BANKING
Bangladesh mulls Fed suit
Bangladesh’s central bank has hired a US lawyer for a potential lawsuit against the Federal Reserve Bank of New York after hackers stole US$81 million from its account with the US bank, while US Representative Carolyn Maloney called for a probe of last month’s cyberattack on Bangladesh Bank. The FBI is helping investigate the heist, which led to the ouster of Bangladesh’s central bank governor. Bangladesh Bank criticized the New York Fed in an internal report, saying the latter allowed five of 35 fraudulent payment instructions to go through.
PHILIPPINES
BSP maintains rates
The central bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged for a 12th straight meeting, as an anticipated boost to the economy from a May election allows policymakers to resist joining a wave of monetary easing. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) kept the rate it pays lenders for overnight deposits at 4 percent, it said yesterday. BSP also held the rate on so-called special deposit accounts at 2.5 percent. The Philippine economy is forecast to expand 5.9 percent this year, helped by domestic consumption.
THAILAND
Thailand keeps key rate
The central bank kept its key interest rate unchanged for a seventh straight meeting as policymakers expect that the economy would soon start to see the benefit of stimulus measures introduced by the military government. The Bank of Thailand held its one-day bond repurchase rate at 1.5 percent, with committee members voting unanimously in favor, it said yesterday.
TECHNOLOGY
Oracle sues HP over OS
Oracle Corp accused Hewlett Packard (HP) Enterprise Co in a lawsuit of helping a partner company illegally sell software support for the Solaris operating system. Oracle claims HP Enterprise knew that Terix Computer Co was marketing its support services without authorization and was also aware that Oracle required customers who installed Solaris updates to pay for technical support, according to a complaint on Tuesday in federal court in San Jose, California. Oracle alleges copyright infringement and seeks a court order barring HP Enterprise from distributing its software code.
HEALTHCARE
Origin raises Affymetrix bid
Origin Technologies Corp increased its all-cash offer to buy Affymetrix Inc to US$17 a share, as it seeks to top an agreed deal between the medical technology company and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. The new bid is 21 percent more than the US$1.3 billion that Thermo Fisher proposed in January, a statement from Origin Technologies on Tuesday said. Origin Technologies also upped the reverse termination fee — the amount it would pay if it pulled out of a deal — to US$100 million from US$75 million.
ENERGY
Enel net profit quadruples
Italian energy company Enel SpA on Tuesday said its net profit more than quadrupled to 2.2 billion euros (US$2.5 billion), although operating profit and sales both dipped. Despite the leap in net profit, the figure was still below the 2.9 billion euros expected by analysts surveyed by Factset Estimates. Sales slipped 0.2 percent to 75.7 billion euros and operating earnings as measured before taxes, depreciation and amortization slid 2.9 percent to 15.3 billion euros.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last