BANKING
IRS can seek UBS records
A US federal judge has authorized the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to seek records from UBS AG of US taxpayers suspected of hiding their income in accounts with Swiss bank Wegelin, the oldest Swiss private bank. Wegelin pleaded guilty in a Manhattan federal court on Jan. 3 to charges of helping wealthy Americans evade taxes through secret accounts, then said it would close down as a result. US District Judge William Pauley granted the IRS’ request to issue a “John Doe” summons — which seeks information about possible tax fraud committed by individuals whose identities are not known — on UBS for the names of taxpayers who may have hidden income at Wegelin and other Swiss banks. UBS ended its own US probe in 2009 by admitting it provided tax evasion services to rich Americans, entering into a deferred prosecution agreement, turning over 4,450 client names and paying a US$780 million fine.
CANADA
Moody’s downgrades banks
Moody’s Investors Service downgraded six of the nation’s major financial institutions on Monday on concerns about high levels of consumer debt and elevated house prices. The ratings affect Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD), Scotiabank, Bank of Montreal (BMo), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), National Bank and the Desjardins Caisse Populaire. Moody’s vice president David Beattie on Monday said that the banks are still among the highest-rated banks in the world. TD is the highest-rated among the six at “AA1” (down from “AAA”). Bank of Nova Scotia and Desjardins dropped to “AA2” from “AA1;” while CIBC, BMo and National fell to “AA3” from “AA2.” The nation’s commodity-rich economy has fared better than that of other countries, but there are fears of a housing bubble fueled by record-low interest rates.
JAPAN
Spending cuts approved
The government has released a budget for this year that cuts spending for the first time in seven years, underscoring Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to establish fiscal discipline credentials even as he seeks to boost growth. The Cabinet in Tokyo yesterday approved a proposed spending total of ¥92.6 trillion (US$1 trillion) for the fiscal year starting on April 1. That is down 0.3 percent from this year’s main budget, which excludes a ¥13.1 trillion extra budget to pay for fiscal stimulus measures. Abe faces the challenge of leading the country out of its third recession in five years while containing a public debt that is twice the size of the economy. Most of the reduction in spending comes from the elimination of reserve funds that the previous government tapped for stimulus measures.
TELECOMS
Nokia starts new fund
Nokia Oyj, the struggling Finnish phonemaker, plans to invest US$250 million in a fund that will invest in mobile communications companies around the world, with an increased focus on China. Nokia Growth Partners, the venture capital arm of Nokia, will continue to invest in companies in the US, Europe and Asia, Nokia said in a statement yesterday. The manufacturer canceled its annual dividend last week for the first time in at least 143 years to help it retain cash to fuel a comeback. David Tang (鄧元鋆), who was previously vice chairman of Nokia China, will join Nokia Growth Partners as a managing director, while Lu Guo joins from Keystone Ventures, where he was responsible for mobile and Internet investments. Both will be based in Beijing, the statement said.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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