A US Federal Reserve decision to let Chinese banks acquire US lenders was challenged on Thursday by US Senator Bob Casey, who said it could open the way for Chinese government-run institutions to undercut US banks.
“I worry that these banks and their US subsidiaries will use their state support as a way to under-price US banks,” Casey, who is chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, said in a letter to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.
Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC, 中國工商銀行) won approval from the Fed on Wednesday to buy a US lender in the biggest opening of the US banking market to Chinese companies. The Fed allowed ICBC to operate as a bank holding company, buying a controlling stake in Hong Kong-based Bank of East Asia Ltd’s (東亞銀行) US unit.
The Fed also let Bank of China Ltd (中國銀行) open a federal branch in Chicago and permitted Agricultural Bank of China Ltd (中國農業銀行) to open a state-licensed branch in New York.
The decision marks the first time that regulators have allowed a Chinese bank to buy a majority stake in a US depository institution.
“China has a long and well-documented record of undercutting US companies and workers,” Casey said in a statement. Its “history of flouting international trade rules requires that any involvement in the US banking system needs close scrutiny.”
Casey said he intends to press Bernanke to explain the Fed’s decision when he testifies before the Joint Economic Committee next month.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained