BANKING
Standard Chartered fined
New York State’s banking regulator hit Standard Chartered Bank with a US$300 million fine and restrictions on its dollar-clearing business on Tuesday for not detecting possible money laundering. The New York Department of Financial Services said the British bank’s internal compliance systems had failed to detect or act on a large number of “potentially high-risk transactions” mostly originating from Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates. The new punishment came two years after the bank paid US regulators US$667 million to settle charges it violated US sanctions by handling thousands of money transactions involving Iran, Myanmar, Libya and Sudan.
MACROECONOMICS
Japan’s trade deficit rises
Japan’s trade deficit rose last month from June to a wider than expected ¥964 billion (US$9.4 billion), though exports were higher for the first time in three months. It was the 25th straight month of deficits for the world’s third-largest economy, due mainly to an increase in imports of oil and gas to compensate for idled nuclear reactors following the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster in 2011. Exports rose 3.9 percent from a year earlier to ¥6.19 trillion, slightly outpacing a 2.3 percent increase in imports, to ¥7.15 trillion. Japan recorded an ¥822 billion deficit in June. Japan’s demand for imports has moderated in recent months as business activity slowed following an increase in the national sales tax.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Allergan eyes Salix
Botox maker Allergan has approached Salix Pharmaceuticals about a potential takeover that could scuttle Valeant Pharmaceuticals’ hostile bid for Allergan, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. Allergan contacted Salix and at least one other pharmaceutical company about a potential deal, the report said, citing unnamed sources. Valeant first bid for Allergan in April, offering US$45.6 billion before raising its bid twice. Allergan has rejected all three bids. Valeant last week extended its latest offer of US$53.5 billion until the end of this year.
SOUTH AFRICA
Banks’ rating downgraded
Moody’s downgraded the credit rating of four top South African banks on Tuesday after the government bailed out a troubled lender, in a move that sent ripples across Africa’s most developed economy. The ratings agency downgraded financial giants Standard Bank, First National Bank, Nedbank and Barclays Africa Group by one notch to “Baa1,” raising more questions about the health of the vital sector. The Reserve Bank earlier this month bought up roughly US$700 million of bad loans from faltering African Bank. Moody’s said the terms of African Bank’s recent rescue showed that investors in other larger banks were less likely to be fully bailed out if they hit trouble.
BREWING INDUSTRY
Heineken’s profits dip
Heineken NV, the Amsterdam-based brewer, has reported first-half earnings showing a small drop in both revenues and profits — but says its underlying performance was good. Net profit was 631 million euros (US$840 million), from 639 million euros in the same period a year ago. Sales were down 1.4 percent to 1.2 billion euros, which Heineken, the largest brewer by sales within Europe, said was due to the strong euro. The company said its operations grew on a like-for-like basis in almost all regions in the first half but warned that growth in underlying profit and revenues would moderate in the second half.
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