more efficient business and institution functioning. Jobs get started, careers are created, agreements are awarded. Things get done.

Hand emerging from swirls of red tape.
Limiting red tape. Image: Lightspring / Shutterstock via The Talk

Of course, that’s not to say there should be more corruption; it only serves as an illustration that its effects can be more complex than we might consider. And we need to keep in mind that corruption may also occur within the regulatory system.

Although corruption-focused financial regulation may be successful, it can lead to fraud when the authorities have too much control over their actions. According to studies, it opens up opportunities to be paid for government contracts, subsidies, and governmental favors.

Even so, it has been claimed that laws put in place after the US’s economic crisis, specifically designed to stop another issue, increased the risk of fraud.

However, global cooperation is possible. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, which adopts regulatory recommendations for the banking industry, is comprised of developed markets like the UK, the US, and the EU. By establishing shared requirements, monitoring each other’s processes, and exchanging information, this protects the member states and their citizens from fraud.

In the west, therefore, an extreme event like the one we saw in Vietnam is unlikely to occur. However, constant vigilance is necessary because even the policies and regulations put in place to keep high standards are exposed to the problem they are intended to avoid.

George Kladakis is Lecturer in Finance, University of St Andrews

This content was republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original post.

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